This made me cry today.
The context is that ABC Primetime set up an experiment in how Americans are responding to prejudice. Do watch it all the way through; there are some amazing moments.
(click though here if the embedded link doesn’t work; YouTube’s being unpredictable).
Of all my many fears, one of the greatest is that my courage will fail me when I need it, or when someone else does.
In his book Real Eyes, Dave Hingsburger talks about a conversation he had with a cognitively disabled woman who had been repeatedly abused and raped while institutionalized. The woman remains a devout Christian. Dave asked her (out of genuine curiosity; Dave’s a great guy) how she could believe in God when He had let so many awful things happen to her. Dave said she took his hand and told him, “Oh, honey, God gave me people to protect me — they just didn’t”.
Dave went on to say that a few days later he was watching TV and came across a panel of intellectual experts trying to explain how the Holocaust happened. Dave realized that one cognitively disabled woman already had the answer — there were too many people who ‘just didn’t’.
Thank you for posting the video.
Brought out some tears for me too. Those thumbs up-type people were appalling, but at least they were in the minority. Not surprising that most people would do nothing.
One can never know until it happens, but I’d like to think I’d have the courage to speak up.
This one seems fairly clear cut – the guy was so clearly and outrageously wrong. I’m thinking of other situations now too. Like say your in a public place and someone slaps their child or screams at them or even just speaks to them repeatedly in a nasty way. It can be really hard to speak up in a situation that our society generally determines is none of our business.
I’m going to remember this video.
I’m from San Francdisco and I used to work in a business where all kinds of people were customers. No one was ever refused service because of who or what they looked like. People who were refused service were either drunk or in some way disturbing the peace of everyone else there. In this video the climate is controlled by the filmakers and there’s no way that can be a true account of how bad people really can be. Wait until there’s no one there to see them and find out how changed their prejudices are. What’s good about the film is that it’s being openly addressed. I had some tears too even though it’s no surprise to me.
Thanks Kelley! Good to have the reminder or what reality is for people who are “different”, whatever that means. The worse is people who claim to be “good Christians” who then attack, etc. those who are “other”. What would Jesus do? Love everyone regardless!
Brought tears to my eyes too. It seems to me that humanity is losing a lot of its human-ess. I’m sorry to say that I can’t see it getting better any time soon… But, even given that fact, it doesn’t change what I believe and what actions I personally will take.
There was likely a time that the ratio of good to bad was reversed. It’s hard to keep in mind that people who say nothing don’t necessarily approve of what’s happening, but they “don’t want to get involved” or they’re just too stunned to know how to react. The trouble is, assholes have no trouble being loud.
That’s a really good point Mark, I know that I’ve been stunned into silence a few times in my life. I’ve mostly lived in cities, I am a city gal so named by one of my friends here in Anchorage one night when the talk was about things people do under certain circumstances. I remember Scott saying to me oh you’re a city person as though that answered a lot of his questions about me. I think the bunch of us were talking about Pink Floyd. Funny 🙂
I had never thought of myself in that way before but when he said that it struck me as a truth about me.
I would probably jump in If the agitator was relentless, I might go off on them a bit but it’s so unpredictable what will happen with people.
Growing up I lived in a lot of different places because my mother had a restless streak and I was always the most comfortable in the cities because I could hide out in them. I got a job that I fell in love with and stayed over twenty years, I was working that job, though on vacation when the brain thing unbelievably altered my life.
I think it is a direct result of these circumstances and more that made me able to tolerate and handle the vagaries of other people.
I consider myself among the gypsies of the world though I no longer travel or go outside much. I sometimes come back from a trip to the doctor so angry by the things I see outside that it’s just not worth getting all riled up, which takes some time to disapate.