Wide Eyed with Jane Elliott - DVD

In 1968, in response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a third grade teacher, Ms. Jane Elliott, in all-white, all-Christian, Riceville, Iowa, involved her students in an exercise in discrimination based on eye color. It was her attempt to help them to understand some of the reasons why Black people were taking to the streets and demanding equitable treatment with whites.

Since then she has conducted the same exercise with people of all ages in cities all over the United States and in several other countries. 

Over a dozen films have been made of Ms. Elliott conducting the exercise. In response to requests from diversity trainers, both in the US and abroad, Ms. Elliott has now provided us with a compilation DVD of some compelling moments from those films. Seeing and discussing these clips can help us to recognize some of the issues surrounding the –isms with which we all live. It may also help us to realize how we as human beings react when we are treated unfairly on the basis of physical characteristics over which we have no control. The use of the material can help to increase our awareness of the effects of racism, sexism, ageism, able-ism, homophobia, ethnocentricity, and bigotry in general. 

This DVD is a carefully selected collection of thought-provoking clips from the Blue-Eyed/Brown-Eyed documentaries. These compelling moments are to be used to help diversity educators to respond to statements most frequently expressed by participants during diversity workshops. The accompanying study guide contains ten examples of the stereotypical remarks that are made in Diversity Training classes. It lists clips relative to the remarks from several of the films, and provides discussion questions that help to refute some of the erroneous assumptions implied in the remarks. This material is appropriate for diversity training in junior and senior high schools, colleges, corporations, military groups and civic organizations.

Running time: 57 minutes