2008 Woodie Awards
Elliott demonstrates racism is learned
Christina Moran '08
Issue date: 11/10/06 Section: News
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At just over five feet with silvering hair, Jane Elliott strikes you as the warm grandmotherly type-that is until she opens her mouth.
"I am a racist," she announced to an audience of several hundred on her Wednesday, Nov. 8, lecture as part of the Diversity Series.
"We're all racists. We were raised by racist parents, attended a racist school, and read racist books," she said.
Elliott rose to fame after a classroom exercise she developed following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a day she referred to as "the destruction of hope."
Disgusted with coverage of the assassination that referred to him as a leader of just the black community, Elliott decided her students would learn that they were all members of the same human race in an exercise depicted in the documentary Eye of the Storm.
Elliott decided to divide her class according to a physical trait beyond their control in the same way that racism did. She chose eye color.
For one day, Elliot told her third-grade students that brown eyes indicated superiority, and blue eyes inferiority. She then treated them as if it were true, and pointed out when they met those expectations. The next day she reversed the situation.
Elliott was shocked by how quickly her students adopted the discriminatory practices. Students consistently met her expectations regardless of what those expectations were based on. She became convinced that her students had been raised as racists.
"There is no gene for racism. There is no gene for sexism. There is no gene for homophobia. […] You weren't born a racist," she told her audience in the Chapel of St. Joseph-Michael J. Smith, S.J., Memorial.
Elliott credits schooling rife with anglo-centric and erroneous materials with the development of racist, sexist, and prejudiced views. "Education is a wonderful thing. Schooling isn't. Schooling teaches students to succeed in a classroom environment," she said.
"I am a racist," she announced to an audience of several hundred on her Wednesday, Nov. 8, lecture as part of the Diversity Series.
"We're all racists. We were raised by racist parents, attended a racist school, and read racist books," she said.
Elliott rose to fame after a classroom exercise she developed following the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr., a day she referred to as "the destruction of hope."
Disgusted with coverage of the assassination that referred to him as a leader of just the black community, Elliott decided her students would learn that they were all members of the same human race in an exercise depicted in the documentary Eye of the Storm.
Elliott decided to divide her class according to a physical trait beyond their control in the same way that racism did. She chose eye color.
For one day, Elliot told her third-grade students that brown eyes indicated superiority, and blue eyes inferiority. She then treated them as if it were true, and pointed out when they met those expectations. The next day she reversed the situation.
Elliott was shocked by how quickly her students adopted the discriminatory practices. Students consistently met her expectations regardless of what those expectations were based on. She became convinced that her students had been raised as racists.
"There is no gene for racism. There is no gene for sexism. There is no gene for homophobia. […] You weren't born a racist," she told her audience in the Chapel of St. Joseph-Michael J. Smith, S.J., Memorial.
Elliott credits schooling rife with anglo-centric and erroneous materials with the development of racist, sexist, and prejudiced views. "Education is a wonderful thing. Schooling isn't. Schooling teaches students to succeed in a classroom environment," she said.
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