Jane Elliot conducted her Brown Eye-Blue Eye Experiment on college students to demonstrate discrimination. She separated students by eye color and instructed those with brown eyes to view those with blue/green eyes as inferior. During the experiment, the blue/green-eyed students were verbally tormented to the point of crying or leaving, while Elliot singled them out and made horrible remarks. Her goal was to give blue/green-eyed students a sense of the discrimination faced by minorities in society.

1. Brown Eye- Blue Eye Experiment
Assignment #3
On January 25th, our class watched a series of video clips entitled “The Brown Eye-Blue
Eye Experiment.” This experiment has been conducted by the same woman, Jane Elliot, for over
30 years. In the video clips, Jane Elliot went to a University and conducted the experiment on
college students. Before the experiment began, Ms. Elliott placed the brown-eyed students in a
separate room from the blue/green-eyed students. She instructed them to view the other students
with blue/green eyes as “below” them and speak to them in ways that made them feel less of a
person. When the blue/green-eyed students entered the room with the brown-eyed students, the
blue/green-eyed students were seated in the center of the room with the other around them. Jane
Elliot and the other students then verbally tormented the blue/green-eyed students to the point
that one student began to cry and another left the room altogether. Part of the torment included
Elliot making horrible remarks to the blue/green-eyed students and singling out certain
individuals. Elliot’s reasoning of this experiment was to show the discriminatory and prejudicial
ways of society. She wanted to single out the blue/green-eyed students and make them
experience the same discrimination that most minorities experience in society. I found this
experiment to be a very emotionally moving experience. I felt that Jane Elliot was being
extreme at times in her tactics, but the experiment really opened my eyes to a level of
discrimination that I have never witnessed before in my life. I was taught from childhood to
always have an open mind and never treat someone poorly or inferior because they are different
than you.
During the experiment, the students with blue/green eyes were separated from those with
brown eyes.