Jane Elliot Sends A BOLD Warning To Trump & White America, Deportations Can't Scare Black People

[00:00:00]And [music] it, you know, I'm real sick of hearing people say to make America great again, cuz that word again means go back to the 50s, [music] which was real good for white men, but wasn't worth a damn for people of color and women. You need to know that. And that's what this [music] fool wants us to do. I want every white person in this room who would be happy to be treated as this society in general treats our citizens, our black citizens. If you as a white person would be happy to receive the same treatment that our black citizens do in this society, please stand.

[00:00:36]You didn't understand the direction.

[00:00:39]If you white folks want to be treated the way blacks are in this society, stand.

[00:00:45]Nobody's standing here.

[00:00:48]That says very plainly that you know what's happening.

[00:00:52]You know you don't want it for you.

[00:00:54]I want to know why you're so willing to accept it or to allow it to happen for others. And that young man who was talking about MAGA, you need to realize that MAGA stands for make Americans grubble again.

[00:01:08]>> And that that make Americans grubble again. And that's exactly what we are doing in order to keep that man from destroying this democracy. That is the problem people. [music] He wants to destroy this democracy. He wants to turn it into either an oligarchy or a theocracy. And this is a man who talks theocracy who beholds the Bible upside down.

[00:01:29]>> Hello guys, welcome once again to the channel. I hope you're watching you're having a great time. Now we have seen that racism in America is something that has been inserted deep in the national fabric that America holds. And therefore for it to come out it will take a lot of work that everybody has to join in because if everybody is not joined in in this work then the possibility of coming out with a reasonable answer or a reasonable success will be limited. And that is why people like Jen Elliot have been very much profound in terms of their contributions towards making the white society or white people be aware of the feelings that black people hold when they subjected to some of these racist tendencies. It is for this reason that she has had a lot of engagements publicly in America trying to train institutions and corporations about the need for respect of minority groups and also the need to understand that the lived experiences of minority groups is not something that anybody can be proud of. And that is really why I like sometimes to kind of highlight the contributions some of these people are making. You know, in many cases, it is always black people talking back to whites about them not respecting the rights that blacks have. But it is very rare to find whites going all out to give their support for a minority group that has not been respected for generations by their race. So in this video, I want us to listen to Jen Elliot speaking about why it is very important that whites don't disrespect blacks throughout their lives. Because through her experiments, she has been able to prove and to show both white kids and white adults the need for a projected aspect of life where people tend to also have a feel of what other people are going to feel out of their actions. And that is why I want us to listen to her in this clip. She's speaking quite candidly. I want you to listen to the point she's pushing across. I shall come back in the end with my commentaries.

[00:03:41]But before we dive in, if you're coming across our channel for the first time, please consider subscribing, like the video, and share. Let's dive in.

[00:03:48]>> I want you folks to do something. I want every white person, every person in this room who considers himself or herself a member of the white race to stand right now. Right now. Every person in this room who considers himself or herself a member of the white race now remain standing. Now remain standing. Now will every person in this room who considers himself or herself a member of the black race please stand up [laughter and clears throat] up and remain standing. Now the brown race. Anybody who considers himself or herself a member of the brown race. Now the yellow race.

[00:04:22]Now the red race. Now will look around you people. Practically everybody standing now. Will every person in this room who considers himself or herself a member of the human race please sit down? [laughter] Now people, you are all members of the same race, the human race, which started with black women between 300,000 This this that don't interrupt me. I don't have much time. NOW, white folks, you don't like it. But all you are is faded blacks.

[00:05:10]That's the way it is. Every one of you, if you take your trace your DNA back far enough, you're going to find that some of your DNA came from Africa because we all have the same ancestor back there.

[00:05:24]every single one of us and those of you who think you don't have are obviously from outer space.

[00:05:32]Now, that means that every one of us is a 30th to 50th cousin to every other person in this room. So, I want you to turn to the person on your left or your right or behind or in front of you, stick out your hand and say, "Hi, cousin."

[00:05:51]Hi, cousin.

[00:06:01]Now, now will every person in this room who considers himself or herself a biracial person stand?

