(no subject)

[theweaselking]

ABC News has an actor dressed as a Muslim woman enter a bakery and the clerk, another actor, refuse to serve her, calling her a "terrorist". And they film what the other people in the store do, and interview them.

Comments

[eris.livejournal.com]

That was equal parts frightening and amazing. I want to hug that older gentlemen with the son in the Army.

[skington.livejournal.com]

This is actually really encouraging: significantly more people told the racist fuckwad to go fuck himself, and that they were boycotting his store as a result, than gave him a thumbs up. And that was in Waco, TX, of all places. (I hope that researchers cornered the boycotters and told them it was all a hoax, because no small business like that deserves an artificial dip in sales as a result of a news coup like this.)

[ashbet]

Okay, wow. That moved ME to tears a little.

I sincerely hope that something got through to the bigots -- even one of them.

-- A <3

[whitedove1.livejournal.com]

This was a good experiment, people need to see what is going on. The older gent made me feel good, he acted the way I would have.

[drcuriosity]

I hope they got through to some of the people who just stood by and let it happen, too. People get away with intolerant behaviour in part because people tolerate their behaviour, even when they disagree with it.

Still, glad that more people chose to speak out against it than for it. In Texas, no less. Regenerates some of my hope for the country :-)

[nurseysarah.livejournal.com]

Oh wow, I still can't believe that anyone would agree with clerk or stand idly by in the face of such discrimination. It was encouraging that more tolerant people spoke up, but it makes me so angry that in the face of such incredible intolerance, more didn't.

I grew up in a city in England where we had a very mixed Christian/Sikh/Muslim/Hindu community and such intolerance would have sparked mass condemnation and possibly race riots when I was a kid. Sadly now, I'm not so sure. Last time I was at home, there seemed to be an increasing acceptance of intolerance between people from different backgrounds. It scares the shit out of me.

Still, seeing the people who did speak up in the experiment fills me with hope for the future.

[dreamshade.livejournal.com]

So... 13 + 6 + 22... 13 out of 41 deliberately spoke out. That's... actually a better percentage than I would've guessed would. I must be really, really cynical by now.

[spawnofweevil.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to hug those two girls... sadly the fact that so many just stood by, possibly looking a bit uncomfortable but not saying anything... really sad. Not remotely surprising, but sad.

[chaosrah.livejournal.com]

Moved me to tears as well.

[spazcat101.livejournal.com]

Who cares if it was a hoax? The guy behind the counter is still a "racist fuckwad", and if people want to boycott him because they know that, then I say go for it.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I actually cried a bit at that one. I was so proud of those who actually stood up for that woman. I've started to think of this country as being almost solely populated by the guy who gave two thumbs up to the cashier.

That only 66% of the customers fought back, or at least walked out of the store? Is very frightening.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

I can't imagine that the guy behind the counter is anything other than a plant. I thought it was stated, but I'm not certain about that.

(Though, obviously, if he was acting, he was acting like a racist fuckwad.)

[spazcat101.livejournal.com]

Ah, maybe I missed that part. I thought they were trying to expose the guy behind the counter as a racist fuckwad. Maybe it's the patrons they're trying to expose. I should watch it again.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

The guy behind the counter was *also an actor*.

Which is why he gave the same racist screen to the same "muslim" woman so many times, without ever saying "You again? Why the fuck are you back here?"

The entire thing was a hoax. This TV show does that - previous episodes have involved a fake pharmacist loudly refusing to fill a morning-after-pill prescription to a 14-year-old girl, and things like that.

[spazcat101.livejournal.com]

Ah, understood. My bad.

Then yes, it would be completely unfair for that business to suffer as a result of this story.

[hollowpoint.livejournal.com]

Ah, I remember this from a year or two back. Heartening and worrying all at the same time. I wonder how such an experiment would play out here in the UK, especially a city as liberal as Brighton...

I couldn't help but laugh at the line "a just bakery". I think I'll also start using "you're not an American" as a comeback in all manner of unrelated arguments.

[siouxsyn.livejournal.com]

In the semi defense of the people who did nothing; this is the kind of situation where you think you'll act a certain way, but when it actually does you're too busy going WTF and then it's over and you wish you'd done "X".
Maybe those people will be better off the mark if it happens to them again?