How Racist Are You Summary

The events that unfolded during Jane Elliott’s investigation seen in the video ‘How Racist are You?’ are significant in demonstrating how society contributes to the worldwide problem of racism and prejudice, without even necessarily realising it. By sparking a discussion between those that have had to deal with discrimination all their lives and those who are seen in society as ‘privileged’, it became very apparent that the ‘privileged’ do not think that minority groups have been hard done by. This is noteworthy for it demonstrates that without even realising it, one can be discriminatory and make prejudiced remarks, while still believing they are in the right.

As seen in Jane Elliott’s experiment, many issues arose in regards to discrimination and stereotyping. These issues can also be seen in the real world, with discrimination in society still being incredibly prevalent. As shown in the video, several individuals make assumptions on someone’s attitude or upbringing, being unaware that they are contributing to the problem of discrimination amongst humanity. These views and behaviours can be seen as unjustified as stereotyping is …show more content…
With multiculturalism being encouraged, some may find this displeasing, thus choosing to interact with those that are ‘similar’ to themselves. This is said to be due to interactions feeling more comforting and satisfying when talking to those one identifies with, relating to that of Homophily bias (Carley 1991). Not embracing the diversity can vastly limit information flows, people’s experiences and cause negative attitudes in an organisation, due to relations being constrained to comparable individuals (Newman 2005). With this being the case, organisations and employees may find it hard to reap the benefits that come along with having a diverse work cohort, in turn having to work harder to ensure equality and peace amongst staff is