Jane Jennison ~ Slave Name: Jane Elliott ~ Scolds Undeserving Crackers About Their White Privilege 48 Seconds, by the way, in case your attention span isn't any better than mine! ;) Her declaration, regarding racially biased bad treatment: "I want to know why you're willing to accept it or allow it to happen for others." Strange question, isn't it? Looks like a room full of college students, that she's addressing. By what authority, I wonder, do they choose to allow it? Jane Elliott is a controversial figure because of what made her famous: The "exercise" that she imposed on her 3rd Graders, back in 1968, wherein her young, white students experienced, first hand, the travails of racial prejudice, by dint of the tint of their eyes, be they brown or be they blue: She has no regard for the status quo, and has aggressively, one might say violently, assaulted it. For that, she has earned my regard, as a genuine Revolutionary. I disagree with many aspects of her methodology, but this is a white woman who recognized, in 1968, more than 100 years after the Slaver Rebellion was crushed by our courageous Soldiers, in what has euphemistically been referred to as a Civil War, that many Black Americans were still living with a crippling burden of oppression...and that most White Americans were oblivious to the fact. She took aggressive, disruptive measures...and I applaud her. But like many Revolutionaries, she has perhaps outlived her usefulness, and is perhaps now doing more harm than good: "I want to know why you're willing to accept it or allow it to happen for others." All men and women of good will who believe, as I do, that there still exists residual pockets and traces of racism, much of it quite possibly of the subconscious kind, want to see action taken. And what does action mean? New Laws. As mundane a notion as that may appear to be, it is the Truth that this great nation is built upon. New Laws ended Slavery. New Laws broke the back of Racial Segregation. And New Laws are what we need, in order to run down and exterminate the last, loathsome vestiges of the formerly prevalent Racism that once infected our great nation's many institutions, and whose poisonous remnants still skitter around in the shadows. I will not abide poisonous parasites, who themselves propose nothing concrete, yet presume to scold others for their alleged lack of action, evidently regarding the scalding scolding itself to be their generous contribution to the cause! But all that that does is rob the young men and women of the initiative, making the cause in question all about her. After that speech, not one young man or young women, hitherto moved to action, could thence do so without the stigma of appearing to've been shamed into doing so by that horror of a woman. They therefore have all had their metaphorical legs cut out from under them, their thunder stolen, all because this lady cares about nothing more than the appearance of being a rabble rouser. All she is, is an attention hound, seeking the limelight and applause, shaming instead of inspiring, thus killing the very spirit that she purports to instill! I propose a blitz of our elected officials. Were I standing in front of a room full of students, I would try to arouse them to that kind of action. I would ask what they thought, and ask them if they had any ideas about how they might organize their collective efforts towards getting their Legislature's attention. I would try to get them to think. And I would ask them: How can I help? That is how you engage an audience, and perchance persuade them to action. That is how you inspire people. That, and not mayhem, is how we effect change in this great nation. Scolding them? That...is what a parasite does.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Archives
January 2021
Categories
All
|