I’d love to see the show that this article details. All whites are racist!? I have a hard time buying that. Prejudiced or biased, maybe. I think all people are no matter the color. Anyway, it upsets me greatly that the black father of the mixed-race girl doesn’t want to expose her “secret.” Um…. how is she supposed to form a positive, all-encompassing identity if her black father is hiding from her white friends? I wonder if this will be on BBC America.
TEACHER: ‘ALL WHITES ARE RACIST’
29th October 2009 by Peter Dyke
A Bombshell new television show will tonight claim that all white people are racist.
An American schoolteacher and anti-race campaigner will conduct an experiment for Channel 4 to prove how prejudiced Britain is.
Jane Elliott, 76, whose nickname is The Bitch, travelled to the UK for the test.
Part of the show features former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher made up as a black person and US President Barack Obama as a Chinese.
Elliott is given a group of 30 volunteers, of mixed age and race, and splits them into two teams based on their eye colour.
Those with brown eyes are treated well, but those with blue eyes are ridiculed, humiliated and insulted.
Her aim is to create a mock “apartheid regime” to make the blue eyed people experience prejudice, discrimination and racism.
However at the end of the experiment, set in an old warehouse and lasting several hours, the white and black volunteers end up in a bitter row.
Some even walk out. Many of the white volunteers claim that black people do not have the monopoly on discrimination.
A middle aged white woman says: “They think racism is just for black people. I’ve had comments made about me because I’m blonde and white.”
However one dad, who is black, reveals how he never picks his daughter up from school because her mum is white and he doesn’t want anyone to know she is mixed race in case she is taunted.
At the end of the experiment, Elliott claims the white volunteers have shown their true colours.
She tells the C4 documentary tonight at 10pm: “White people should feel guilty about their behaviour.
“You don’t do things because you’re white, you do things because you’re ignorant.
“We are conditioned to the method of white superiority from the moment of birth.”
mulatto diaries 
I remember having a conversation with a 76 yr old white woman. She told me how she was in a store standing behind a black man in line. The man was short a couple of pennies and the white man behind the counter let him slide. He was polite and smiling while doing this. When the black guy walked out, the white man mumbled, “psh, niggers!.”
So the white woman was just horrified and she’s a tough and feisty little lady-I love her to death. She goes, “what makes you think that you could just say something like that in my presence and I not get offended?” He was looking embarrassed…
So I don’t feel that ALL white people are racists…and yes we all are biased and tend to prejudge. That’s also what we have been conditioned to do. However, there are not enough white people like Mrs. Steingold who is brave enough to stand up and speak out. When doing this, you let racists people know that this is unacceptable. There is so much to be done, but this also could help stop racism.
Apologize for interjecting…but you can actually watch parts of the original Elliot experiment in a documentary at the link below. This is from a post I made over 3 years ago.
http://mirroronamerica.blogspot.com/2006/03/new-pbs-documentary-class-divided.html
Here’s another on racism that I posted just recently. It’s about a study (a flawed study) that takes the extreme opposite view…suggesting that racism has nothing to do with opposition to Obama. Of course I said that it was nonsense.
http://mirroronamerica.blogspot.com/2009/10/why-democracy-corps-study-on-race.html
I understood Elliot’s original experiment…. but I am not sure what she was trying to prove with this latest project. A big difference is that one group consisted of children from the turbulent 60’s….and another group consists of adults. Results are bound to be skewed and different. Adults have had time to experience a wider variety of events and have been exposed to a larger variety of people….and have formed all sorts of perceptions and points of view. So this was bound to be problematic.
The original experiment was more authentic IMO, because children are more sheltered and innocent when it comes to race/prejudice (even in 1968). They are more likely to tell you how they are feeling….and less likely to successfully game the researchers or to challenge what is happening…. for one…kids don’t have the skills to be able to do that yet. Adults are a different story.
Anyway, thoughtful post.
thank you for interjecting! it’s nice to hear from you again after… well… you know.
Tami…that is sooo true. Thanks for sharing. 🙂
The problem is that most people don’t want to talk about it. They would rather skirt around the issue.
My father-in-law was born in 1936 in the Deep South. He is a white man. I would never accuse him of being racist, but he does have some hangups about race that are simply part of growing up in America. He is a product of his environment and of his time.
My mother-in-law was also born in 1936 in the Deep South. She is a white woman with some Native American ancestry. She is not racist either, except she is very intolerant toward people who are not Christians or Republicans. She cannot stand Obama…I’m not sure if it is because of his political views or because of his heritage. They were both missionaries in Brazil during the 60’s-70’s but they still had some very questionable views about race and white privilege.
I happen to be biracial and I’m atheist. I’m sure that I don’t quite fit the image of the “ideal” daughter-in-law, but his family accepts me and they have always made me feel welcome. Holidays are always cool. 🙂
My MIL constantly goes on about Christian stuff and how we should attend church. I simply nod and smile, because I respect her too much to tell her how I feel. I’m fine with other people practicing their own faiths but I have my own spiritual beliefs and I have no interest in joining a church. Religion, like racial identity, is something very personal. People need to find what works in their lives and not try to convert everyone else who feels differently.
I avoid discussions of religion and politics with them because those are always sensitive subjects anyway. But I’m not shy when it comes to conversations about race with them, particularly because I don’t want anyone saying something ugly in my presence without being called on it.