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Ask students if they understand the terms prejudice, racism, and discrimination. Using a dictionary or other resource, have them offer definitions of these terms in their own words. Ask them to provide specific examples of prejudice, racism, or discrimination that they have experienced or learned about.

Introduce students to the game “Eyes.” Have the students form groups, according to the colour of their eyes. Explain that they will now be treated differently depending on their eye colour, first getting consensus that the group is willing to play the game. Assure them that it is for a limited time period, one or two lessons, and that it is a way to help them gain a better understanding of discrimination. Tell them that you will monitor the behaviour and activities within the class and that the game does not extend beyond the classroom or beyond this limited time period.

Describe the rules to the students, having students with non-blue eyes help create the rules if you wish. Students with blue eyes will be discriminated against. Students with eyes of other colours will be favoured. Non–blue eyed students will decide what kind of labels or badges the blue-eyed students will wear. Instruct the blue-eyed students to create and wear these labels. You may wish to include rules, such as blue-eyed students sit at the back of the class. They cannot put up their hands. They cannot call the other students by their first names.

Play this game for one or two lesson periods. Be sensitive to the feelings within the class. Then gather the students and ask the groups for their responses to being treated unfairly. Direct them to the topic Canada and the Fight Against Apartheid on the CBC Radio and Television Archives Web site and have them browse through the clips. Ask them to reflect on the personal lives and feelings of the South Africans, both black and white, and suggest that they think about these questions:

1. Why did some whites in South Africa support apartheid?
2. Why did non-whites oppose apartheid?
3. Why did some South Africans emigrate?
4. What role did Nelson Mandela play in the fight against apartheid?
5. How was apartheid finally ended in South Africa?
6. Why was apartheid so harmful for both whites and non-whites in South Africa?
7. What lessons can we learn about racism and discrimination from studying apartheid’s rise and fall in South Africa?

Conduct a whole-class debriefing activity to discuss their reactions to what they learned about racial prejudice and discrimination from playing the Eyes game and examining the clips. Ask: How do you feel about discrimination? How do you feel about being treated unfairly? Being able to treat others unfairly? How do you think you would feel experiencing this atmosphere over many years?

Students can write a journal chronicling one week in a South African's life under apartheid, focusing on three or four specific feelings they experienced during the Eyes game or how they imagine a South African might feel under apartheid. Students can conclude the diary with the diarist's response on the day that apartheid ended.