What it is really like to be coloured

[happyliza]

Reality – Awareness of what it is really like to be coloured

I found this a powerful lesson in opening my eyes to what I, and many people, unwittingly maybe, take for granted. I think the same method can also be applied to ‘power’ in this world. Either way it is a good example of cognitive dissonance IMO


http://www.upworthy.com/i-never-thought-id-want-to-high-five-a-teacher-for-yelling-at-a-student-but-i-was-wrong

I know this is on the long-ish side, but I promise that there's a really valuable message here that makes it worth watching all the way through.

Jane Elliot is a teacher and diversity trainer who developed the "Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes" exercise to teach students what it feels like to be a person of color. This video begins pretty abruptly, where one of the students who's been singled out based on eye color is extremely frustrated.

At 2:46, Elliot explains why she keeps going even after she's made the point. At 3:35, she delivers an important message. And at 10:05, you may laugh a little, but I think you'll really get it.

Many years ago, I could have been the girl who walked out, not understanding how this feels to the people it affects. I'm glad that's no longer the case.

Laura Willard


A partial transcript from a very powerful portion of the video, beginning at 3:19:

Elliot: “No. You don’t come back in here until you’ve apologized to every person in this room because you just exercised a freedom that none of these people of color have. When these people of color get tired of racism, they can’t just walk out because there’s no place in this country where they aren’t going to be exposed to racism. They can’t even stay in their own homes and not be exposed to racism if they turn on their television. But you, as a white female, when you get tired of being judged and treated unfairly on the basis of your eye color, you can walk out that door, and you know it won’t happen out there. You exercised a freedom they don’t have. If you’re going to be in here, you’re going to apologize to every black person in this room. And do it now ... and every person of color.”

Student: “I’m sorry there’s racism in this country..."

Elliot: “Bullshit! No, you’re not going to say ‘I’m sorry there’s racism.’ You’re going to apologize for what you just did.”

Student: “I will not apologize because it’s not a matter of race always...”

Elliot: “Out.”


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pv8mCHbOrs
The Angry Eye – Part one
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neEVoFODQOE
The Angry Eye – Part two

 

[loreta]

This is a very interesting subject. I like the passion of this teacher.

It is very hard to be in the flesh of the other. Specially if the other is of another color. Many years ago I wanted to be black. I went to Africa and when I returned to "my civilization", I wanted to be able to feel how it is to be a black person. But I am a white person, how can this be felt? I read at that time the book Black Like Me by John Howard Griffin. And then the book of Frantz Fanon Black Skin, White Masks . I will never be black so there is a certain connaissance that will always be absent in me. But there is something I learned on that issue : I started to see racism more clearly, my vision was more acute. It was very uncomfortable to look at racism in a country that I tough was not racist. Because I had many African friends I was able to live racism in a "second position" through doctors, taxi drives, white friends, etc. So even if I think it is impossible to be in the flesh of a black person I think you can change and make a real change if you are able to see racism as it is.

And racism is not just an issue black/white. Racism is about power. And difference and the inability to accept what is different. Also it is very difficult to be in a flesh of a racist, for me. But racism exists, it is the tool of the psychopaths, of the PTB. So it is the most important subject that can be.

Thanks for sharing these videos.

 

[seek10]

It is a interesting video. Thank you for sharing happyliza. Though I think that ' lack of physical danger is not a danger' is a weak argument, the teacher has a strong point and was courageous. Nice example of Mirroring and splitting in action.

 

[Nawd]

I don't know. In school they did this same type of program. The blue eyed people like myself were made fun of for about 30 minutes. Coming from an abusive home....I cried. Not because of racism, but because of mental torture.

 

[loreta]

I don't know. In school they did this same type of program. The blue eyed people like myself were made fun of for about 30 minutes. Coming from an abusive home....I cried. Not because of racism, but because of mental torture.

The part of the video where the teacher is rude with the young white girl that finally cries is something that I don't understand. Is it the a good way to teach someone something? I don't think so. Because being rude with the white girl is acting like how black people are treated. So in fact the teacher is in Power, in this situation, to someone who maybe is not racist at all. It makes me think. Why humiliate someone to avail an idea? An idea that is good but you can use other tools, like giving the black people, in the class, a voice. Or playing roles.

 

[Vic]

The title of this thread bothers me. For me the term 'coloured' meaning non-white, is just about as racist and divisory as we can get. If I asked my 'Black' friends how they felt being 'coloured' I would probably receive a slap - or more likely they would reconsider our friendship, or at best feel incredibly disappointed in my ignorance.

It creates two poles - White and non-white. It sticks a whole load of colours into a separate bag. And who provides the bag? - whites (Western patriarchy)

This sort of 'education' in schools, I believe, serves the PTB/STS forces, beautifully. It reenforces difference in a negative way. For small white children who are happily and innocently interacting with their friends, some of whom happen to have differing non-white skin colours - but perhaps with the same coloured eyes, and still with the same skeleto-muscular structure - to have the 'differences' highlighted, and told to focus on them, introduces racism.

At the same time the non-white children are being told to focus on the suffering they are subjected to (whether or not they are actually suffering) and we can end up with self-fulfilling prophesies.

It all gives an overall message that difference is 'bad'

For me it is just one more way of programming the young to serve the STS agenda.

That's my take on it, FWIW.

Or am I being naive?

 

[Sinapi]

I first heard of Jane Elliott's work through A Class Divided (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D0qKDiq1fNw). I can see the value of her experiment when she first did it after MLK Jr died, but in today's time it seems like a tool to divide races further, and make people guilty for how their ancestors acted. It's like how you can't say anything offensive to some Jews or else you're branded as anti-semetic. By berating that girl, I don't think Elliott was helping to get her point across, and perhaps could have unconsciously made the girl hold resentments against "minorities" in response to how she was treated. I think it'd be more valuable to do the experiment with respect to Palestinians, as they're being treated much worse today than blacks in MLK Jr's time were.

On another note, what's interesting about A Class Divided is the later workshop with the jailers, and how accepting the brown-eyed people were of Elliott's characterizations of blue-eyed people as lazy and stupid. Perhaps this could also be used to identify authoritarian followers?

 

[happyliza]

Hi Everyone. Just to let you know that I wrote the word coloured rather than black to be more inclusive. IOW to include not just black people but anyone who is treated differently or undergo in their lives what Elliot was trying to portray here. I agree with the fact that she treated the girl too harshly as she also didn't wait to find out the underlying causes properly. Jumped on her too quickly and in a way scapegoated her.

But I still think it is the underlying message that is important.

I also have a feeling that this could become a thing of the past soon. If the psychopaths have their way then everyone will be treated as those who are with us or those who are not. In which case it will be a different divide altogether - one for survival most likely for those that are not 'with' them.IMO.