Jane Elliott
Jane Elliott
Jane Elliottis an American former third-grade schoolteacher, anti-racism activist, and educator, as well as a feminist and LGBT activist. She is known for her "Blue eyes–Brown eyes" exercise. She first conducted her famous exercise for her class the day after Martin Luther King, Jr. was shot. When her local newspaper published compositions that the children wrote about the experience, the reactionsformed the basis for her career as a public speaker against discrimination. Elliott's classroom exercise was filmed the third time...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionActivist
CountryUnited States of America
Racism is a learned affliction and anything that is learned can be unlearned
We are still conditioning people in this country and, indeed, all over the globe to the myth of white superiority. We are constantly being told that we don't have racism in this country anymore, but most of the people who are saying that are white. White people think it isn't happening because it isn't happening to them.
To sit back and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor.
White people’s number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. We don’t have to learn about those who are other than white. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that we’re ignorant.
You are not born racist. You are born into a racist society. And like anything else, if you can learn it, you can unlearn it. But some people choose not to unlearn it, because they're afraid they'll lose power if they share with other people. We are afraid of sharing power. That's what it's all about.
This country isn't a melting pot. Think of this country as a stir fry. That's what this country should be. A place where people are appreciated for who they are.
When you say to a person of colour, 'When I see you, I don't see you Black; I just see everybody the same' think about that. You don't have the right to say to a person, 'I do not see you as you are; I want to see you as I would be more comfortable seeing you.'
We don't need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables — the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers — to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.
We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power.
450,000 Iraqi children have died from starvation and lack of medicine as a result of our embargo. If you believe God loves little children - and hundreds of thousands more Iraqi children will die if there is war - you have to believe that God will judge us very harshly for this.
We dont know anything about racism. Weve never experienced it. If words can make a difference in your life for seven minutes, how would it affect you if you heard this every day of your life?
Education in this country is about how to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate racism.
I am absolutely opposed to political correctness. You cannot confront hate speech until you've experienced it. You need to hear every side of the issue instead of just one.
I'm a practicing Christian - and I'm going to keep practicing till I get it right - but I don't feel everyone has to practice the same religion that I do. You have a right to worship who you choose and how you choose to.