1. Social Experiment Response 1
Ashleigh Keller
Dr. Harold Blanco
FYS- Summer II
25 June 2015
The Angry Eye Response
After watching both parts of Jane Elliott’s, “The Angry Eye,” social experiment in
Dr. Blanco’s first year seminar class I am left puzzled. As someone who can sometimes
be oblivious to the discrimination of others, my eyes have been opened. This does not
mean, however, that I completely agree with Elliott’s very strong, and might I add, loud,
opinions.
In Elliott’s experiment she separated a group of young adults into two groups by
eye color, simulating the segregation of Caucasian and African Americans in the mid to
late twentieth century. “The Angry Eye,” followed Elliott through an interactive lecture
where she undermined and verbally abused the blue-eyed students while lifting up the
brown-eyed individuals. Elliott’s purpose is to demonstrate the racism that has taken
place against African Americans not only in he past but in the present, as well.
In my opinion, Elliott was too harsh on the blue-eyed students. Never have I been
a passerby to the racism that Elliott displayed in her experiment and I feel that her
representation of racism was incredibly dated. While the video we were shown was aged
I do not change my belief that her perception is skewed due to her age and the events she
has experienced. I have never been in an environment where any student, race aside,
has been reduced to tears as Elliott did to more than one participant. I feel that in
2. Social Experiment Response 2
accordance to both parts one and two of “The Angry Eye,” Elliott’s experiment, in my
eyes, is discredited. This is my belief because her dramatization was unbelievable in
my eyes.
