share

51 Jane Elliot Quotes About Activism

Jane Elliott Quotes – Jane Elliott is a diversity educator of America. She taught her students in a school. She is very famous in her school for Blue eyes. In 1968 she conducted her third grade class for the first time where she was responsible for the blue eyes experiment.

In 1970 the classroom exercise was filmed. This film is a documentary with the name The Eye of the Storm. In 1970 the Frontline of PBS series featured the reunion of the class.

In 1985 an episode was released with the name of A Class Divided. In this episode, they show the work of Elliott with adults and with students. This opportunity gives Jane Elliott to give up her school teaching.

After this, she becomes a public speaker against discrimination. She inspires others. Jane Elliott has a strong impact on the life of others with her strong words. For inspiring you we are compiling some famous Jane Elliott Quotes.

Most Famous Jane Elliot Quotes

  1. Jane Elliott Quotes
  2. “Should the color of some other person’s eyes have anything to do with how you treat them?” — Jane Elliot
  3. “We don’t know anything about racism. We’ve never experienced it. If words can make a difference in your life for seven minutes, how would it affect you if you heard this every day of your life?” — Jane Elliot 
  4. “What did you people who are wearing blue collars now find out today?” — Jane Elliot
  5. “450,000 Iraqi children have died from starvation and lack of medicine as a result of our embargo. If you believe God loves little children – and hundreds of thousands more Iraqi children will die if there is war – you have to believe that God will judge us very harshly for this.” — Jane Elliot
  6. “You convince those who are analogous to the brown-eyed people that they are superior, that they are perfect, that they have the right to rule. And you convince those who take the place of the blue-eyed students that they are less than. If you do that for a lifetime, what do you suppose that does to them?” — Jane Elliot
  7. “…It’s time to insist that educators recognize the myth, teach about the myth, but teach the truth, that there’s only one race: it’s the human race.” — Jane Elliot
  8. “Nobody’s born a bigot, you have to learn bigotry. Bigotry is a learned response.” — Jane Elliot
  9. “I don’t wanna go to my grave knowing that we didn’t make a difference.” — Jane Elliot
  10. “To sit back and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor.” — Jane Elliot
  11. “I am absolutely opposed to political correctness. You cannot confront hate speech until you’ve experienced it. You need to hear every side of the issue instead of just one.” — Jane Elliot
  12. “I loved raising my kids. I loved the process, the dirt of it, the tears of it, the frustration of it, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, growth charts, pediatrician appointments. I loved all of it.” — Jane Elliot
  13. “I’m a practicing Christian – and I’m going to keep practicing till I get it right – but I don’t feel everyone has to practice the same religion that I do. You have a right to worship who you choose and how you choose to.” — Jane Elliot
  14. “About 10,000 years ago, males and females were acting equitably and were treating one another as equals, and then males took over the power because they have physical power and physical strength.” — Jane Elliot
  15. “We don’t need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in different things. You want the vegetables — the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers — to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.” — Jane Elliot
  16. “We are still conditioning people in this country and, indeed, all over the globe to the myth of white superiority. We are constantly being told that we don’t have racism in this country anymore, but most of the people who are saying that are white. White people think it isn’t happening because it isn’t happening to them.” — Jane Elliot
  17. “White people’s number one freedom, in the United States of America, is the freedom to be totally ignorant of those who are other than white. We don’t have to learn about those who are other than white. And our number two freedom is the freedom to deny that we’re ignorant.” — Jane Elliot
  18. “White people in this country are tweaked. We are raised to believe a myth of White superiority. Malcolm X, in The Autobiography of Malcolm X, said that White people’s “belief that they are ‘superior’ in some way is so deeply rooted that these things are in the national White subconscious.” — Jane Elliot
  19. “This country isn’t a melting pot. Think of this country as a stir fry. That’s what this country should be. A place where people are appreciated for who they are.” — Jane Elliot