[00:06:12]Don't you stand? [laughter] Don't you stand, people? We have to get rid of the language of racism.

[00:06:27]Words are important, people. Words matter. You have to be careful how you use them. And you have to refuse to tolerate these ugly words being used in your presence. Now, make no mistake about this. I've been described as a teacher. I'm not a teacher. Teachers dispense facts and figures so that they can get their kids ready for the end of school testing. I've been called a trainer. You train dogs and horses and members of the mil military. You I don't train people. I'm an educator. The word educator. I'm I don't want to be interrupted anymore people. The word educator comes from the root duck deuce which means lead. The prefix e which means out. The suffix a t e which means the act of and the suffix o r which means one who does. An educator is one who is engaged in the act of leading people out of ignorance.

[00:07:20]Now in this in this country we spend a lot of money on what we call education. It isn't education. It's indoctrination.

[00:07:33]It takes us 13 years to teach a student, to educate a student to be ignorant about race and to support ideas that make this a better country. This is a word for this in my vernacular since I was raised on a farm is Don't write that down, people.

[00:07:55]I recognize it when I see it. And that's what we're living with right now. If we weren't in a if we were in a and if we were in post-racial society, Dinosaurus Tump would not be in the White House.

[00:08:10]He he got elected because white people resented having a black man in the White House for 8 years.

[00:08:23]It's time to face the truth and say the truth. And it's time for women, all women, and all people of color, to stop playing defense and defending what they are and go on the offense.

[00:08:37]We were here first. We don't have to apologize for what we are or for what we do. Now, I know some of you are thinking, "Boy, this book, is she a bitch?" Yes, I am.

[00:08:50]Now, how many of you women have been called the b- word?

[00:08:55]Look around, fellas. Everybody's heard it. Come up with a new word. Now, how how many of you are called that by a male?

[00:09:03]All right, people. For me, the B- word is an acronym for being in total control, honey.

[00:09:15]And when women are seen in control, the men around them call it the b- word. You need to say, "You're right, darling. I am." And then you need to whip out your little arena fruit knife.

[00:09:25]>> [screaming] >> Now, don't do that cuz some of these boys are scared to death. Now, some of you are thinking, "She doesn't like men." Oh, god, do I like men. [laughter] Find me one, please. Please.

[00:09:41]Some of my best friends are men. I was married to one for 59 years. When I married him, he looked just like Marlon Brando. He really did. When he died, he looked like Telisal. Live with me for 59 years. And what's your next question?

[00:09:56]Let's talk about privilege.

[00:10:02]>> Angela, you want to talk about privilege?

[00:10:04]>> The first, and this goes to you, Jane, first.

[00:10:09]How did you first become aware, this is a reflective question. How did you first become aware of your own privilege? And how did you first become aware that others had more privilege than you?

[00:10:23]And I'm going to ask the same of you also.

[00:10:26]>> Yes. So you go first.

[00:10:29]>> I never thought of it as white privilege.

[00:10:32]>> I just thought if you do the right thing, people will do the right thing where you're concerned. And because I'm white, they did. And they were wrong.

[00:10:43]Because I've been doing the wrong thing for about well for about 33 years. I did the wrong thing. I thought I was all right. And then I did the blue-eyed brown-eyed exercise and I watched a brilliant little blue-eyed white girl turn into a frightened, intimidated, unable to learn child in the space of 15 minutes because I accused her of not being smart enough because she had the wrong color eyes. And I watched four dyslexic, browneyed boys read words they had never been able to read and spell words they had never been able to spell because nobody had ever told them that they could learn to read or spell. But on the day they had brown eyes, it was obvious.

[00:11:27]It was obvious that the world was theirs. They could do anything. I found out about expectations that day and I realized that what we have done, what we white folks have done in this country ever since we got here is treat people positively or negatively not on the basis of the color of their skin, but on the basis of our ignorance about skin color, where it comes from and what it causes. This is not about skin color.

[00:11:53]This is about ignorance. And the answer to ignorance is education. It is not indoctrination. It is not schooling. It is not training. It is education. But you have to have teachers who know better if they're going to teach better.

