In the Agora: NBC Goes Fishing at NASCAR Events

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April 07, 2006

NBC Goes Fishing at NASCAR Events

Michelle Malkin has been reporting this week on NBC's efforts to uncover anti-Muslim bias in the United States. And where does the network think they'll find people who hold ignorant stereotypes about Muslims? At NASCAR races, of course! Why, every good, culturally-enlightened person knows that NASCAR races are a hotbed of redneck ignorance.

NBC recruited Muslims to attend the NASCAR race in Martinsville, VA. The men were fitted with hidden cameras and microphones to record the other fans' reactions. Apparently they didn't record anything interesting in Martinsville, so they're trying again at a race in Texas.

So, what's wrong with an "undercover sting" of this sort? Don't news crews do this sort of thing to catch unethical businessmen on camera and other such investigations? Yes, but it seems to me that trying to ferret out bias in ordinary social interactions is a bit tricker than catching a mechanic selling repairs a car doesn't need. Unless they film someone making an overt ethnic slur, it would be all too possible to imply through selective editing that the Muslim men received unfriendly treatment.

In fact, sociological experiments have proven that our own minds do such selective editing--I recall a test where subjects were given a prominent facial disfigurement via stage makeup, then sent out to shopping malls. All the subjects reported a noticeable difference in how people reacted to them, but there was a catch--only half of them were actually given the makeup. The other half were simply tricked into thinking something had been put on their faces.

I hope that NBC's little experiment is successful in one aspect, however--that it might teach their producers that Midwesterners (and Southerners) do not fit the stereotypes of them held by east and west-coast urbanites.

Posted by Eric Seymour at April 7, 2006 06:10 PM

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NBC should come up with a similar stunt at some lefty-centric cultural event. But what would our planted couple wear? Christian t-shirts? Or maybe something from this line of apparel?

Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at April 8, 2006 04:32 AM | permalink

Well, we've learned a little bit about NASCAR and a lot about NBC and what they think about the people who attend NASCAR events.

Posted by: Mike O at April 8, 2006 10:22 AM | permalink

Are there no mirrors at shopping malls?

Posted by: Geoffrey Dean at April 8, 2006 04:06 PM | permalink

Are there no mirrors at shopping malls?

Huh?

Posted by: Alan K. Henderson at April 9, 2006 12:39 AM | permalink

He's asking exactly how the experiment described worked: how did people think they had a facial disfigurement via makeup, when they actually didn't? Didn't they see reflections of themselves anywhere? Couldn't they feel the (lack of) makeup? I was wondering the same thing...

Posted by: Kelly at April 9, 2006 02:55 PM | permalink

I saw a cartoon on another blog (though I can't remember where) where an Arab-looking fellow managed to provoke a reaction by wearing a Jeff Gordon shirt.

Basically, the only thing I know about NASCAR is that some fans really dislike Jeff Gordon.

Posted by: ConservaTibbs at April 10, 2006 09:14 PM | permalink

Reminds me of a friend of mine who went to Berkeley for the summer. He wanted to wear his T-Shirt that said "Abortion is Murder" and see how long it was until somebody yelled at him. Would have been funny, but he never got the balls to do it.

Posted by: Matt at April 12, 2006 01:40 AM | permalink

April 07, 2006

NBC Goes Fishing at NASCAR Events

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