A Class Divided

Editor's Take

Documenting Jane Elliott's blue-eyes, brown-eyes experiment, first run with schoolchildren the day after King's assassination, the film observes prejudice manufactured in a classroom within minutes. It follows both the original lesson and the adults those pupils became, testing whether the exercise left a lasting mark. Plainly shot and quietly devastating, it lets the demonstration make its own argument.

A Class Divided revisits teacher Jane Elliott's famous lesson in discrimination, first carried out the day after Martin Luther King Jr. was killed. She divided her all-white third-grade class by eye colour to show how quickly prejudice can take hold and how deeply it wounds. The film follows the exercise and the lasting impact it had on her students years later. It is a powerful and enduring study of bias and empathy. Free to watch in HD on Dr Documentary.

Courtesy of Documentary on YouTube. Watch on YouTube ↗

More Society & Politics Documentaries

Square One2019•1h 22m•HD•★9.3Panopticon2013•57m•HD•★8.9Zeitgeist: Addendum2008•2h 3m•HD•★8.6The New Rulers of the World2009•53m•HD•★8.6The Impact of Terrorism on Tourism2017•42m•HD•★8.0The Last Prayer: The Situation of Christians in the Middle East2021•55m•HD•★8.0Sugar Daddy Hunt: When Young Women Chase Rich Old Men2023•44m•HD•★8.0Why Are There 1,000 Sunken Shipwrecks Around This Archipelago?2025•44m•HD•★8.0Raji Nomads' Dangerous Honey Gathering2024•50m•HD•★8.0The Busing Battleground | Full Documentary | AMERICAN EXPERIENCE | PBS2023•1h 53m•HD•★7.8Mount Everest : Into the Death Zone - the fifth estate2016•44m•HD•★7.7How the 2008 Financial Crisis Still Affects You2022•39m•HD•★7.7