Susan Boyle's "Surprise" Performance - Or Is Lookism Still Alive and Well?

Susan Boyle recently shocked the audience of Britain's Got Talent with her moving vocal

selection from Les Miserables. What was so shocking? Was it that she could sing and do it so well? Or was it that all us, the local and the national audience, never expected that beautiful voice to come out of the plain package presented before us? Watch Susan Boyle's moving performance.

Lookism and its real world impact has been a subject of study involving impressions, costs and lost and gained opportunities. Watch John Stossel tackle this subject head on in this compelling undercover camera segment called The Ugly Truth.

Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes Exercise in Discimination Still Packs A Punch

Jane Elliott's brown eyes, blue eyes exercise is discrimination still packs a punch after all these years.

I recently came across this post in the Los Angeles Times written by a journalist who first saw Jane Elliott's exercise in discrimination as a 16-year old Korean adoptee of white parents, Jane's exercise had a transformative and lasting effect on her life.

"An Iowa teacher's 1960s classroom experiment on race changed my life. Now here I was, knocking on her door..." http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-blueeyes26-2009mar26,0,4792181.story

And Ms. Elliott has refocused her mission to include recent events such as the election of the first black president. How does that fit into her message?

If you're not familiar with her original classroom exercise or subsequent adult exercise, see www.trainerstoolchest.com"An I"An Iowa teacher's 1960s classroom experiment on race changed my life. Now here I was, knocking on her door..."owa teacher's 1960s classroom experiment on race changed my life. Now here I was, knocking on her door..."