[00:12:09]And teachers can only teach what they know. And unfortunately for all of us, we've all been led down the same ugly path of thinking that it's all right to claim privilege when what we should be claiming is ignorance. We've got the wrong we've got the wrong word here, people.

[00:12:27]This problem is white ignorance and white people are running the show. Now you said you're going to think she's a she's a traitor to a race. I'm not a traitor to the human race and that's the only race I see. Make no mistake about that. And as long as we start acting, as long as we keep on acting as though there are several races, we can have panels like this at which we discuss white privilege instead of discussing white ignorance and deciding to do something about it. We need to start really furnishing education in these schools instead of furnishing indoctrination. Did that answer your question?

[00:13:05]>> Yes, partially.

[00:13:07]>> All right. The rest of the question is so how did you become aware of your own privilege or of others having more privilege than you?

[00:13:18]You're talking about I watched my students. It was watching the students.

[00:13:23]>> I realized watching them that they were exhibiting the behaviors that they were copying from me. They acted the hey my little browneyed students the day they were on the top in that exercise became me and it made me sick to my stomach and it does to this day. I hate I hate to remember that day because I watched my browneyed children who would we just love one another in my classroom. We really did. And on that day I found out that I don't want to be tolerated cuz in that classroom my kids tolerated me cuz I'm blue-eyed. The first thing that was said after I told the kids that blue-eyed people aren't smart as browneyed people, little blue-eyed a little browneyed child in the white row in the front row, Debbie Hughes looked up at me and said, "How come you're the teacher here if you got them blue eyes?"

[00:14:10]I got a real experience that day and a real educational experience. people. I found out how I look to people of color and I have spent the last 50 years trying not to look like that and trying to encourage others to stop it. Tell you another Do I have a few more minutes here? My father at the age of 60 watched the film that the CBC made in my classroom the second year I did the exercise. They sent me a copy of it and I showed it to my father and my mother.

[00:14:38]My father was 60 years old, the most honest man, the most moral man I have ever known. I showed him that film. When it was over, he stood up and in his bib overalls and his blue chamé shirt rolled up with the to the elbows, he reached in his back pocket, took out his red handkerchief, and with tears in his eyes, he blew his nose and said, "I wish somebody had taught me that when I was 9 years old."

[00:15:02][applause] You can criticize what I do until the cows come home. And psychologists do until they get smart.

[00:15:12]I don't listen anymore because my father said, "I wish somebody had taught me that when I was 9 years old." If somebody had taught my father that when he was 9 years old, we would never have had to listen to some of the ridiculous, racist remarks that he made. And he never made them again after he watched that film. Don't tell me that you can't change people. Don't tell me that you're too old to change. There isn't a person in this room who is too old to change.

[00:15:36]White folks, you got to change because within 30 years, you will be a numerical minority in the United States of America. And you had better pro pray pray to whoever you pray to or poor that people of color are not going to get even with us and treat us the way we have treated them.

[00:15:58]If you can't think of If you can't think of any other reason for treating people like equal human beings, think of that one. Because what you do today is creating the future.

[00:16:10]I don't think you want the kind of future that you have provided for people in the present. I may be mistaken. You may not know what's going on. You know what's going on. And if I asked you if every white well every white person in this room wants to be treated the way we have treated people of color in this in this c country, if you'd like to be treated that way, all you white folks, if you want that for the rest of your life, please stand.

[00:16:37]Did you understand the directions?

[00:16:39][laughter] If you're white and you think blacks of God are so good in this country and you want to be treated the way they have been for the rest of your life, just stand up.

[00:16:51]You know why you aren't standing. You know it's ugly and you know it's happening and you know you don't want it to happen to you. So I want to know why you're so willing to allow it for others in this post-racial society.

[00:17:07]>> [applause] >> Okay. So, we're talking about privilege and how you first became aware that others had more privilege than you and how you might have been aware that you had more privilege than others. Today, I asked a young woman how long she thinks this has been going on, this racism against blacks.

[00:17:31]How long do you think it's been going on?

[00:17:34]forever. You're wrong. 500 years. Yeah.

[00:17:39]>> During the Spanish Inquisition, the people who were running the Spanish Inquisition and killing people because their religion found out that they killed a whole lot of people who had the right religion. They couldn't tell what their religion is by looking at them.

