Anti-Racism Activist Jane Elliott: "Things Are Worse Now Than They Were Then"

For over 52 years, educator Jane Elliott has been talking about the problem of racism in America. Ever since the morning after Martin Luther King Jr. was shot and killed in Memphis, Tennessee, Elliott has conducted her “Brown-eye/Blue-eye” exercise, in which she separates a room of people based on their eye color, treating the brown-eyed people better than the others. Elliott’s exercise, which began in her third-grade classroom on April 5 1968, has been praised by many, including Oprah, who had her on her show in 1992, and the rapper, Killer Mike, who recently said Elliott’s work was required homework for all of white America.

On June 13th, one day after “Loving Day,” or the day commemorating the U.S. Supreme Court decision that officially dubbed interracial marriage legal, my fiancée, Eva Walker, and I talked with Elliott over the phone. I’d been slated to speak with Elliott for a week, or so, but once our conversation was nearing its conclusion, it seemed best to ask if Eva would join the call. Eva, who is Black (I am white) and born in Seattle, Washington, has known of Elliott’s work for over a decade and considers her a hero.