One Race: The Human Race with Dr. Jane Elliott

Produced by KSQD 90.7FM ~ "Be Bold America!" on July 18, 2021

Fiery and passionate, 87 year old Dr. Jane Elliott can’t be more direct or blunt about race.

The assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King on April 4, 1968 was the catalyst for a young elementary school teacher in Riceville, Iowa to want to teach her class the next day about diversity. The lesson plan she created to do so became known as the “Blue eyes/Brown eyes” exercise.

The results were startling and astounding and rippled throughout the country, including hateful negative reactions from parents such as, "How dare you try this cruel experiment out on white children? Black children grow up accustomed to such behavior, but white children, there's no way they could possibly understand it. It's cruel to white children and will cause them great psychological damage."

Sound familiar? This very same argument is being made today as the university-level concept of “Critical Race Theory” is exploited to remove discussion and lesson plans about race from many elementary and high school curriculums.

Today, the fiery 87-year-old Dr. Elliott has plenty to say about racism in America. Jane’s life has been dedicated, and she is extremely impatient about it, to exposing prejudice and bigotry for what it is, an irrational class system based upon purely arbitrary factors. And, as she says, “if you think this does not apply to you … you are in for a rude awakening.”

Interview Guest:

Dr. Jane Elliott is an internationally known teacher, lecturer, and diversity trainer. Dr. Elliott’s elementary school class “Blue Eye & Brown Eye Exercise” in 1968 had shocking and controversial results. So much so that in 1970, ABC created a documentary, Eye of the Storm, to explain it. Then, in 1985, Frontline created a documentary, A Class Divided, that included a reunion of the schoolchildren featured in Eye of the Storm, for which Dr. Elliott received The Hillman Prize. A televised edition of the exercise was shown on October 29, 2009, entitled The Event: How Racist Are You? Dr. Elliott was also featured by Peter Jennings on ABC as “Person of the Week” on April 24, 1992. Dr. Elliott is listed on the timeline of 30 notable educators by textbook editor McGraw-Hill along with Confucius, Plato, Booker T. Washington and Maria Montessori. She appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show five times and was on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson.  Learn more at: janeelliott.com.