[00:17:51]So, they decided they had to find another way to identify the people that they were going to kill and enslave and or enslave. So, they set upon skin color. people. It's only 500 years old.

[00:18:04]Now, think of that. It's only 500 years old. Nobody was born a racist. There is no gene for bigotry. You were not born a racist. You have to be taught to be a racist. And you have to be carefully carefully taught. And if you haven't seen that that musical in which the last song is, you have to be taught to be afraid of people whose l whose skin is a different shade of people whose eyes are differently made. You have to be carefully taught.

[00:18:33]>> South Pacific.

[00:18:33]>> You have Yes. South Pacific. You have to be taught before it's too late before you are six or seven or eight to hate all the people your relatives hate. You have to be carefully taught. And that's what we have to do in this country to keep this racism alive. If we want racism to stop, we have to stop teaching racism in our homes, in our churches.

[00:18:54]People, Jesus did not look like the little Pillsbury doughboy.

[00:19:06]And God is not an old white man with a long gray beard that looks like Charlton H playing Moses.

[00:19:13]And Mary did not have pale skin, blonde hair, and blue eyes. Get over it and do it now. You can make a difference if you choose to. You young people. How many of you have parents, mothers who are really tired of sending Christmas cards? I'll tell you how to solve that problem. Go down to the store, buy a box of Christmas cards with the Holy Family picture on it. Take it home, color them right.

[00:19:38]When your mother sends those out this year, she'll never get another Christmas card for most of those people. People, we have to absolutely refuse to tolerate the intolerable. Ellen Esel said, "You must not tolerate the intolerable. And if it's intolerable for you, my cousins, but by the gods of war, it's intolerable for me, and I will not tolerate it. I This has gone on long enough. This has gone on long enough. And we have gone along to get along long enough. We need to put a stop to it. And you can.

[00:20:10]Educators can. Educators can change this. If I can, you can get busy.

[00:20:19]>> But first, well, this is a question that fits right with what you're saying.

[00:20:26]How can we talk about race and privilege with openness and inclusiveness in a way that prevents people from shutting down?

[00:20:34]People can shut down or not. That's up to them. OKAY.

[00:20:41][applause] I Let me tell you something. I am not responsible for how you respond to me.

[00:20:47]You got it?

[00:20:51]I I I flat out don't care if you learn something in here this evening from this woman who will who has forgotten more than I'll ever know about racism. And what little I know. If you decide to learn something in here tonight, you'll learn something. If you decide to be mad, you'll be mad. Go ahead. I don't care. That's your problem, not mine. I am not responsible for how you feel. I am responsible for what I say. I'm responsible for what I do. You're responsible for your response to it. Be responsible for your responses.

[00:21:24]>> I'm not responsible with you.

[00:21:25]>> Okay. Let's I want to hear what Angela has to say to this.

[00:21:30]>> Well, I totally agree with Jane.

[00:21:32]>> Okay. How can I not >> accept that? [laughter] But but as um as as someone who has spent uh many many years um uh teaching university students um teaching graduate students uh I've I've I've learned that um it's it makes no sense uh for me to simply tell my students what it is I think they ought to know. Uh uh you know they might they might learn enough to write a good paper and then uh they'll move on uh uh moving in another direction. So, so I've come to the conclusion that uh teaching really is about helping uh people to ask the right questions to ask the right questions uh and to be able to come to the conclusion themselves that uh there is something really terribly wrong with the way racism has shaped the history of of of of of this planet. Uh so I um I mean I think education is is about uh unleashing the imagination. Uh what what teachers unfortunately most often do is shut down the imagination. Uh uh and to prevent people from exploring the world in their own ways. uh uh and so I think that uh certainly uh uh there are many questions to be asked about about race and racism about the the fact that race is a fictive concept as Jane was pointing out we're all members of the same human race is a social construction race was produced by racism.

[00:23:53]But of course, this does not mean that it doesn't cause damage in the world, that it hasn't been a uh the producer, the generator of the worst kind of violence of one uh can imagine. But I think that um that that what we try to do is to get people to come to that conclusion um on their own and not on their own as individuals. See, one of the reasons we have so many problems in this country and in this world, particularly during this neoliberal era, is because we have been encouraged to think of ourselves as individuals primarily and not members of a larger community.

