Jane Elliott Teaches Exercise Against Racism

954 Words2 Pages

Jane Elliott Teaches Exercise Against Racism

Her experiment in the Oprah Winfrey show in 1992 became world famous.

Jane Elliott (62) carried out her brown eyes, blue eyes exercise, and

a behaviour training that lets white people experience what prejudice

and oppression does to you. What happens if you don't have any power

anymore and are subject to arbitrary discrimination, just cause you

have blue eyes? During the international week against racism Jane

Elliott came to Holland. Mercita Coronel spoke with her.

"Who told you to sit down?" "Do I have to spell everything out for

you, sit!" One participant of Jane Elliott's workshop walked out after

one hour, another never returned from a quick trip to the bathroom'.

Their blue eyes did them in. In Elliott's world brown-eyed people form

the majority and they have the power. Blueys are dumb, inferior, lazy

and they steal. To emphasize their inferiority they have to wear a

collar. For blueys the rules are always changing, at the mercy of the

brown eyes. A blue eyed participant who walked out before attempts to

get back in. Elliott is unrelenting, he's out. In the real world

people of colour can't just step out. They don't have a choice. They

can't take off their colour.

Get Elliott's kids. Elliott developed this behavioural exercise in

1968 after Martin Luther King was killed. As a school teacher in

Riceville, Iowa she tried to explain the meaning of King's death to

her all white students. Riceville was and is today a white, Christian

town with a population of a 1000 souls. And no racism according to

them. Elliott devised the exercise -this is not a experiment she

emphasizes- in whic...

... middle of paper ...

...ing conclusion that

discrimination is no accident but deliberate:" It is systematic!"

Participant Commissioner Johan Dietz from the Regional police force

Amsterdam found the workshop impressive:" I came there with a

behavioural therapist, both of us found it incredibly educational.

From the moment you step through the front door, all kind of things

happens to you. I wanted to introduce myself to Mrs. Elliott. Guess

Again! At that moment it becomes clear how little you can do in a

power structure where you aren't the one in power. Within a few hours

I felt like I was some kind of loser." Dietz is considering inviting

Elliott back to Holland to do workshops at police academies. Finally

Elliott: "We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be

racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power."

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