What Would You Do?

Today's lecture on prejudice and discrimination made me think a lot about what goes on around us everyday that we may not notice. If someone says a derogatory comment, do we immediately call them out as being prejudiced? I would think for most of the population the answer would be no, although there would certainly be those that would stand up to such a person. When asked about a character on TV that conformed to the stereotypes of a certain ethnic group, I couldn't think of anyone. The only person I could think of was perhaps The Big Bang Theory, with Howard Wolowitz being the stereotypical Jewish man who is babied by his mother and still lives with her. A reason I could not think of such a character off the top of my head, was that I watch more reality TV. A show that I always try to watch is What Would You Do? and ABC show that sets up scenarios in which certain injustices or something illegal is happening. The hidden cameras show how people react, why they react, and when they decide to act. The show often shows that people will react differently if the actors in the scenario are of a different, race, age, and gender. I like the show because it goes through the different kinds of discrimination and prejudice that exist in the world. If only everyone could be able to review their behavior like this. Here is a couple of clips from the show:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ovWSAfu0AQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_cxjQ3Jt1G4

You can watch more clips at http://abcnews.go.com/WhatWouldYouDo/

I highly recommend this show. It really does help you to understand what goes through people's mind when encountering discrimination.

Staci Becker- Post 4