Last night, we happened to catch a segment on 20/20 titled 'What would you do?' The segment featured two parts. In the first part, there were three white kids vandalizing a car in the parking lot of a park in a primarily white neighborhood. The second part substituted the three white kids for three black kids.
ABC sent each group of kids out there with spray paint, a bat, and a "slim jim". They beat on the car, they painted all over the car and they attempted to break into it. The point was to see how the other people in the park reacted, to see what they would do.
It turns out that the three white kids were out there for over three hours. In that time span, they were only confronted a few times and only one person called 911.
When the white kids were replaced by three black kids and a new car to vandalize, they drew a lot more attention. Several people confronted them and ten people called 911 in less time.
When asked if they would have reacted the same way if the kids were white, the people who had confronted the black kids whom ABC spoke with afterwards all said yes. Some even said they "hesitated" more because the kids were black. Hmm... seems like the data doesn't back up that claim.
Here's the worst part... while the white kids were vandalizing the car, one person called 911. During that same time, two other 911 calls were placed from the same park. Coincidentally, there was another set of three black kids in car in another parking lot at that park. Two 911 calls were placed referencing the kids in the car. One 911 caller said, "There's a couple of guys in the car laying down, like, they look like they are possibly about to rob someone."
These kids were SLEEPING. Later it was revealed that the sleeping kids were family members of one of the actors from the second group, i.e. the black kids. Justin, the actor related to the sleeping bandits, said something like "I guess they called 911 to have them arrested for sleeping while black."
It was an eye-opening piece. You can read an article about it here. I'd love to hear your thoughts.
posted by Shannon Smith @ 2/23/2008
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I definitley think that the people in the park acted differently toward the black kids because of their color since it was the only variable in the experiment.
In the passage in James the men were judged based on their clothing. Here the kids were judged more or less harshly because of their skin color. I think there is a definite connection there.
One comment that I thought was at least amusing came from a woman who said that she almost didn't go over and confront the black kids because she "...didn't want to assume that three black kids were up to no good." I guess she just thought that all black kids spraypaint their cars, bash in the windows and pick the lock before they get in and drive off.
This just in. Racism is still an issue.
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