1. Anastasiia Semenchenko
FYS-100
6/25/2015
Reflection on “The Angry Eye”.
Unfortunately, many of us close our eyes on problems around. We see only what we
want to see. Some problems of society don’t concern us and we think that they don’t even
exist. Unexpectedly I realized that my eyes were closed on problem of racism in the USA. I
know about racism in this country because I learned about it in my history class in middle
school. But I used to think about it like it happened long time ago and racism is gone
nowadays. Of course I heard news about killed “colored” people but I did not deeply
thought about it. I did not realize that people still suffer because of their skin color.
The video “The Angry Eye” made me think about racism. First, I was shocked of the
way Jane Elliot talked with white students, I felt sorry about crying girls. Then I realized
that it is just an experiment and they will get credit for it, but black people should suffer
from disrespectful attitude every day just because of their color. After the class I walked
home and was thinking about it, I thought, “Maybe it is not that bad, maybe Jane Elliot
blows problem of races and in real people forgot that they had social differences long time
ago?” I was walking and thinking about it until I start to understand that even after two
years in the USA I don’t know much about problems this country has.
In Russia we don’t have any problems between white and black people. And how
could we have this problem if we simply almost don’t have people with black skin? Well,
we watch TV and we know that “colored” people exist but it is so rare to see them in real. I
remember the moment when I saw black man for the first time in my life. I was 15 years
old and stupid, so I looked at him like he was an alien. But I did not have any negative
feelings or thoughts about him. Also, I’ve never heard even one negative word about black
people from my white American friends. People usually don’t talk about it at all. So, I’ve
decided to ask my friends their opinions about racism in the USA and I found out that this
2. problem still exists. People still have inequality because of skin color! I was surprised by
this fact. How racism may exist in 21st century in the country made of emigrants from all
over the world?
Now I see that Jane Elliott does not imagine anything, it is reality. Unfortunately,
people don’t learn from the history. And we need more activists like Jane Elliott; we need
shocking experiments to show that we are all equal and no one is better or worse because
of skin color.