LibGuides: Race and Ethnic Relations: Videos

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A streaming video service that provides access to over 45,000 instructional and documentary videos from producers such as Films for the Humanities & Sciences, HBO, CNBC News, ABC News, PBS, BBC, Cengage Learning, Meridian, and others. Special features built into the Films Demand platform allow users the ability to organize and bookmark clips, share playlists, store quick links to favorite videos, and manage their entire collection.

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A Class Divided After the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr., an elementary school teacher in a small Iowa town decided to introduce ideas about racism and discrimination to her all-white class. This classic Frontline episode recounts Jane Elliott’s bold experiment and its provocative approach—awarding special privileges to her blue-eyed students while discriminating against those whose eyes were brown. The program tracks down Mrs. Elliott’s former third-graders to learn what effect those early lessons about ignorance and injustice had on their lives. Distributed by PBS Distribution. (60 minutes)

Race: The Power of an Illusion The division of the world’s peoples into distinct groups labeled by colors has become so widely accepted that many would dismiss as farfetched any suggestion of its falsity. Yet geneticists have discovered that 85% of all genetic variants can be found within any local population, regardless of whether it’s a population of Poles, Hmong, or Fulani. This three-part series debunks the misconception that “race” is a physiologically accurate way to categorize human beings, looking through the lenses of science, history, and social institutions at how and why the myth developed. 3-part series, 56 minutes each.

Skin Deep: Race and Ethnicity on Campus This film chronicles the eye-opening journey of a diverse and divided group of college students as they awkwardly but honestly confront each other's racial prejudices. Academy Award nominated filmmaker Frances Reid follows students from the University of Massachusetts, Texas A&M, Chico State, and U. C. Berkeley to a challenging racial awareness workshop where they confront each other's innermost feelings about race and ethnicity. She also accompanies them back to their campuses and on visits home in an attempt to understand why they think the way they do.

TEDTalks: Chimamanda Adichie -- The Danger of a Single Story Inspired by Nigerian history and tragedies all but forgotten by recent generations of Westerners, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s works are jewels in the crown of diasporan literature. Her novel Half of a Yellow Sun helped inspire new, cross-generational communication about the Biafran war, and literary giant Chinua Achebe deemed her “wise,” and “endowed with the gift of ancient storytellers.” In this TEDTalk, Adichie tells the audience how she found her authentic cultural voice, and warns that if we hear only a single story about another person or country, we risk a critical misunderstanding.

Who Killed Vincent Chin? (excerpt) This excerpt from "Who Killed Vincent Chin?" shows the tragedy of cultural misunderstanding and raises issues of race relations and justice. When the murderer goes free, Vincent's mother appeals to the public for justice.