What Would You Do?

Last night, I watched a really interesting show on ABC. It was a Primetime Live special called "What Would You Do?" They staged different situations to see how ordinary people would react. The first scenario was with a Muslim woman in a bakery in Texas. The clerk (they were both actors) refused to sell her an apple strudel and was calling her a terrorist and telling her she wasn't American. He was being pretty nasty. A lot of people walked out of the store and refused to buy anything- some even swore at the clerk. There were also a lot of people who stood up for the girl and offered to buy the food for her. What floored me though were the people who sided with the clerk and told him he was being "a good American". When they were confronted by the news crew, they hid their faces or tried to hide behind the idea that people should be able to refuse service. I was floored- I guess just because I was raised to believe that everyone, no matter who they are or what they believe, deserve to be treated with dignity. I was really touched by one man whose son just got back from Iraq. He really stood up and got upset at the clerk and talked about the value of all people. Then there was a young Muslim girl with the news crew- the man teared up when they were introduced and gave the young woman a hug and told her he would be proud to go anywhere and everywhere with her.

The next scenario was on girls and bullying. They set some girls in the park and had them picking on and being mean to a "nerd" who was studying. Almost all of the men who walked by did nothing- one guy said he would have if it had gotten physical but didn't see the harm in just words. Another man stopped and actually called the police and stayed there so the girls would stop. What was intetersting was that almost all of the women stopped and really got after the bullies. You could tell the ones who had been picked on- they were the most vocal. If women were walking together, they almost tag teamed- one would talk to the bullies and another would talk to the girl being picked on.

I didn't watch the other two scenarios- one was on whether people would tell if they saw a friend's fiancee cheating and the other was on witnessing a hit and run. But it got me thinking- what would you do in those situations? I admired the people who were willing to walk out of the bakery for discriminating against the Muslim woman. Do we stand up for people, regardless of who they are? Do we support businesses who unfairly discriminate? Do we speak up when we see something going on we know is wrong? What value do we put on people- do we say some people are worth our efforts and defense and others not?

It was fascinating and gave me serious pause for thought about what I would do in those situations. If you want to watch it, go to http://abcnews.go.com/primetime