Page 3 | HOW RACIST ARE YOU???? ~~~~ CH 4 NOW

bodycolder · 29/10/2009 23:17

That teacher was shocking to compare her dh's choice to change into 'better' clothes to the situation the mixed race dad was in.Its not like he could go home and put his 'white' suit on to pick his daughter up! these people are teaching our kids

mumblecrumble · 29/10/2009 23:17

Please don;t confuse ignorance about the biology of different humans {I don;t know much about what baby boys willies look like cos I've only had baby girls] with racisim.

There really is no reason why I should know what humans look like under the skin. Even though i wtahc silent witness.

Its a shame channel 4 only interveiwed a few people. Difficult stuff and very little conclusion

BrandNewIggi · 29/10/2009 23:17

He did indeed but he said it with a raised eyebrow, from what I remember (as in "this is how other people would describe me")

mumblecrumble · 29/10/2009 23:19

At what age are we educated about other people's bodies that are of a differnet race to our own then?

I think the fact that I'e never even though about the colour of a differnet races flesh under the skin shows, perhaps, I;ve never had an issue with it possibly being differnet or the same.

Hmm. Do I sound ridiculous.? No offence meant.
I just pittied her as she was more ignorant than predudice.

GhoulishFan · 29/10/2009 23:20

I wonder if they did interview everyone and only aired the ridiculous ones as it'd get better discussion?

BrandNewIggi · 29/10/2009 23:21

MummyonElkstreet, the groups are always divided so that the blue eyed people are inferior to brown eyed, because (I've assumed) that way most non-white people will be in the brown-eyed, superior group. No point making people who already experience racism be part of the group who are being discriminated against! The eye colour of the presenter is just her colour - maybe for the sessions she should get contacts!

TheMummyonElkStreet · 29/10/2009 23:21

did it make anyone think though? i agree with the lack of cross section from the rest of the group, but i saw quite a lot of scary stuff mirrored in my own life, like the absolute insistence that they weren't racist when actually they bent so far backwards to prove they weren't that they actually proved they WERE.... i would absolutely never never say or think any of the stuff i've heard tonight from that teacher lady, but on the other hand, i've seen that "frown" from members of my family, as if to say "gosh i would never think that" (when actually you know they probably were)
I really hope this makes sense and i don't come across like any of the people on the programme!!

TheMummyonElkStreet · 29/10/2009 23:22

yep fair point iggi that crossed my mind earlier but had forgotten it (pghead sorry). makes sense.

HerBewitcheditude · 29/10/2009 23:22

I wondered that GF

I found it all a bit rushed and unconvincing. Would have liked to hear far more from far many more members of the groups. But I suppose they were trying to fit it all into an hour so have to go for immediate aposite bits.

GhoulishFan · 29/10/2009 23:23

DS started noticing the children in his class were different colours in Reception - he said something about his friend looking like chocolate

I guess my reaction taught him it is nothing to be considered bad; some parents (racist) would have used that opportunity to impart their thoughts?

I don't know... I do think it's learned behaviour from family and close society rather than as the leader suggested, ingrained from before birth that white = supreme

mumblecrumble · 29/10/2009 23:23

I was recently labelled as 'having issues with diversity and equality' at work so I;m feling very tricky about this subject.

I called a pupil 'good lass'. And was labelled with above.

Went to a student conference once a a lady stood up and asked us to label what we saw. I said "a lady wearing red'. She said she 'knew' all of us had written black person. I put my hand up [never again... I was very young] and said I;d written woman in red and was told I was sexist as I had notice d she was female. This was in front of thousands of poeple so now I don;t discuss anything like this.

SOrry if I've been clumsy

alwayslookingforanswers · 29/10/2009 23:23

Ghoulish - I once absolutely terrified the children of some family friends of DH when we still lived in Zim.

They lived in one of the small townships out of the main town, they had a TV (and satelite) but had never seen a white person "in the flesh"......we went to visit them and the 2 children hid behind the sofa for over an hour just peering out every so often to stare at me. They couldn't quite believe I was real

On the subject of racism towards whites, I don't think that is something that many people in the UK have suffered on a social scale. There without doubt individual racist attacks, but from soceity as a whole it doesn't happen.

