May 2025 (Birthday) Edition

🎉Happy Birthday Sankofa Newsletter!🎉

Thank You for the Support!

(6 Years Old This Month)

Culture, History, & News

Anti-Racism Educator

Jane Elliot is an anti-racism activist and educator who unexpectedly rose to fame after she conducted a “Blue eyes-Brown eyes” exercise on her third-grade students in the 1960s. It was the day after the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and she wanted to evaluate her students understanding of racism and discrimination. Her exercise showed that the children began to discriminate based on eye color as to who was inferior and superior in the classroom. Once known by the public, the exercise received both positive and negative reviews. To date, Ms. Elliot has spent forty years teaching anti-racism accountability to various audiences. She has a particular skill at confronting other White people about the system of white supremacy (also known as racism).

It is important to provide a definition and according to PBS Learning Media Lesson Plan: “…white supremacy refers to an entire system designed to maintain white economic, legal, political, and social privilege…”¹ Essentially, it is a system of oppression that allows preferential treatment of a dominant power group over other groups in a society, based on caste-like beliefs related to skin color. Those with the same skin color of the dominant power group are automatically the beneficiaries of cultural capital. However, this association to the dominant power group does not make these individuals immune from personal hardships in the system of racism, nor does it mean they all will engage in acts of racial discrimination. Although, it is recognized others will.

Mrs. Elliot’s anti-racism method provokes accountability in the system of racism. It gives privy to include White-on-White conversations about racism, that may otherwise be concealed in mixed company.

Reference

( 1 ) PBS Learning Media Lesson: Understanding White Supremacy

https://thinktv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/iml04.soc.ush.civil.lp_whsup/understanding-white-supremacy/.

*Notice: Repost article from the June 2020 Edition.

💖For Additional Reading

PBS Frontline Introduction: Jane Elliot  A Class Divided 

Introduction

Art/Film/Literature News

G20

U.S. President Danielle Sutton (Academy Award Winner Viola Davis) attends the Group of 20 Nations Summit (G20) for heads of state in South Africa. She faces off with terrorists in the action packed Amazon Prime film: G20 (running time 1 hour 50 minutes, 2025). This film has a very entertaining storyline and raises some important questions about the power of artificial intelligence (A.I.) and cryptocurrency. I really enjoyed the performance of Derek Sutton (Anthony Anderson) as a father and the U.S. First Gentleman. The actors who played the South African intelligence officers also had good performances. The real G20 Summit is scheduled for November 22nd, 2025 in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Business/Non-Profit/Inspirational News

Hello Spring

The spring season is here! It’s a great time to get fresh ideas for recipes, decor, gardening, and book recommendations. Below are videos from YouTubers I enjoy watching to inspire you! Happy Spring!

Book Review

Need to Know

Vivian is a wife and mother of four children who works as a CIA counterintelligence analyst. She has developed an algorithm to help discover a Russian sleeper cell inside the United States. As she gets closer to the identity of these deep cover Russian spies, her own life and family become targets in the book: Need to Know by Karen Cleveland (304 pages, 2018).

The book has good writing and pacing which allows the reader to easily engage with the storyline. The characters are believable in their actions and the exploration of their “vulnerabilities” are well played out. It’s my first time to read this author (who is actually a former CIA analyst) but it will not be the last. A very good read!

🌷Book Quotes:

“The Russians weren’t lucky. They were thorough.”

“God, it all comes down to money.”

“It’s the sleeper cell. I think I’m close to breaking in.”

News Videos (8)