What would you do?

As part of my desire to make the world a better place I enjoy spending time finding others that are committed to the same things that I am. I love hearing and in some cases seeing their stories. Being able to imagine and sometimes actually see the impact that they have on others is pretty amazing.

Awhile back a friend sent me a link to Upworthy.com which is a website that is full of tons and tons of inspirational videos. I lost a couple of hours today going from video to video, alternatively laughing, crying and simply awed at different points, due to the many different real life stories people shared.

This one video showed how even the most open minded and fair among us still tend to be racially and even sexually prejudiced and biased. There was a young white man next to a bicycle that had been locked to a post. This man was wearing a t-shirt and jeans and wearing his ball cap backwards. He had all these different tools like a saw, and bolt cutters and things of that nature. He was very obviously attempting to cut the lock.

Dozens of people passed him and many asked if the bicycle was his. Every time someone asked he said that it was not. But hardly anybody did anything to discourage him from stealing it. He was cutting the lock off a bike in broad daylight and admitting to the theft and people were just walking on by as if nothing was wrong.

After this example another one was shown where the set up was exactly the same, except for one small detail. This man was black. He was dressed the same and had all the same tools with him. In mere minutes people were swarming around him to keep him from stealing the bicycle. Whereas before with the white man, nobody seemed to care, now nearly every person that saw what was going on wanted to put a stop to it. Several even called the police.

A third example was then shown where this time the potential thief was a young white woman. Did people ignore her criminal actions like they did with the white man? Did they attempt to stop her like they did with the black man? Nope. What happened with her was worst of all. Even when she admitted that the bike was not hers and that she was attempting to steal it, people offered to help her.

So what you say? Its just a video right? Its pretend. Yeah. Only it wasn't. As it turns out, the clip that I was watching is part of a TV show that airs on ABC called What Would You Do? And what they do on that show is get actors to go out on the street in real world settings and do things that are wrong. And then they film the reaction that the public has to these things.

In this case, in all three scenarios the thief was an actor and all the people that came along were not. All the people that interacted with the thief were normal people going about their everyday lives and their reactions to what was happening were real.

Theft isn't just wrong when black people do it. It isn't okay when white men do it or an approved action for women. It is wrong all the time. We all know that. But somehow what we logically know to be right and what we find acceptable based on circumstance seems to vary. You can say that you know how you would react to the situation if you were in it, but until you actually find yourself there you can't know for sure.

I don't know what the intended aim of the show What Would You do? is. There doesn't ever seem to be any affirmative action to follow up the things that happen. They do interview the people after they find out that they were being filmed and ask them what they were thinking while the event was happening. The people from the show never indicate whether they think that people's reactions are right or wrong. But, it could be a very powerful tool for showing people how the way we act and what we believe really aren't the same. See, before we can make any positive meaningful change in our lives we need to, we get to, find the things that don't work, the things that hurt us, that don't serve us.  If you aren't aware of a particular bias you can't do anything to change it.

You can say that you believe in racial and gender equality because you want it to be true. But if you don't test it, you don't know if that is really how you feel. Are you more likely to help a young white woman than a white man? Are you more likely to trust a white man than a black man? Do you hold the door open for men and women alike?

This show gives people the opportunity to find out for themselves whether or not what they say they believe matches up with how they act in the real world.