I could understand where that woman was coming from when she said she'd suffered racism living in a country where she was in the minority. I was living in Zimbabwe during the "change" from stable and generally "open" society towards the different races to a country where vast swathes of people had a racism towards whites ingrained into them.

I suppose I've seen the effects of what she was trying to do on a larger scale, the people following the group because that's what they were doing. I suffered racismm in the latter part of living out there.

That's not to say that I know what it's like to be a black person, of course I don't, I never can do, but I have experienced racism on a "greater" scale than purely the individual one.

BrandNewIggi · 29/10/2009 23:25

Versions I've seen before had the blue-eyed group become much more cowed and deflated v.quickly - and the brown eyes enjoying their position of power! That was with children, though.

JesusChristOtterStar · 29/10/2009 23:25

by her age she should not be 'ignorant' then
she should 'educate' herself

GhoulishFan · 29/10/2009 23:27

mumble that's ridiculous - are those people insane?! What's wrong with good lass?!

alwayslookingforanswers · 29/10/2009 23:27

She's a TEACHER, surely FGS she should know that HC just ISN'T used anymore??

And I really don't think that understanding what makes a person any particular colour is advanced biology. I quit science when I was 13 (went to a school where none of the "pure" sciences were compulsory for exams ) and I learnt about that before I quit.

MarshaBrady · 29/10/2009 23:27

I remember seeing a much more effective programme years and years ago, always remembered it.

Same premise, group of blue-eyed people treated badly. But one of the main points was that given the right conditions any person will doubt themselves and their ability to be right. In the end the blue eyed people couldn't say for sure whether something was for eg green because everyone else said it was red.

The testing was very rigorous.

I didn't get that level of doubt from this it seemed very confused.

TheMummyonElkStreet · 29/10/2009 23:29

mumblecrumble that's nothing, i once listened to a friend's friend say how she had a real issue with being tall, after being told to stand up at a work conference so that "the rest of the delegates could see how tall she was "
my reaction - clumsy doesn't even cover it - was to say "well that's ridiculous, you're not even that tall - stand up a minute and let me have a look".......
We laugh about it now...but it was VERY embarrassing
I still think, if you have enough conscience to worry about how you view people, you can't be too much in danger of labelling them.

mumblecrumble · 29/10/2009 23:29

I know. I was gutted, not by the critisism, I could see how lass might be patronising in hind sight... though we are in the heart of yorkshire and I was really pleasedas she had struggled to get a correct answer. I was more gutted at the label. My principle asked what word I;d used and she said assumed by the repot that I's used a racist word or homophobic

TheMummyonElkStreet · 29/10/2009 23:31

sorry on reading that back i think i may have belittled your experience at work. completely didn't mean to. good lass is surely a compliment?!! weird

alwayslookingforanswers · 29/10/2009 23:32

good lass. Nothing wrong with that imo (also a Yorkshire girl at heart - born and bred there for 7yrs - but with a true Yorkshire man father)

mumblecrumble · 29/10/2009 23:35

My first day of teacher training I was caught in a punch as I defended a lad who was defending himself after a kid told him that UK was better than his country.... Hate it I do, but still no idea what skin looks like underneath.

ALways looking for answers - I did an Alevel bioligy..... skin colour never came up. And I sure as hell am not going to educate myself! How on earth does a young white female find out what colour other people s skin is underneath???? Wikipedia?!?!

mumblecrumble · 29/10/2009 23:36

mummy on elk street- it was funny!

alwayslookingforanswers · 29/10/2009 23:38

she's not young - I can't believe she knows nothing about pigmentation.

Booooooooooyhoo · 29/10/2009 23:40

tbh i think that if the point was to prove that anyone can be conditioned to be racist, then it was a failure. the people with brown eyes didnt become abusive or derogratory (sp?) towards the blue eyed people. the simply explained how they felt as a non white person in the uk. the experiment did in fact prove that not anyone can be conditioned to be racist.