296. Stephen Bloom on Jane Elliott's Famous Experiment on Race and Brutality and What It Reveals About Today's Racial Divide

The Michael Shermer Show

Michael Shermer

Science, Natural Sciences

4.3 • 1K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2022

⏱️ 123 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

This conversation explores the never-before-told true story of Jane Elliott and the "Blue-Eyes, Brown-Eyes Experiment" she made world-famous, using eye color to simulate racism.

Shermer and Bloom discuss: Jane Elliott and how she came to conduct her famous experiment • reactions to it (in the classroom, locally, nationally, internationally) • whether the "experiment" was really more of a demonstration • public interest, from Johnny Carson to Oprah Winfrey • the questionable ethics of the experiment • what it reveals about tribalism, racism, obedience to authority, role playing, social proof • whether the experiment reveals hidden racist attitudes or creates them in children • Does it indicate bad apples or bad barrels? • race sensitivity training programs, then and now (and why they don't really work) • what drives moral progress • the future of journalism.

Stephen Bloom is a professor of journalism at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Blue Eyes, Brown Eyes: A Cautionary Tale of Race and Brutality (University of California Press, 2021); The Audacity of Inez Burns: Dreams, Desire, Treachery & Ruin in the City of Gold (Regan Arts, 2018); Tears of Mermaids: The Secret Story of Pearls (St. Martin's Press, 2011); The Oxford Project [with photographer Peter Feldstein] (Welcome Books, 2010); Inside the Writer's Mind (Wiley, 2002); and Postville: A Clash of Cultures in Heartland America (Harcourt, 2000). He has worked for the Los Angeles Times, Dallas Morning News, San Jose Mercury News, Sacramento Bee, Latin America Daily Post, and Field News Service. He especially likes writing about every man/woman: the barista, bartender, baker, butcher, barber — or murderer-turned-prison employee.

Transcript

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0:00.0	You're listening to theurmer Show. Hello everyone, it's Michael Schurmer and it's time for another episode of the Michael Schurmer Show.
0:20.0	This episode is brought to you by W-R- E N. R N as a startup company working toward
0:27.5	finding solutions to the climate crisis.
0:31.1	Yes, you heard me right. You know my position on this. I think global warming is real and human
0:37.0	caused. I think we have time to do something about it. I'm not a catastrophist. I don't think it's the end of the world, but I think
0:44.8	it is something we have to pay attention to. You might have noticed the summer has been the
0:48.0	hottest on record, not only in the US, but also in the UK and in much of Europe going through a massive heat wave.
0:55.4	Just incredible these guys at Rand.co if you go to Rand.co. slash Shermer and sign up will plant 10 trees in your name if you do it through
1:07.6	this show. How cool is that, right? This is their mission to plant trees based on your carbon footprint.
1:15.0	So when you subscribe, you get to get your carbon footprint.
1:19.4	I did mine.
1:20.4	You want to know what it is?
1:21.4	Oh boy. It's not as bad as it could be. It's worse than the
1:25.8	average of the world at 4.9 tons of CO2 a year. India 2.4, the UK 6.7, the US is 18.3 on average, minus 16 tons of CO2.
1:37.0	Yay, I beat the average for the United States.
1:39.4	I'm not sure why that is, because I use a lot of electricity and I don't know I eat I'm not a vegan or
1:45.5	vegetarian I'm not sure what it is but I'm lower on goods and services I'm lower on
1:51.6	transport because I drive that Tesla. Although I
1:55.0	know the electricity is not really free. It comes from a power plant somewhere
2:00.3	that sends it to that plug in the side of my wall. My diet's good, two tons a year
2:05.6	versus three on the average. My energy is good. 1.9 tons a year versus 3.6 for the average in the United
2:12.2	States, maybe because I live in California, so climate's a little
	...

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