The Event: How Racist Are You?
Are we all more racist than we realise or would like to admit?
For a new Channel 4 documentary Jane Elliott, a controversial former schoolteacher from Ohio, is recreating the shocking exercise she used forty years ago to teach her nine-year-old pupils about prejudice.
Elliott is asking thirty adult British volunteers – men and women of different ages and backgrounds – to experience inequality based on their eye colour to show how susceptible we can all be to bigotry, and what it feels like to be on the other side of arbitrary discrimination.
Does Elliott’s exercise still have something to teach us four decades on and in a different country? Presented by Krishnan Guru-Murthy, the exercise is observed throughout by two expert psychologists, Prof Dominic Abrams and Dr Funké Baffour, who will be unpicking the behaviour on display.
29th Oct at 10pm, Channel 4
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This program infurated me. I am not a racist, I have many friends that are black, and I also have blue eyes.
Also the fact that blondes are discriminated against is also a problem, but hey, that is legal so it is ok!
I hate the way she thought all white people were brought up racists and believed white is the supreme race. It is not true. But on the contrary, why don’t blacks feel that way about there own race? And when the man said he was ashamed to pick his daughter up from school. Get over it, it IS paranoia, be proud of who you are? Why is it a problem? Don’t bring something on yourself.
Also I just frankly don’t believe the woman that said a white person was served infront of her in the queue. What a load of bs.
Equally, just yesterday I watched a programme with Anita Rani in and she demonstrated the racism that Indians have on darker Indians. But racism is only whites on black isn’t it?!
i am very disgusted with this programe think its alwfull how white people are being accused of being racist yes some are but does it never occure to people how racist black pople and asian are i went to a school what was mainly asian and my god white people were bullied big i think this programe owes out a big appology to white people im sorry but in my experience blacks and asians are more racist then white !
I’m terribly sorry you’ve experienced racism but after reading your comment i just wanted to throw up. “Blacks and Asiansmoe racist than white”
You sound quite thick and stupid, but i’ll just eqaute it to you being young.
The programme was a load of garbage and ended up being just a discussion about racism between black and white people. It proved nothing and the “bitche’s” method was ridiculous and useless.
There have been other programmes where white people have been made up as black people and they have definitely felt the difference. Sometimes it is so subtle. This to me is a better way of showing a white person how institionalised racism is. It is an attempt to maintain a certain power structure. I loved it when the teacher said that when the black girl cut herself she was surprised that she had pink flesh underneath.
Kim, Cheryl, do you actually believe the cr4p you are saying-being blonde is a problem?I have black friends? How can you actually call someone a liar based on what? I am black I go to white bars and yes I have seen/experienced racism. I was dancing with a white collegue and a complete stranger pulled us apart and said dance with your own color. 1960’s you might think but no this was 9 years ago in the UK and don’t worry I have lots of more up-to-date stories. I have lots of black friends doesn’t mean you are NOT racist. My best friend at school wasn’t a racist ‘cos he was my friend-then his sister got a black boyfriend-suddenly he wasn’t so anti-racist.
The programme was despicable! all it did was create even more tension between the races, i’m white which according to the programme makes me a racist, so hey! might as well live up to the expectation. Of course i won’t now turn raist because i’m not that kind of person, but you can see how it will probably affect some people.
Now, at the start of the programme a racist comment was made by the black youngster taking part, after being asked if he could act white he replied ‘Yes, i just have to look down my nose at everyone’ PROOF itself that racism happens from all different races TOWARDS all different races.
I thought it was an interesting experiment. Although she was using the US Model of Racism as we never had segregation here and our plantations where out in the West Indes a world away from the average white brit at the time sloging their guts out harvesting barley or down a coal mine. Also the class system is prevelant here in way its not in the US. Not that it means there wasn’t/isn’t racism in Britan. There is always room for improvement. But basicaly you just can never understand someone elses experience. I think other forms of prejudice should have been tackled also such as sexism and homophobia.
The “blue eye group” of white people and the white member of the “brown eye group” members of the totally live up to their certainty of their “rightness.” They refuse to play victim, admit any issue of racisim, or act aggressive, not only for just a few hours of experiment. It is easy to understand; they are not stupid. They know from youth that the whole economic and power structure is rigged in their favour. They might have learned the language and gestures of “multu-culturalism,” but they know that to acknowledge any racism in a real way would mean giving up their privileges as white people. Having blonde hair, or being over-weight, or poor, yes, all that would lead to prejudice but it is not the same as racism. Did you notice how polite and conciliatory the “brown eye group” is in contrast to the self-righteous big talk by that teacher and others? I would like to ask her did she ever in her life challenge the ineqalities in trade, diplomacy, enviornmental iniquities inflicted on poor countries? Did she worry about the dicrimination in the job market dealt out to high-achieving Chinese people in the UK? “I was surprised that her flesh was pink!” Give me a break, did the teacher expect to see dark color flesh? Yes, Indians dicrminate againt Indians, but it is not one race against another in a systemic and highly organized and purposeful way. Look at who are getting all the stuff at the top table and who are getting the crumbs around the world. There is your answer. You think it is because black, yellow, brown people are stupid and lazy?
