2008 Woodie Awards
Controversial speaker Jane Elliott discusses race
Mike DeSumma
Issue date: 9/11/06 Section: News
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West Chester University students and faculty filled the 1,200 seats of Asplundh Concert Hall last Wednesday night, to hear one woman's views on the current state of racial divide in America
Jane Elliott, a former grade school teacher whose 1968 "blue eyes/brown eyes" experiment educated students about the unfairness of being a minority race in segregated America, addressed the sold out concert hall on how the issue of racism is still very much alive in the modern day United States. In her presentation, which lasted about an hour, she professed the idea that the main problem with race today stems from society's inability to recognize and accept the differences between them.
Although education today raises young white minds to look past color in the form of messages like "under the skin we are all the same," Elliott made it a point throughout her lecture that this approach is not the answer to racist sentiment.
"I'm tired of racism. We [Americans] can put a man on the moon but we can't have a conversation with our neighbor if they're different then us," she stated.
To illustrate the differences which still exist in society, she invited two students to come up and answer some questions. The students were of different gender, race and height, and Elliott explained how possessing these characteristics in today's America work to their benefit or downfall.
For Elliott, the answer is not to be tolerant of other's differences but rather to accept and cherish them. She compared America not to a "melting pot" but rather to a "stir-fry." Much like "the parts are good individually in a stir-fry" so is it that "diversity makes this country interesting."
However, the more controversial aspect of Elliott's presentation was found in her discussion of the barrier to that understanding.
"Nobody is born a racist. Like most things, it [racism] is something you have to be taught," she explained.
Elliott made it clear that white citizens are still reared with the "myth" that they are superior to people of color. She explained that this is reflected in such things as their insensitivity and use of racial jokes as well as the way some of them behave around people of the opposite race. She posed a question to the African-American males in attendance: How many of you know that white women are scared to death of you?
Jane Elliott, a former grade school teacher whose 1968 "blue eyes/brown eyes" experiment educated students about the unfairness of being a minority race in segregated America, addressed the sold out concert hall on how the issue of racism is still very much alive in the modern day United States. In her presentation, which lasted about an hour, she professed the idea that the main problem with race today stems from society's inability to recognize and accept the differences between them.
Although education today raises young white minds to look past color in the form of messages like "under the skin we are all the same," Elliott made it a point throughout her lecture that this approach is not the answer to racist sentiment.
"I'm tired of racism. We [Americans] can put a man on the moon but we can't have a conversation with our neighbor if they're different then us," she stated.
To illustrate the differences which still exist in society, she invited two students to come up and answer some questions. The students were of different gender, race and height, and Elliott explained how possessing these characteristics in today's America work to their benefit or downfall.
For Elliott, the answer is not to be tolerant of other's differences but rather to accept and cherish them. She compared America not to a "melting pot" but rather to a "stir-fry." Much like "the parts are good individually in a stir-fry" so is it that "diversity makes this country interesting."
However, the more controversial aspect of Elliott's presentation was found in her discussion of the barrier to that understanding.
"Nobody is born a racist. Like most things, it [racism] is something you have to be taught," she explained.
Elliott made it clear that white citizens are still reared with the "myth" that they are superior to people of color. She explained that this is reflected in such things as their insensitivity and use of racial jokes as well as the way some of them behave around people of the opposite race. She posed a question to the African-American males in attendance: How many of you know that white women are scared to death of you?
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