On Wednesday night a packed house gathered to listen to world-renowned civil rights activist Jane Elliot speak at the Black Student Union event, “Wake Up."
The event featured an interactive gallery in which BSU members presented topics focusing on race relations, a lecture by Mrs. Elliott and a question and answer panel with Elliot after. By the time Alyssa Patterson, executive VP of the BSU, introduced Mrs. Elliott, the ballroom was so full that space was created for audience members to sit on the floor and line the walls. More students gathered in the halls for a chance to hear Elliott speak.
Jane Elliott started her lecture by describing herself, saying “I don’t care if people like me." She used words such as “b*tch, mother, and grandmother” as terms she identified with, and included funny stories from her life when describing herself to the audience. During her speech, Elliott asked audience members to stand up when she called out particular races, and once she everyone was standing, she asked that anyone who was a part of the human race to sit down. After receiving a round of applause, Mrs. Elliott reminded the room that “there is only one race: the human race” and that we cannot let skin color create divisions between us.
Mrs. Elliott then spoke on her career as an elementary school teacher during the 1950’s and 60’s. Riceville, Iowa, a small all-white, all-Christian town of a few thousand people was where Elliott was born, raised, and where she began teaching. Being an all-white rural community, Riceville residents were largely unaffected by sit-ins and peaceful protests happening across the country. Nevertheless, Elliott didn’t consider herself a racist until the days following Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination.
Elliot described her shock and anger at the news, and how it was reported, and decided to do an exercise with her class to explain what being of color, and what being discriminated against feels like. “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” was an exercise that gained national attention over it’s controversial approach to understanding discrimination. In the exercise, Elliott’s third grade students with blue eyes were told they were superior to students with brown eyes. Elliot described watching her blue eyed children become arrogant and bossy towards their brown eyed counterparts. The following day, the brown eyed children ‘became superior’ to those with blue eyes. At the end of both days, Mrs. Elliott discussed with her students what it felt like to be discriminated against on the basis of eye color.
After Elliot depicted to the audience how her class had acted toward their inferior classmates, the film, The Eye of the Storm by the American Broadcasting Company was shown. as shown.
Throughout her lecture on race relations, Elliot tied in various issues plaguing our nation, such as the Dakota Access Pipeline, abortion, and islamophobia. She used wit and humor to bring race into each issue, and to remind the audience on how race cannot be an issue that divides us. During her talk, Elliott made references to powerful leaders in our society, as well as books that help one become more aware of the racism in our society.
When the question and answer portion of the event was over, Elliott received a standing ovation from the crowd. Every student, faculty, and community member that attended the event seemed to leave with a broader knowledge of race and and the courage to do more about it.
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