The murder of George Floyd at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer in May 2020 was a wake-up for many white-identifying people to the true extent of systemic inequalities in the United States.
Since that moment of awareness, diversity task forces and anti-racism book clubs have organically sprung up in institutions across the country — including school districts. In the small town of Decorah, Iowa, the school district is partnering with Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consultants as a necessary step towards school safety.
But these efforts to teach history accurately are being met with resistance from seats of institutionalized power.
Most recently, in June 2021, the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature passed the ‘Divisive Concepts’ law, whereby Iowa’s right-wing politicians voted to prohibit discussing “divisive concepts.” According to a representative for the Iowa State Educators Association, “The law was intended to strike fear in the hearts of Iowa educators.” And strike fear it has.
Passed by legislators in the middle of the night, the law has had a chilling effect on educators, who wonder if they’ll be reported by parents for teaching about slavery or basic facts about the Jim Crow era’s oppressive impacts.
In addition to the intimidation being leveled against educators by conservative legislators and misinformed parents, people – including teachers – can find it difficult to speak up about racism in small towns like Decorah – where a culture of “Midwest Nice” is sometimes stifling.
Jane Elliott, a retired teacher from Iowa, is no stranger to the importance of teaching history accurately, particularly where race and racism in the United States are concerned — and of the challenges of doing so in the face of institutionalized power structures that benefit from continued ignorance in that regard.
More than 50 years ago, as a response to the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968, Elliott (a third-grade teacher at the time) devised the controversial “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes” exercise — which sought to identify, challenge, and dismantle how bias functions and how hatred, rooted in ignorance, is learned and perpetuated. Now an internationally known lecturer and diversity trainer, and a recipient of the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence, Elliott has traveled the world, inspiring educators to use their voices to lead people out of ignorance.
And yet, consider this: Fifty years after “Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes,” a report issued in the fall of 2018 — Teaching Tolerance’s Special Report: Hate at School — found that two-thirds of educators surveyed that year witnessed a hate or bias incident in their school. Most bias incidents witnessed by educators were not addressed by school leaders.
Rapper, singer, and activist Killer Mike exhorts white people who want to help to “spend time learning from Jane Elliott … For white people, the first thing is go to youtube and spend one hour watching Jane Elliott teach people about the racism that is given to them that they aren’t even aware they have.”
I recently sought out Jane’s advice as an educator. What guidance does she have for educators and others who want to be anti-racists? How do we overcome the inevitable push back? Where do we begin? In a restored schoolhouse near Riceville, Elliott sat down with me for a series of videotaped interviews addressing these and other questions. Listening to Jane Elliott is like a shot in the arm of “speak up” power.
“Not talking about racism is going along to get along,” Elliott says. “People will continue to feel and think and behave as they always have until somebody comes along and says, ‘Wait a minute, do you realize what you’re doing?’”
Click to watch the 8-minute video. Jane speaks to what educators and others can do to
dismantle a culture of white supremacy.
As invaluable a resource as Elliott continues to be in the movement for racial justice in the United States, and as willing as she is to share her time and experience with educators who want to be able to teach the truth, she is clear about this: “Don’t listen to me,” she says. “Go talk to the leaders who are people of color, the young people.”
More of my interviews with Jane Elliott are at Collective Action for Racial Equality on youtube.
Helped open my eyes to how much I don’t know. Thank you, Margaret Gilpin and JBR.