YouTube has taught us all that sometimes nothing is as powerful as a video clip that delivers a powerful, memorable message in less than 5 minutes. I’ve found videos endlessly useful as a means of starting productive and thoughtful conversations about issues of issues surrounding diversity, whether in the classroom, on Facebook, or in personal conversations with family and friends. The videos below are the best I’ve found (with a little help from my friends – thanks to those who gave me ideas for this!).
On race & stereotyping
What kind of Asian are you?
Scene from Crash
Racist harrasses Muslim cashier
Guy brings his white girlfriend to barbershop in Harlem
How to tell someone they sound racist
Moving the race conversation forward
The Lunch Date
A look at race relations through a child’s eyes
African men. Hollywood stereotypes
The women of Nyamonge present: Netball
UCLA Girl’s Offensive Asian Rant
(be sure to watch the response below)
Asians in the library of the world: a persona poem in the voice of Alexandra Wallace
A trip to the grocery store
(1)ne Drop
Make sure to watch their other videos about race here.
5 Things White People Should Do to Improve Race Relations
Harvard professor Henry Gates Jr. on his arrest
Lin’s success crosses racial boundaries
On privilege
Africa for Norway
Cadillac Commercial (Make sure to watch Ford’s response to this commercial below)
Ford’s response to the Cadillac Commerical
On white privilege
Make Poverty History
Giving is the best communication
On diversity
America, the beautiful
It’s beautiful, behind the scenes
Ethnicity matters: The case for ethnic specific ministries
Move – Around the World in 1 Minute
Where the hell is Matt? 2012
The world’s most typical face (National Geographic)
Reconsider Columbus Day
On Immigration
A new dream: Evangelical undocumented immigrants tell their side of the story
Accents and fair housing
See more videos on immigration here.
Longer Documentaries
A class divided with Jane Elliott
Watch the whole documentary here.
Who is black in America?
America’s Promise: Black boys in America
This is a trailer. Read more about the series here and watch a few more clips here.
between worlds 
The video below is sort of my recent go-to for early conversations about race, at least in my own head. It’s a humorous way to consider how multi-systemic generational inequality has shaped social architecture. Fifty black presidents still wouldn’t get us back to equality after all that. Diversity is a side effect of justice, not the end goal, you can still have colonized or fetishized bodies in the same diverse room.
I did want to say: Isolated scenes from Crash can be conversation starters I suppose, but I can’t co-sign the film, as Haggis is hell-bent on upholding the white savior complex within a racist character and fetishizing the black women involved around the racist-cop-turned-idealized-savior character narrative. It felt like that film was telling me “hey people of color, white people know we are racist. You are all just as racist too, so you should shut up and listen to us a little more often.” Meanwhile people often expect PoC to love it as some kind of reparation for all Hollywood misrepresentation, while it only adds to, or actually amplifies, the negative noise. bell hooks has a brilliant essay on the film in her collection Writing Beyond Race.
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Thanks for pointing this out about Crash. I think I found the bell hooks essay you’re referring to here – it’s worth a read.
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This is fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing. I also like the video below about the danger of a single story. It’s a great plea for considering how we judge and stereotype groups of people. http://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story
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Thanks for sharing! I love this Ted Talk so much I wrote a post about it…Elephant parking lots, tribal music, and the problem with stereotypes as stories.
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Great minds think alike! 🙂
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Wow. I appreciate your post as usual. Here are a couple that I will share about the myths of interracial relationships. I like that they move beyond the white-black dynamic..
“Not Just Fetishists and Race Traitors”
“Myths and Realities…”
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Thanks so much for sharing – I fixed the links – let me know if these aren’t the ones you meant!
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