USM Lecture about Dynamics of Prejudice

For over 25 years, Jane Elliott, a former teacher from Iowa, has committed herself to leading a fight against prejudice. Today a diversity trainer for corporations and universities, Elliott realized as a teacher in 1968 that racism is a learned behavior.

She will give a lecture on "The Anatomy of Prejudice" from 1-4 p.m. on Tuesday, April 17 in Luther Bonney Auditorium on the University of Southern Maine’s Portland campus. The lecture is free and open to the public.

Elliott conducted a now-famous experiment, The Blue Eyed/Brown Eyed exercise, with her all-white fourth-grade class in a school in Iowa to help them understand what racism felt like. She divided them into two groups based on their eye color. By giving one group special privileges and the message they were special, she created an opportunity for that group to develop a sense of superiority and the other of inferiority, based on a physical trait beyond their control.

Elliott continued to introduce her classes to this exercise and to discussions of racism, which she calls a “white attitudinal problem.” In the early 1980s, she retired from teaching to pioneer diversity training. She has been featured on “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” “The Today Show,” “The Tonight Show,” “Frontline,” and ABC news programs.

A reception will follow the lecture at the Woodbury Campus Center.

For more information on this event, contact USM’s Office of Multicultural Student Affairs at 780-4730.