[00:24:45]You know, so when we think about getting rid of racism, we think about changing individuals. It's not going to happen simply by changing individuals. Uh the structures uh produce racism even when the individuals assume that they are anti-racist. You know what? How is it that we ended up with a a a a prison system with with such a a a vast majority of people of color? You know, how is it that that there are over two million people in the jails and prisons and immigrant detention facilities and jails in in Indian country and military prison? How did that how did that happen? um if we if we don't, you know, ask the kinds of questions that will allow us to understand how racism shapes all of the important institutional structures in this society.

[00:25:50]>> What's the call for action you would issue to this group?

[00:25:55]So, >> who's first? Who's first? Oh, I'm first.

[00:25:58]Yeah. Turn off your television.

[00:26:02]>> [applause] >> Pick up a book.

[00:26:11][applause] Go out of your way to meet somebody you would never have wanted to meet before.

[00:26:17]Look at that person as a cousin and say, "I want to know what I can do to make my life less ugly where you're concerned."

[00:26:25]And never white people walk up to the nearest black person and say, "What's it like to be black?

[00:26:33]And never when I come to speak to your school or your college or your university, never say to me, I think we should ignore differences and talk about similarities. Similarities are more important than differences.

[00:26:45]And never let me hear you say, "When I see people, I don't see people as black or brown or red or yellow." I JUST [applause] And how about this one from a teacher? I don't care whether you're black, brown, red, yellow, or green with purple polka dots, I'm going to treat yellow alike.

[00:27:03]How many of you have heard that one out of a teacher? How many of you have ever seen people who are green with purple polka dots?

[00:27:10]Well, you see, when a teacher lumps all those people in with those who are green with purple polka dots, she's saying, "You're all like aliens from another planet." She never says white in there.

[00:27:20]>> She never says white, cuz it's all right to see white. How many of you have had a person stand up when you were speaking and say, "I just look for the person's heart."

[00:27:31]People, the next time somebody says that to you, you need to say, "If you can see my heart from where you are, you should go down to the local hospital and volunteer to be their x-ray machine."

[00:27:41]You see, this whole thing is ridiculous.

[00:27:45]To treat people positively or negatively on the basis of your ignorance about skin color is ridiculous. Now, here's something else you can do. Go to my website. A teacher, a a teacher, a real educator quite frankly, gave me a list of commitments to combat racism. Go to my website, janeleot.com.

[00:28:04]Take that list, download it, go through and check yes, those that you have done.

[00:28:09]Check no, those that you haven't done.

[00:28:10]Circle one that you check no, and do it for a month. At the end of the month, take out the paper and make notes on it as to how your life has changed as a result of doing that one thing. There are 18 things on that paper. Then read the list of typical statements that white folks make that think they aren't racist. Check those that you would be inclined to say that you have heard.

[00:28:31]Then read the the clarifications of those statements. Well, how they are being heard by the person who to whom you're saying them. If you do that, that will change your white awareness. And our problem is white lack of awareness.

[00:28:45]Make no mistake about this. People of color know about racism. They recognize it when they hear it. And when you say to a person of color, "I don't see you black," you ought to have your tongue cut out first.

[00:29:05]You can't have I can't examine your head. But people, if what you are saying is being perceived as racist, say something else. Perception is everything. If what you are saying is being perceived as racist, change your language. You can do that if you choose to. You better choose to. But you better choose to. There are 18 things on that list of commitments to combat racism. I challenge you to do three of them in the next 3 months. It'll change people's attitude toward you and your awareness of the world.

[00:29:38]>> Hello guys, welcome back. You've heard what Jen Elliot has to say about the lived experiences that black people have had in America. It is not easy to be a black person. Many people can tell you this and that. But in reality, being a black person in America requires a lot.

