What Would You Say?

Last night I watched this episode of Primetime: What Would You Say?.  It was about bi-racial families.  First, a black man with a white daughter was accosted by a white waiter in a cafe.  Then the reversal of a white man with a black daughter.  All five of those people were actors.  What the test was, was how the people in the cafe seeing it happen would respond.

The black man was supported by both white and black onlookers.  People were very upset that the white waiter would be so racist.  They were disgusted.  People were brought to tears and stood up for him, defending him until told it was for a TV show.

The white man was unsupported.  Although the waiter was rude and very disrespectful, as he was with the black man, he was the one being supported.  At two different times, 9-1-1 was called.  The white man was doubted that the black daughter was his.  There was a high level of fear among everyone that he was with a child not his own.  No one accused the white waiter of racism, but rather supported the doubt that the child was his.

The responses from people were completely opposite.  People felt so bad about the  racism to the black man, but not the same thing for the white man.  Granted, the personalities of each father were different; the white man coming across a bit more aggressive.  But viewers seemed to see it more normal for the black man to have a white daughter than a white man to have a black daughter.

As the little girl put it at the end, it's good for people to see this "to tell people color just doesn't even matter".

It reminded me of a year and a half ago when Lyle was accosted when leaving a playground for kidnapping our son.  White man with a black child.  He was accused of kidnapping, taken to security, phone calls made, including to me.  Mikiyas had to watch the whole thing.  

Makes you think....

[Disclaimer: I use "white" and "black" for ease in typing the story; not meant out of disrespect for either Caucasian of African ...]