Brown Eyes

Blue Eyes& CRT

Brown Eyes Blue Eyes

& CRT

andrea minearBEF 650

Critical Race TheoryDr. Nirmala Erevelles

Interim 2008

April 4, 1968Martin Luther King Jr.

was assassinated by James Earl Ray

YouTube - King, Jr., Martin Luther, assassination of http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivrjiQlewk8

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbUtL_0vAJk Dream

“I teach something in class and I meet it in real life the next day.”

Dr. Nirmala Erevelles

For Jane Elliot, she met something in real life and was determined to teach it the next day.

“Dirty Nigger. Look a Negro.” Frantz Fanon, The Fact of Blackness

“Negroes weren't as smart as white people. They weren't as clean. They fought a lot. Sometimes they rioted. They weren't as civilized. They smelled bad.”

Jane Elliott’s 3rd Grade Students’ Perspective

Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes

The Eye of the Storm

On a Friday in April 1968, Jane Elliot began an experiment that would be practiced, lauded and criticized for years. She would set her students up to experience the pain of racism and discrimination. She set herself up for years of abuse that grew out of her teaching to many, an exercise in Social Justice.

1984 A Class Divided (Frontline)

Racism is not limited to Black and White Americans

Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes - Jane Elliott April 1968 (the original experiment) 1970 The Eye of the Storm 1984 A Class Divided (Frontline) 1996 Blue Eyed (Americans/Kansas City) 2001 Angry Eye (Young Adult Americans) 2002 The Stolen Eye (Australia) 2004 Eye Opener (Great Britain) 2005 Indecently Exposed (Canada)

“I think white people aren't aware that racism isn't just wearing white hoods and burning crosses. It's also fixing the system so that black votes don't get counted. It's refusing to open the polling places in precincts where most of the eligible voters are people of color. It's outlawing affirmative action at the state level even though it has proven successful. It's building more prisons than we build schools and guaranteeing that they will be filled by targeting young men of color with things like the "three strikes" legislation in California, and the DWB -- "driving while black." … It's the fact that there are more children attending segregated schools in the U.S. today than there were previous to Brown vs. Board of Education. It's white flight and red-lining by financial institutions. It's television programming that portrays people of color as villains and white people as their victims. It's ballot-security systems, which are used to intimidate minority voters and so result in the very activities which they are supposedly designed to prevent. “ Jane Elliott

Def Racism 

It’s not just you; it’s not just meIt’s civilization; it’s our society. If you could be ANYONE other than you, who would you choose to be?A president? A man on the moon? A man in the street? If you had to live the life of someone different from you, whom would you choose?A Mexican? A Black man? An Indian? A Jew? People shake their heads, “I’m not a racist,” they say. I don’t burn crosses. I don’t wear sheets. I don’t hurt anyone.THEY do it to each other. Who are they?A Mexican? A Black man? An Indian? A Jew? An old woman says “I’m tired of all this racist talk. Things are better.”“Ain’t no more lynchings.”A young man sneers, “So, you’re taking a RACE class. I’d like to see that textbook.” “They got more rights than white folks.” The abuse is silent, but deafening.A stare. Pursed lips, furrowed brow, rolling eyes, turning head.Silence. Overpowering stillness. Torturous, abusive, Invisible hate. 

  Inherited by our young.Ingrained in their psycheReinforced by schools catering to the affluent suburban

crowdOffering business math, statistics, algebra and trigTeaching German, French, Japanese, Spanish, and LatinBut not welcoming those who speak a different language,

or wear different clothesOr wear different colored skin. They go to the school of no choices.Not challenged. Not praised. Not enriched.They drop out.The rates are inequitableJust as are their circumstances The United States of America, the home of the free and the

braveBuilt of Democratic stone, bought with Capitalist money.Where all men are equal under the law – all White men(women and black men -not human, mere property.) The United States of AmericaGive me your tired, your poor,Your huddled masses yearning to breathe freeHave we forgotten? When we gonna see; it’s not just you and me?It’s our world. So what can we do?

andrea minear2008

“You’ve Got to be Carefully Taught” South Pacific,

Rodgers and HammersteinYou've got to be taughtTo hate and fear,You've got to be taughtFrom year to year,It's got to be drummedIn your dear little earYou've got to be carefully taught.

