How Racist are You?

[Uncle Joe]

This post to the BDF sums up what I thought about the programme:

I finally finished watching the programme a couple of days ago, and my initial suspicion, that I has been a little rash with my original judgement, was confirmed. Yes Elliott speaks brutally to the target group, but if you pay attention, you soon realise that that is the point of the exercise (and 'experiment' would be a misnomer, because it implies that the outcome is in any doubt, barring sabotage). It's not about appreciating how non-whites might feel about being discriminated against, because anyone can say they understand (and they frequently did in that programme, while making me doubt if they understood how to tie their own shoe laces), but to experience it. The aforementioned sabotage came about because some individuals in the brown-eyed group felt they could skip past the brutalisation process and presumably sit around chanting kumbayaa for the rest of the day instead. But even their protestations fitted into the exercise, as the 'white' liberals speaking up for 'black' rights. Right up until that weepy lass grassed up Elliott on the exam scam, and I guess the whole thing got derailed. If only somebody had thought of doing that at the height of apartheid. Probably have stopped the KKK in their tracks, too. What more persuasive a rally cry could there be than 'It's not fair!!'

A lot of people don't seem to get that it was an exercise, not a discussion.

[CptCoatHanger]

Originally Posted by Uncle Joe

This post to the BDF sums up what I thought about the programme:

A lot of people don't seem to get that it was an exercise, not a discussion.

It was shit and poorly executed whatever it was. I don't think anything was ascertained about discrimination; the participants all seemed a bit confused - as was I watching it - and the woman running it was quite simply a knob.

[katralla]

I think the idea of trying to get people to participate in the lived experience of racism could be useful, especially where people say they know what racism is, but really don't.

[KiwiFruit]

Originally Posted by wheresmyplacebo

race in itself is rather pointless, it's only skin deep, there's a lot of other things like culture, class, wealth and politics that affect people more...

Yeah, get a judgemental impression in your mind based on someone's skin feature is naive. Too many people respond to appearance unfortunately

[katralla]

The impact of race on someone's life isn't insignificant, even if the 'reality' of the concept of race is.

[Uncle Joe]

Originally Posted by CptCoatHanger

It was shit and poorly executed whatever it was. I don't think anything was ascertained about discrimination; the participants all seemed a bit confused - as was I watching it - and the woman running it was quite simply a knob.

The whole thing clearly ended in a shambles, but I'm prepared to afford Elliott a partial benefit of the doubt. Sometimes she came across as Anne Robinson, maintaining a 'bitchy' persona in the face of people who in the initial stages, wanted to crack that facade. The exercise would have turned farcical a lot sooner if they had succeeded. I think Elliott can turn that 'tude on like a light now, but that still doesn't mean she's really like that in private.