We learn to be racist, therefore we can learn not to be racist. Racism is not genetical. It has everything to do with power.
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.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote critiques racial ignorance and the freedom that comes with it, particularly among white individuals in America.
Jane Elliott's quote highlights the privileges associated with being white in the United States, emphasizing that this often leads to a deliberate ignorance regarding the experiences and knowledge of people from different racial backgrounds. She argues that this ignorance is a form of freedom that allows white individuals to disengage from learning about others, which ultimately contributes to societal inequalities and a lack of understanding across racial lines.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in discussions about racial equality in educational settings.
More from Jane Elliott
All quotes →We dont know anything about racism. Weve 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?
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.
This country isn't a melting pot. Think of this country as a stir fry. That's what this country should be. A place where people are appreciated for who they are.
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What you don't understand is that it is possible to be an atheist, it is possible not to know if God exists or why He should, and yet to believe that man does not live in a state of nature but in history, and that history as we know it now began with Christ, it was founded by Him on the Gospels.
Where no bondage is, there is no cause and effect.
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It is not to be forgotten that what we call rational grounds for our beliefs are often extremely irrational attempts to justify our instincts.