Reducing Prejudice

9:41 minutes

ABC News

This clip shows a hidden camera experiment from the ABC News program What Would You Do? with John Quiñones. Social psychologist John Dovidio analyzes bystander reactions to scripted anti-Muslim comments made by a clerk in a Texas roadside bakery. In the end, the video reports that 13 bystanders protested, 6 sided with the clerk, and 22 remained silent.

7:50 minutes

ABC News

This segment of What Would You Do? explores bystander reactions to racial discrimination when a Black woman appears to be trailed and harassed by employees at an upscale boutique in SoHo, New York City. During the filming, nearly 100 people witness the staged discrimination, yet fewer than 20 intervene.

3:00 minutes

Jay Smooth

Jay Smooth, founder of the hip-hop radio show Underground Railroad, offers advice on responding to racism. "The most important thing," he says, is to "remember the difference between the 'what they did' conversation and the 'what they are' conversation." He describes the first conversation as useful and the second as "a rhetorical Bermuda Triangle where everything drowns in a sea of empty posturing."

1:33 minutes

Women's Media Center

In this video, feminist author Gloria Steinem challenges viewers to try an experiment: commit one act per day for simple justice and see what happens. The act might be as brief as speaking out when witnessing an injustice, or as large as running for office. "I don't care what it is; only you know what it should be," says Steinem, but "I hope that everybody watching... will do at least one outrageous thing tomorrow, and the next day, and the next."

7:10 minutes

CNN

In this CNN interview, Arkansas 5th grader Will Phillips explains why he refused to recite the pledge of allegiance at school: "I looked at the end [of the pledge], and it said 'with liberty and justice for all,' and there really isn't liberty and justice for all... Gays and lesbians can't marry. There's still a lot of racism and sexism."

2:01 minutes

DIRT! The Movie

In this clip from DIRT! The Movie, Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangara Maathai tells the story of a hummingbird who, drop by drop, works to extinguish a huge forest fire. When other animals claim that the bird too small to make a difference, the hummingbird responds, "I am doing the best I can!" Maathai, who has fought deforestation effectively herself in Kenya by planting trees seed by seed, calls on viewers to be hummingbirds even when they feel insignificant or overwhelmed.