The following link is to Frontline's, "A Class Divided." In 1968 after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Jane Elliott segregated her Riceville, Iowa third grade class for two days, based on eye color. Elliott ran the exercise each year from then on and the classroom footage available at the link is from 1971. With her brown eyes/blue eyes program Mrs. Elliott began a social exercise that has been recognized widely and untrained individuals should not attempt to duplicate it.
While Mrs. Elliott's focus was on race relations primarily, there also exists discrimination based on class, gender, gender preference, age, religion and political affiliation among others. Chances are that we've all been victims of discrimination at some point, and purveyors of it as well. Of particular note are the sequences filmed with adults in a New York correctional facility where Mrs. Elliott masterfully marginalizes those who are being discriminated against. In my view this marginalization speaks to the role leaders have in our society, especially those in positions of political power. Leaders of all types often have the capacity to influence the behavior and opinions of their allies, subordinates and followers towards others not in their fold so to speak. With that said, everyone could learn a lesson from Mrs. Elliott.
For instance, if someone puts forth a critical analysis regarding municipal spending that doesn't make one anti-government or anti-administration as some would opine. If one argues about the details of affordable housing funding that doesn't make one anti-affordable housing. If one profers an opinion that development plans could be better it doesn't follow that one is anti-planning or anti-development. If one disagrees with Northampton's proposed business improvement district that doesn't by definition make one anti-business. For that matter if one supports Northampton's panhandling ordinance it doesn't necessarily follow that she is anti-poor people. If one opposes the military conflicts the U.S. is participating in, that doesn't make one anti-American.
In other words, many folks apply labels and generally attempt to categorize and marginalize those that are percieved to be in the opposition. Conservatives do it, liberals do it and moderates do it. Moreover I argue that whoever has the easiest access to informaton dissemination has an advantage in this game. Thus the proliferation of the use of the internet as a communication device and with it the corresponding growth in citizen journalism have together forged a wedge that empowers the ordinary citizen while serving as a check on the four estates of government, those being its legislative, judicial and executive branches along with the mainstream commercialized media. For what it's worth I think that president-elect Obama did well to tap into this vehicle of change that is the internet while mining it for votes and perpetuating the technical transformation of our society, hopefully for the better.
Perhaps Mrs. Elliott could be categorized as an anti-racist but I speculate that that's one, "anti" label that she is proud to adorn.
