1. Grady Starkey
Angry Eyes Experiment
17 June 2014
Reinforcing Racism: The Angry Eyes Experiment
Jane Elliot's eve color experiment is a perfect example of what happens when a lunatic gets a
pulpit from which they can spout their mindless drivel. Ms. Elliot is a woman who is living in the past,
apparently completely ignorant of any progress made since the 1960s on civil rights in the United
States, pointing out that “we make laws to enforce white superiority.” As a matter of fact, making such
laws is now illegal, made so by the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Interestingly enough, she makes no
mention of the executive orders that instituted affirmative action, laws that instituted racist policies
directed at said white people. The most egregious part of Ms. Elliott's experiment however, it that the
product of its efforts is not to reduce racism, but to enforce the very ideas and concepts that make
discrimination the problem that it is. Jane Elliot views a person who states “I don’t see color,” as still
being racist. She explains that a person would not be able to make a statement regarding color if they
could not see it, implying that that person is still a racist but doesn’t want to admit it. A person
pontificating that they do not see color is expressing that they do no judge or discriminate based on the
color of a persons skin. This is a intrinsically non-racist statement. Furthermore, by Mrs. Elliot’s own
rational, her own experiment is racist because without her knowledge of color she would not be able to
conduct such an experiment.
The biggest flaw in Mrs. Elliot’s experiment however is that she in reinforcing her own brand of
discrimination. She rants on and on about how white people don’t know what it is like to to feel the
oppression supposedly unknowingly or knowingly foisted on people of other persuasions. Except, that
her whole experiment is about separating white people out (discriminating) and explaining to them all
that they are all racist (stereotyping), and then terrorizing them into thinking just like her

2. (brainwashing).

3. Ludwig Media. "The Angry Eye - Brown Eye-Blue Eye Experiment - part 1” Online video clip.
YouTube. YouTube, 18 Nov. 2012. Web. 14 June. 2014.