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Lots of stuff including Art

Lots of stuff including Art
Newport lad from Crindau, and Ceredigion resident for 27 years: former firefighter Roger Bennett

1 April 2013

Jane Elliott

Social Media websites can be full of crap. There certainly seems to be an increase in spamming and re-posting of pointless statements and images. You know the kind of thing; "click 'like' if you can see the word"or "how many faces can you see?" And so on and of forth.

Indeed, much if not most of the re-posting is pretty pointless. I can handle pointless and stupid, but I can't help reacting to the gravely offensive. The one that I picked up on today emanated from across The Pond. It's geographical origins is relevant to this Blog post as the study that disproves the theory also originated from the United States. Cast your mind back to 1968 and the assassination of Dr Martin Luther King Jr. Following the murder of Dr king Jr; Ms. Jane Elliott a teacher in all white and all Christian school located in Riceville, Iowa; taught her charges about discrimination using nothing more than eye colour and a reliance on the inherent bigotry and separation views of people and groups.

The lessons which the astute Ms. Elliott recorded for prosperity were an attempt to help the children understand the irrelevance of superficial racial differences and thereby assist the children to understand the then swelling equal rights movement. The thrust of the lessons was to suggest that people with certain eye colours are different from people with other eye colours. Of course we know that is untrue, but how else do you differentiate in an all Christian and all white group when trying to show differences that simply aren't there? It is easy to recognise the kind of suggestions that could be made to the children. It could be suggested that people with blue eyes are unreliable and arrive late. This could be supported by reference to someone who has blue eyes and meets the stated criteria, thereafter all blue eyed children in the class are tarnished by the same statement. You could say something about green eyed people and then suggest that they need to eat less food, thereafter depriving them of a certain treat. Or, keep the brown eyed children in-doors during playtime. The sad part being that any statement can be turned on its head, and whichever way the wind blows, the children as a group follow. Now this isn't a scientific nor detailed explanation of something which a lovely lady has spent her life studying, understanding, and teaching. But it should be enough data for you to understand the thrust of the subject.

So when someone re-posts a "blue eyed people are lovely" statement on a social media website, you can now understand why the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. No they are not, blue eyed people simply have blue eyes. Some are lovely, and some are little horrors. Others are both lovely and have moments of trouble. Some are hateful and some are caring. You see folks; we are all blue eyed, green eyed, brown eyed, whatever colour eyed people, and all of those colours don't bring about any distinction or differences whatsoever. If you don't believe me, then pop across The Pond and ask Ms. Elliott.
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