Shantel Leyva

Project 1
The video I chose was Jane Elliot: Brown eyes vs. blue eyes. This video is about a
teacher who conducts a small social experiment with the children in her class who are all white.
The purpose is to make the children aware of racism and how those who are discriminated
against are treated unequally and unfairly. She separates the children into two groups. One group
consists of those with blue eyes and the other group consists of all the children with brown eyes.
She makes the kids with blue eyes feel superior to those with brown eyes in many ways. For
example, she encourages blue eyed kids' behaviors and thoughts while discourages brown eyed
kids' behaviors and thoughts. She let's all the blue eyed students sit in the front and makes all the
brown eyed ones go to the back. She tells all the children that blue eyed people are better. She
also tells the brown eyed people that they are not allowed to play with the blue eyed people in
the playground. She treats the brown eyes kids the way they would be treated if they were
minorities.
Comte strongly believed that we as a people should study society as though it were
science. Comte believed in using the scientific methods of observation and testing hypotheses as
the most efficient method of studying societies and learning about people. This method is known
as positivism. Comte would have used Positivism methods to observe the children and
understand why the blue eyed children felt and acted superior to the brown-eyed children. He
would have compared their thoughts and actions to gain insight into the reasons behind the
behaviors. He probably would have taken this classroom experiment further to investigate what

makes one group of people inferior to another. He most likely would have conducted other
similar experiments with different people to see what it takes to degrade a group of people and
why this happens.
Social conflict was Marxs take on society. He believed that society was filled with social
inequalities and they created problems and chaos. These social inequalities create gaps between
people. Those with wealth and power are referred to as the bourgeoisie while the ones without
these qualities are referred to as the proletariats, who are under the control of the bourgeoisie. In
this video the blue eyed children would be categorized as the bourgeoisie and the brown eyed
children would be categorized as the proletariats. The blue eyed children and the blue eyed
teacher would be considered the bourgeoisie because they are the ones with the special treatment
and they are praised while the brown eyed children are restricted and put down. The blue eyed
teacher makes all the rules and they all benefit the blue eyed children. For example, the blue
eyed children get to sit in the front and their ideas are acknowledged. The brown eyed kids have
to sit in the back and their ideas and comments are disregarded. The rules and the classroom
setting create an environment in which the blue eyed children and their concerns are the main
priority, while the needs and wants of the brown eyed children are neglected.
Looking at society through a functionalist perspective was Durkheims view. He believed
that deviance was necessary in order for a society to be prosperous. The labeling theory describes
why the blue eyed children looked down on the brown eyed children. They were seen as being
inferior because of the color of their eyes. All of their attributes where judged by the color of
their eyes. The blue eyed kids behaviors may seem deviant to the brown eyed kids and the
brown eyed kids behaviors would appear deviant to the blue eyed kids. However, because the
blue eyed kids are the ones with power over the brown eyed kids, the actions of the brown eyed

kids that are considered deviant by the blue eyed are punished. This then creates resentment and
conflict between the two groups with may lead to a revolution for social justice.