  20. Jane Elliott Quotes
  21. “And people who say, ‘We aren’t all racists.’ If you graduated from high school in the United States of America and you didn’t learn how to be a racist you need to take the whole program over again, because that’s what the program is: how to be a good American.” — Jane Elliot
  22. “They need to realize that one of the things, one of the driving forces in this election was the knowledge people have that within 30 years white people will have lost their numerical majority in the United States of America.” — Jane Elliot
  23. “When is this racism — when is this situation going to end for people of color in this country,” she asked, frustration heavy in her voice. “And when is anti-Semitism going to end for people who are of the Jewish faith in this country? And when is hatred of Muslims going to end for people who are Muslim in this country?” — Jane Elliot
  24. “No white group has founded a major religion on this planet. The major religions were started in the Orient and the Middle East, not in Greece and Rome. I always knew you racists didn’t have a prayer.” — Jane Elliot
  25. “We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power.” — Jane Elliot
  26. “When you say to a person of color, ‘When I see you, I don’t see you Black; I just see everybody the same’ think about that. You don’t have the right to say to a person, ‘I do not see you as you are; I want to see you as I would be more comfortable seeing you.” — Jane Elliot
  27. “You are not born racist. You are born into a racist society. And like anything else, if you can learn it, you can unlearn it. But some people choose not to unlearn it, because they’re afraid they’ll lose power if they share with other people. We are afraid of sharing power. That’s what it’s all about.” — Jane Elliot
  28. “Education in this country is about how to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate racism.” — Jane Elliot
  29. “Racism is a learned affliction, and anything that is learned can be unlearned.” — Jane Elliot
  30. “People who are racist aren’t stupid, they’re ignorant. And the answer to ignorance is education.” — Jane Elliot
  31. “Racism is only, as we practice it, about 500 years old. We could destroy it, if we chose to. But that would take education.” — Jane Elliot
  32. “I watched my students become what I told them they were; I watched little wonderful brown-eyed white people become vicious, ugly, nasty, discriminating, domineering people in the space of 15 minutes.” — Jane Elliot
  33. “I watched brilliant little blue-eyed white Christian children become timid and frightened, and angry and unable to learn.” — Jane Elliot
  34. “And people who say, ‘We aren’t all racists.’ If you graduated from high school in the United States of America and you didn’t learn how to be a racist you need to take the whole program over again, because that’s what the program is: how to be a good American.” — Jane Elliot
  35. “This is the most Hitlerian administration I’ve ever seen. This man is talking about racial cleansing.” — Jane Elliot
  36. “Black Lives Matter movement is the most important thing to have happened on this continent since Martin Luther King Jr.” — Jane Elliot
  37. “We have to start seeing [all] people as our relatives. You are a member of my family; I will not allow you to be abused because of somebody else’s ignorance about the color of your skin.” — Jane Elliot

  38. Jane Elliott Quotes
  39. “Age is how we determine how valuable you are.”— Jane Elliot 
  40. “We don’t need a melting pot in this country, folks. We need a salad bowl. In a salad bowl, you put in the different things. You want the vegetables — the lettuce, the cucumbers, the onions, the green peppers — to maintain their identity. You appreciate differences.”— Jane Elliot 
  41. “No white group has founded a major religion on this planet. The major religious were started in the Orient and the Middle East, not in Greece and Rome. I always knew you racists didn’t have a prayer.”— Jane Elliot 
  42. “I’ve got news for you: There are going to be people other than Christians in the hereafter. What are you going to do about it? Are you not going to go?”— Jane Elliot 
  43. “I think I’m the only 65-year-old actress in Los Angeles who hasn’t had plastic surgery, so somebody’s gotta play the old-lady parts!”— Jane Elliot 
  44. “I loved raising my kids. I loved the process, the dirt of it, the tears of it, the frustration of it, Christmas, Easter, birthdays, growth charts, pediatrician appointments. I loved all of it.”— Jane Elliot 
  45. “I don’t have a Twitter account. I don’t go to fan club gatherings. I’m not one of those actors who spends a lot of time engaging with the audience.”— Jane Elliot 
  46. “I’m a practicing Christian – and I’m going to keep practicing till I get it right – but I don’t feel everyone has to practice the same religion that I do. You have a right to worship who you choose and how you choose to.”— Jane Elliot 
  47. “About 10,000 years ago, males and females were acting equitably and were treating one another as equals, and then males took over the power, because they have physical power and physical strength.”— Jane Elliot 
  48. “The flowers of the forest are a’ wide awae.”— Jane Elliot 
  49. “I am absolutely opposed to political correctness. You cannot confront hate speech until you’ve experienced it. You need to hear every side of the issue instead of just one.”— Jane Elliot 
  50. “450,000 Iraqi children have died from starvation and lack of medicine as a result of our embargo. If you believe God loves little children – and hundreds of thousands more Iraqi children will die if there is war – you have to believe that God will judge us very harshly for this.”— Jane Elliot 

  51. Jane Elliott Quotes

Jane Elliot is a teacher as well as a lecturer. She carried out an experiment for the Blue-Eyed and Brown Eyed. In this experiment, Elliot divides the students into two groups. One group of blue-eyed students and the other of brown-eyed students.

On the first day of the experiment, superiority was given to the brown-eyed students. They received extra privileges. These extra privileges include more playtime, have seats in front of the class, and have more lunch.

“Racism is a learned affliction and anything that is learned can be unlearned”— Jane Elliot 

In just a few days the children who are given superiority become arrogant and rude. This experiment had a strong impact on the students and also on Jane Elliot. After this, she raised her voice for racial intolerance.

She changes the point of view of people with her thoughts. By reading the quotes of Jane Elliott you might see things from a different point of view. And might get the motivation to change the things around you.