43 Jane Elliott Quotes From the Great Educator

Jane Elliott is an American diversity trainer, teacher, and lecturer.

She was awarded the National Mental Health Association Award for Excellence in Education. Elliott was even invited to experiment on adults at the White House Conference On Youth And Children.

Elliott did an experiment on her third-grade students about racial discrimination, which was very effective. Jane advocates for racial justice and her works enlighten on how systematic racism thrives in our culture.

Elliott is recognized for her 'Blue Eyes and Brown Eyes' exercise, which she conducted for her students after Martin Luther King Jr's assassination. Jane Elliott is an inspirational personality.

Here is a compilation of her quotes where she talks about points like, 'education is about maintaining the status quo, this country doesn't need a melting pot.' She even talked about her personal experiences, like how she loved raising her kids irrespective of the growth charts.

Jane Elliott Quotes on Education

Here are some quotes on education by anti-racism educator Jane Elliott.

“Should the color of some other person’s eyes have anything to do with how you treat them?” 

“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?” 

“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?”

“…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.” 

“…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.”

“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.” 

“First, you have to require that teachers learn what they haven’t about history.”

“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.” 

"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."

“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.” 

“Racism is only, as we practice it, about 500 years old. We could destroy it if we chose to. But that would take education.” 

“Education in this country is about how to maintain the status quo and to perpetuate racism.”

“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.”

“Black Lives Matter movement is the most important thing to have happened on this continent since Martin Luther King Jr.”

"Racism is a learned affliction and anything that is learned can be unlearned."

“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.”

“People who are racist aren’t stupid. They’re ignorant, and the answer to ignorance is education.”

Eye Opening and Encouraging Jane Elliott Quotes

Here are some eye-opening Jane Elliott quotes that will push you to take action.

“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.'”

“Somebody has to wear the black hat and give the audience someone to shake their fists at. They want someone to hate, and if that’s what you want to pay me to do, I’m happy to do it!”

“Age is how we determine how valuable you are.” 

“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.” 

“When is this racism—when is this situation—going to end for people of color in this country? 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?” 

“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.” 

“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.”

“I don’t wanna go to my grave knowing that we didn’t make a difference.”

“I watched brilliant little blue-eyed white Christian children become timid and frightened, and angry, and unable to learn.” 

“To sit back and do nothing is to cooperate with the oppressor.”

“What did you people who are wearing blue collars now find out today?”

“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.” 

Inspirational Jane Elliott Quotes

Some of the inspiring quotes by the renowned educator.

“Talking won’t do it. Talk is cheap. Change requires action.”

“Nothing thrills me more than to be good at something. It’s very rewarding, and I feel grateful and blessed, and I never take it for granted.”

“Submitting myself for awards feels like a weird kind of horn-blowing that’s not comfortable for me. I’m really happy when someone likes my work, but I don’t like marketing myself, putting myself on display.”

“Nobody's born a bigot, You have to learn bigotry. Bigotry is a learned response.”

"I’m not curing cancer or running a small county. I haven’t developed a greener car. I just play-act. And if I can bring people a moment of fun and relief in their lives, well, that’s the win."

Famous Jane Elliott Quotes

Jane Elliott's personal life quotes are very famous and inspirational.

"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, and pediatrician appointments. I loved all of it."

“If I can bring people a moment of fun and relief in their lives, well, that’s the win.”

“If you have been a slave all your life, used to being ordered about and abused from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep, it’s impossible to adjust to normal life overnight. I had never been free to make my own decisions before and had no idea how to do it.

I was like a bird that has been bred in captivity suddenly being released into the wild: I fell apart.”

– 'The Little Prisoner: A Memoir'.

"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."

"My guilty pleasure is 'Revenge'. I’ve watched it from the very first episode."

"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!"

"I love playing smart and tough and having funny lines."

“I don’t tweet or do any other social media, so I don’t know what’s being said out there.”

"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."