[00:29:58]And that is why Jen Elliot and many other people like Tim Wise have always come out to kind of speak about the key issues affecting black existence in America and even across the world. So Jiot significantly advanced racial justice by exposing the arbitrary nature of white privilege and demanding that white Americans acknowledge the systemic mistreatment of black citizens. As an anti-racism educator, her work shifted the burden of confronting racism from black communities and to the white individuals who benefit from it. First thing we have to say is that whites have benefited from existence of racism in America. There are certain opportunities that blacks have been denied just because of their skin color. And who got these opportunities? It is white people.

[00:30:48]There are certain things that blacks have been able not to get just because there was racism in America. And that is what people like Jen Elliot have been confronting. They've always been telling whites to appreciate the fact that they have had favors from the government that other minority groups are not able to get. And with this they need to appreciate that even these black people must be respected and be given equal opportunity to access to accessing some of the things that these white people have accessed without any fight. So what are some of the things that Jen Elliot has done that made her one of the key people to be looked at when it comes to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion within America. One of the key things he she did to make white people have a feel of the lived experiences that blacks have had in America is the experiment that she refers to as the blue eyes brown eye exercise where she created a visual empathy tool in 1968 following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. where she divided her all white third grade class by eye color by treating one group as superior and the other as inferior. She forced white children to feel the emotional toll of arbitrary discrimination.

[00:32:10]Through this blue eyes, brown eye exercise, she was able to give white kids an ability to feel the impact of racism on minority groups. And for this reason, some of these children were able to understand that it is not right to disrespect your peers. It is not right to kind of look down upon others just because their skin color is totally different.

[00:32:38]This experiment also helped to expose the psychology of privilege. The experiment proved that artificial hierarchies immediately corrupt behavior. The superior children became arrogant and cruel while the inferior children grew anxious and underperformed academically. So when sometimes people come and tell you that black people are lazy, they have opportunities and they cannot take them, you have to be very careful to understand that some of the tendencies or some of the behaviors that blacks are exhibiting are because of the years and years of persecution, discrimination and disrespect that they have held. Sometimes where they need to be bold and take up opportunities, they choose to be meek because that is how the system has forced them to be.

[00:33:22]Remember how much police violence has targeted black people. Remember the lynching memos that were sent to black people. It made black people become very afraid of their white counterparts.

[00:33:33]Therefore, even when it came to the moment when they need to compete for opportunities with their white counterparts, remembering the lynching memos that they had, they would always just choose peace instead of violence.

[00:33:46]So that is one of the key issues that has happened under the contribution that people like Jen Elliot have made in America. Another issue that her speeches and her existence in America has worked on is confrontation of the white denial.

[00:34:02]Remember that there are those who have lived in America saying that racism does not exist saying that blacks are given same opportunities as whites. Yet that is not the truth. So confrontation of the white denial has been one of the key contributions that people like Jen Elliot have made through the trade places challenge in her lectures. Elliot formously asked white audiences to stand up if they would be happy to receive the same treatment that black Americans face. When one stood she effectively forced them to admit that they recognize systemic racism but tolerate it as long as it does not affect them. Another issue is also confrontation of white ignorance. She explicitly argued that the ultimate luxury of being white in America is the freedom to remain ignorant about the lived experiences of black citizens. And I think this is one of the major contributions that Jen Elliot has made looking at how the system have treated blacks. Blacks have been treated as though they exist somewhere else and America has been very fair to them. But in reality that is not the case. So through Jen Elliot's work, she confronted whites and told them that you need not to be ignorant about the lived experiences of your black counterparts because these people go through a lot and nobody's always there willing to help them. And that is how some of them became aware of some of the worst experiences that black people are going through.

[00:35:44]So when you look at these contributions, when you look at even the behavior that Trump has been exhibiting, people like Jen Elliot have been very adamant and said that Trump is kind of a racist guy who doesn't understand himself first and also doesn't understand his priorities.

[00:36:02]Right? It is for this reason that people like John Jen Elliot have made issues around black people become mainstream so that people are not afraid to say whether racism exist or whether blacks need equal treatment with their white counterparts or blacks need affirmative action to catch up with those who have gone ahead them. Thank you for tuning in till this moment. Appreciate your company. If you're coming across our channel for the first time, kindly consider subscribing, like the video and share. You can also share your comments and your opinions about this story down in the comment section. Thank you so much. Let's meet on the next