By Bo Yun V. Brainerd
Last Monday, internationally-known and anti-racist activist Jane Elliott, best known for her “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” classroom experiment, spoke as a keynote speaker at an online version of Branford’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. tribute breakfast.
With over 300 virtual participants, the BHS culinary department and the Branford Rotary Club came together to sponsor a much-appreciated event with proceeds going to local charities. “Never has Jane Elliott’s powerful ‘We are one race’ message been more needed than now,“ said an event organizer and a BHS culinary teacher, Mindy Baker.
As explained throughout the event, Elliott’s work “exposes prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And if you think this does not apply to you…you are in for a rude awakening”.
“The current political and social situations of the past year have caused many BHS students and teachers to reflect on the contributions of their own thoughts and actions/inaction,” Baker said. “Conversations about race are difficult to have, but are necessary in order for progress to be made.”
In Elliot’s classroom, she was able to dismantle racist sentiments and teach the notion of unity to her students. Her famous exercise “labels participants as inferior or superior based solely upon the color of their eyes and exposes them to the experience of being a minority.”
Her inspirational message serves as an imperative lesson and source of empowerment during this deeply tumultuous transition of power as well as while fighting the same injustices the Civil Rights Movement fought against 50 years ago.
Even today those lessons are still being felt. With the uproar and current of our nation, including the storming of the Capitol by supporters of now-former President Donald J. Trump, we see that “democracy has prevailed,” newly inaugurated President Joe Biden said. “This is America’s day,” President Biden declared Wednesday as he began his Inaugural Address.
Biden continued: “Here we stand, looking out on the great Mall where Dr. King spoke of his dream. Here we stand, where 108 years ago at another inaugural, thousands of protesters tried to block brave women marching for the right to vote. And today we mark the swearing-in of the first woman in American history elected to national office, Vice President Kamala Harris. Don’t tell me things can’t change.”
Amid the transformation and upheaval within America, the words of Dr. King, both those celebrated and the less familiar, feel more important than ever before, serving both as a guide and a warning.
From renowed speeches to the words he never had a chance to deliver before his assassination, Dr. King talked about his hopes of a just world, the influence of peaceful protests, and about disruption as the language of “the unseen and the unheard”.
It’s quite clear that educating our future generations as well as ourselves, acts as one of the most powerful tools in these times of change. These moments of violence-fueled madness and immense divide are difficult to defuse however, that day will eventually arise.
We thank Jane Elliot, and should always keep her lessons within us. She has been one of the greatest diversity-inclusive activists and hopefully will continue to share her legacy amongst students and all who listen.
Source of Image: https://www.newsy.com/stories/jane-elliott-talks-racial-prejudice-in-classrooms/
Such a great article BO. Thanks for your enthusiasm for the cause and your eloquent write-up!
Great event and write-up! Thank you Mindy and Bo!