Self-Review – Brown Eyes are the Law

Let’s Look at Brown Eyes are the Law

A bit of Brown Eyes are the Law comes from remembering Jane Elliott’s experiments.

I wrote this story during the second quarter of 2021. The prompt word was tawny.

Background

Let’s get back to Jane Elliott for a moment, shall we?

Ms. Elliott is a diversity trainer. People probably know her best for a 1968 experiment done with schoolchildren. In response to Martin Luther King, jr.’s death, she divided the class into students with blue eyes, and those with brown.

Then she proceeded to tell the blue-eyed children that they were better in every way.

After IIRC a few days of this, with the class at each other’s throats, she finally ended the experiment. It was essentially a way to give a group of people who were in a homogenized group an experience they would not normally have.

The experience? What it’s truly like to be discriminated against.

In this story, I decided to pursue this thought experiment, but with a twist.

The conformity would be to some ideal that wasn’t white.

Plot

In a world where everyone must conform, or else, blue eyes are a surefire ticket to the slammer if nowhere else.

Characters

The characters are the unnamed narrator in the first section, another unnamed narrator in the second, and possibly a third in the third and final section.

Memorable Quotes

Thank God I’ve got a doctor who’s discreet and understands. Colored contact lenses. Time under a tanning lamp. Hair dye. Bronzer. Of course, the only thing that really counts is eye color, but the rest of it helps to bolster the illusion.

See—and don’t tell anyone, else it would be the ruin of me—I’ve got illegally colored eyes. I know, I know. it’s supposed to be impossible these days to have eyes that are any color but a kind of medium tannish brown. Tawny eyes for all! Just like our beloved leader. But, unfortunately for me, some of us are just born throwbacks.

Yes, yes, we’ve hidden it my entire life. And I wouldn’t normally say anything, but you’re in the predicament I was in. Or, rather, your newborn baby daughter is.

I’m from the underground. I—well, we, actually—can help. Never mind how we learned of your predicament. There are some people who have access to the right places, and the right files.

Yes, yes, I am well aware that newborns all have an illegal color. But it doesn’t always go away. Your genetic profile, and that of your wife? Those have been melded together. So, it was known that there was a chance your child would be cursed. Naturally, her genetic profile is in the records. But a few keystrokes, and it’s forever altered.

No charge. Seriously, we only do this to save lives, and as a small form of protest. All we ask in return is that you keep it a secret, and that you help when you can.

Me? My criminal color is a grayish blue.

Rating for Brown Eyes are the Law

The story has a K+ rating. The prose isn’t harsh at all, but what I am writing about sure as hell is.

Takeaways for Brown Eyes are the Law

The Twilight Zone has done this kind of story. And undoubtedly so have other franchises. I have no doubt writers will write this scenario again and again. Why? Because the premise is both fascinating and disturbing.

And who would you prefer being, anyway? A person with the right eye color (or skin tone, or name, or religion, etc.), who gets to push the others around? Or the one with the wrong kind, whose life is in danger but maybe (hopefully!) is more humane?

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Want More of my Short Stories and Novellas?

If this story resonates with you, then I hope you will check out some of my other blog posts about my shorter works.

Short Stories

Finally, for a complete list of my shorter works, please be sure to check out the Hub Page—Short Stories.