40 Quotes by Jane Elliott


  • Author Jane Elliott
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    When you say to a person of colour, '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.'

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  • Author Jane Elliott
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    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.

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  • Author Jane Elliott
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    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.

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  • Author Jane Elliott
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    Should the color of some other person's eyes have anything to do with how you treat them?

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  • Author Jane Elliott
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    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.

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  • Author Jane Elliott
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    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?

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