You've got to be taught to be afraidOf people whose eyes are oddly made,And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade,You've got to be carefully taught.

You've got 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've got to be carefully taught!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHKzn8aHyXg&NR=1

Therefore, in this paper, I argue that…

Many members of the dominant (white) culture do not understand the harm that racism spreads. If they are not an active participant in a specified hate group, they may not recognize themselves as part of the problem. “I have black friends,” they might say. Yet they put their houses up for sale when the neighborhood becomes too colorful, or when the racial ratio tips out of their favor in their local school.

I believe that in order to empathize, persons must experience. To truly understand OPPRESSION, we must put ourselves into an “OTHER’s” shoes.

Once we understand, we must DO SOMETHING!

Elements ofCritical Race Theory

Cultural Social EconomicMimicry/ Visibility/InvisibilityAssimilation Racial Realism ColonizationColorblindness Violence of the BodyListen to the Stories Bodies as PropertyCultural Capital Law/Politics

Racism is StructuralChanges can only occur if the system changes

(if whites surrender supremacy)

The NORM is Whiteness -- Everything else is “OTHER”Racism as Historical

Historical

GIVEN: The NORM is Whiteness

Everything else is “Other”

The Only way that change can occur is to change the structure

of the whole system.Because there has been a system of oppression since the beginning of time, it is unlikely that the dominant

culture is willing to give up their dominance to equalize the “Other.”

Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes

Oprah (1992)

An Exercise in Prejudice If an hour's worth of propaganda can convince 300 audience members, what other lies might we fall prey to? That was Jane Elliott's point exactly.

A Sincere Apology Brown-eyed audience member: Jane Elliott spoke earlier about how we were supposed to be here learning a lesson today. I think the lesson I learned is, the girl who was with me has blue eyes and the minute we walked in the door this morning, I cut my losses. As soon as someone in power told me to unload her, I did, and I went right off and I didn't challenge anybody. It's the same thing that happened in Nazi Germany 50 years ago, and that's the lesson I learned today, and I apologize.

http://www.oprah.com/presents/2005/20anniv/oprah/oprah_moments_284_106.jhtml

Listen to the Stories

When they came for the Jews, I was not a Jew, so I did nothing…

When they came for the Homosexuals, I was not a Homosexual, so I did nothing…

When they came for the Gypsies, I was not a Gypsy, so I did nothing…

Finally, when they came for me, there was no one left to do anything. Lutheran Minister during the Holocaust

Do Something

Racism is Structural Racism – Culturally, not biologically, defined It is a Political concept, created as a category and comprised purely for differentiation. Racism was spawned as a social/political tool to separate and explain inequality. Racism contains/encompasses class.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAOZhuRb_Q8

YouTube - A Girl Like Me Featurette

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ybDa0gSuAcg&feature=relateds

YouTube - Black doll White doll

Parents cite racism in Lee's hometownBy Desiree Hunter

The Associated Press

Published Sunday, May 25, 2008Tuscaloosa Newswww.Tuscaloosanews.com

The structure has a firm hold.

Racism as HistoricalColonization Need for a working classCultural capital Not valuedBodies as Property/Violence of the Body Maintain servitude

Hyper-visible/Invisible No Social Value. No Escape both at the same time

Fanon wanted to be seen as a man and only a man, but “before I can even articulate myself, I am already defined by my skin.”

This hyper-visibility co-exists simultaneously with the invisibility of lacking voice and agency. A black man cannot hide because his skin betrays him, yet he is not seen because he has no power.

Does My Town Have a Racist Past? How students can convert the shameful history of sundown towns in America into a rich opportunity for setting the record straight.

By James W. Loewen author of The Lies My Teacher Told Me

Published Spring 2008Teaching Tolerance Illustration by Tonya Engel

www.Teachingtolerance.org

http://www.tolerance.org/teach/magazine/features.jsp?p=0&is=42&ar=891

Loewen offers a way to introduce (genealogy) study (research), and use the information as a learning tool.

Why Do We Persist? In the debriefing, Elliot asks one boy what made him treat the “others” so badly. He replied that he felt like a “King” and he had power and it felt good. This seems to illustrate Fanon’s concept of tension between the master/slave. A master cannot be a master without a slave. The slave gives power to the master.