Only those with a wound on their head feel the pain!
The programme wanted to make the whites aware of other people’s feelings even if you haven’t practiced racism, it would be very good if you know how others feel around so you can defend them or prevent racism from other whites towards them.
Whites don’t get it.
They fight the whole idea coz they don’t wanna admit it… “Only stupid people don’t change their mind” the brown-eyed agreed to go through the “experiment” and the blue-eyed closed their ears, eyes and minds to the whole idea.
Going back to what i said earlier: if you become very defensive about something you might be accused of, you most certainly are guilty of it.
I grew up on a majority muslim/turkish/carribean council estate in north london. I am a pale white male. I felt the discrimination. I was working in a store with a white colleague who made racist jokes, I berated him and tried to show him how his attitude is wrong etc. To say that I am a “racist” any more than any person is because of the colour of my skin is ridiculous.
Couple of grammatical errors in the above comment, my bad.
I was on this program. The thing the most people fail to see is that it those of us who have experienced racism are unable to describe to our friends or society what it is like because they refuse to believe they there might be a problem, or that they are in a position of power to do something about it and we are not.
The thing that the white community fail to see is that there is a social and educational conditioning that we are all put through. We are not saying you are evil, but that society has created a situation where the majority white community are at least subtlely racist. Most are unaware that are deeply offending their ethnic friends who have long since accepted that as long as they are not being physically attacked (which used to happen more often less now but it still happens I know from personal experienc) it is simply easier to to take it than change what cannot be changed.
It would be interesting to see say a group of muslims say from tower hamlets being the discrimnated group, with a number of jewish people being amongst the discrimanters, with the discrimated group given a taster of how jews were treated during the holocast and other general anti semtism. Would this create understanding do you think, or would the discrimantated group get defensive? It would be interesting to see the reaction.
Peter Edwards, I’d like to hear some more of your up-to-date stories, because for one I’ve never heard of a “white bar” as you put it? Everywhere I go out be it bars or clubs there is always a mix of different races. There always seems to be an even distribution of white / black / asian persons based on how many people live in the area of those racial groups.
Helen Li, what we saw was a 40-minute cut of what happened in that warehouse for 5 hours! How do you know the only persons to object to the subjugation of the blue-eyed group merely because of their eye-colour were white?
Karim, so how you explain it; you have to be stabbed to know how much it hurts- well not at all I know that it’s going to be painful. And it is very illogical and wrong to say that if you are defensive of something that you may be accused of, you are automatically guilty? If I said that you are a murderer and that I know from the way you have written your comment that you have killed someone. How are you going to react, surely you will deny it, and question why I think that? But that would make you guilty!
What a stupid program.
I’m most disappointed that the ‘psychology experts’ failed to pick up on the myriad of flaws in her poorly designed and even more poorly executed ‘psychological’ experiment. All she achieved was to widen the gap between black and white even further with her blue eyes-brown eyes rubbish… funny that these words were dropped within about ten minutes and it just ended up the ‘white group’ and the ‘black group’ … because let’s face it the white ones in the brown eyes group were never really in it. This may work in her all white american schools but not here!
I’m not denying that there is racism and that it’s a problem and that white people don’t see it or get it, but it’s not that simple and by overly simplifying it and trying to demonstrate it in some mock 1950’s texas type situation I think she did more harm than good.
She did a great injustice to everyone (especially black people) in this program and if people can’t see that then they need to seriously open their eyes. Just look at the type of comments it’s receiving. Did anyone learn one single thing from this…. I don’t think so. The fault is hers.
PS: saying that someone is racist because of the colour of their skin is … um….. racist. Nice one.
I found the programme very interesting and I think it did what it set out to do – it was supposed to be controversial and provocative and, given some of the comments above, that’s clearly what it was.
Personally, I think it addressed some uncomfortable truths which is why it has given rise to such lively debate. I dont think Ms Eliot was trying to suggest that all white people are deliberately raised as racists rather that we are all conditioned implicitly within society to believe that white people are superior. To me this is illustrated by some of the comments above that lack any sort of empathy for peoples’ experiences – the young black man who explained how he might ‘act white’ – surely his cynical comment was indicative of his experiences not his racism? What about the father concerned for his daughter if he turned up at her school – surely this is the same. It is too easy to dismiss these comments when you yourself have never had to take into consideration that your skin colour could be held against you.