Power is powerful. It feels good.

Power generates corruption (hate).

Mixed Messages Mimicry –

Here, take my culture. Be like us, but you will never BE us. And certainly, don’t try to rock the boat.

I want my voice to be heard and respected. Assimilation –

Act White – be like us, fit right inI am proud of my culture. I celebrate my Blackness. Colorblindness –

See, we all follow the same rules.“I want to be seen as a man.” But my Blackness

(Fanon), the scars in my skin (Spillers) cannot be hidden.

Classroom Simulations: Proceed With CautionBy Ingrid Drake

The Associated Press

Published Spring 2008Teaching Tolerance Illustrated by Chris Silas Neal

www.Teachingtolerance.org

http://www.tolerance.org/teach/magazine/features.jsp?p=0&is=42&ar=896

Even though Brown Eyes, Blue Eyes and other classroom social simulations are highly debated and criticized, we still need to KNOW what racism does to our society.

We cannot KNOW by merely being told.

We must experience in order to be empathetic.

We must be empathetic in order to make an effort to

make a change.

I believe a little change is better than none.

Changing Attitudes

Miss Jones’ Class List

Byron Allen 128Kyonte Billings 130Keisha Brown 125Xavier Holland 150Jimmy Johns 142Marsha Mays 133Olivia Smith 138 Etc., etc, etc…

Racial RealismI do not want to agree with Bell

In some ways, I understand the ideology behind Racial Realism. We all need to get real and live (survive) within our parameters, but there are two issues that cause me great angst:

1) ALL white people do not have ulterior motives (interest convergence). There are some white people who genuinely enjoy people of many different varieties and want to be allies in the quest for a better life.

2) There must be hope of something better. Hope and faith can help get you where you want to be.

Referencesand Resources

Jane Elliott Sample Video Clips

Eye of the Storm Clip: http://www.gsssi.com/server/es_sample.html

A Class Divided Clip: http://www.gsssi.com/server/cd_sample.html

Blue Eyed Clip: http://www.gsssi.com/server/be_sample.html

Angry Eye Clip 1: http://www.gsssi.com/server/ae_sample.html

Angry Eye Clip 2: http://www.gsssi.com/server/ae_sample2.html

The Stolen Eye Clip: http://www.gsssi.com/server/se_sample.html

Indecently Exposed Clip: http://www.gsssi.com/server/ie_sample.html

Eye Opener Clip: http://www.gsssi.com/server/eo_sample.html

Blue Eyed Experiment With Adults in Kansas (Teachers, Administrators, Police, Social Workers)

 Olhos Azuis - 01 --  9:00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwfUeMIGfdk Olhos Azuis 02  -- 9:36http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwfUeMIGfdk&feature=related Olhos Azuis 03  -- 8:46http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P6GcLu9h_Zw&feature=related Olhos Azuis 04  -- 8:35http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OMF29mCdPM&feature=related Olhos Azuis 05 -- 7:16http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvLqfrffIN8&feature=related Olhos Azuis 06 -- 7:21.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu0C8mjufmg&feature=related Olhos Azuis 07 -- 7:29 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ3U8wp9ncU&feature=related Olhos Azuis 08   -- 9:00http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmjk6vimwto&feature=related Olhos Azuis 09  -- 8:59http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ywUhVu3pKg&feature=related Olhos Azuis 10  -- 6:46 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSba16NE1h4&feature=related

Olhos Azuis 11  -- 5:21http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLgtEu2q0ec&feature=related Olhos Azuis 12  -- 2:05 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUaT1QWxRo8&feature=related)

Other Video Clips

About Brown Eyehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SvDJl_BLEnc&feature=related -- 7:18 A Girl Like MeGirls discuss the characteristics of being an African American girlhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17fEy0q6yqc&feature=related -- 7:15  **************************************************************************************  The Stanford Prison Experiment -- 1971What happens if you put good people in a bad place?1)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o0Nx31yicY&feature=related 9:592)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JCsgwcIil7I&feature=related 9:593)  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dU6r4mNZ8g0&feature=related 8:35

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivrjiQlewk8