Are we all racists ?

A prime-time event program France 2
Network : France 2
Genre : Factual ?
Format : Prime Time
Presented by : Marie Drucker & Jamy Gourmaud
Guest : Lucien Jean-Baptiste
Scientific advisor : Sylvain Delouvée

You enter a waiting room. In front of you are four chairs. The two middle chairs are occupied by a white man and a black man dressed alike: which side are you going to sit on? According to social psychology, your brain will lead you – unconsciously – to sit on the side of the person who most resembles you. Welcome to “Are we all racists?

In this unprecedented primetime program, 50 volunteers take part in experiments like this – all documented in international scientific publications – without knowing that the aim of the program is to understand the unconscious mechanisms that can lead us to discriminatory behavior. Because if they knew, it would bias the results of the experiments.

At the end of the show, these “guinea pigs” will not only learn the real intention of the program, but they will also discover that, during all these experiments (throughout which they were guided by Jamy Gourmaud), their behavior was scrutinized and deciphered from an observation post hidden in the building. Here, Marie Drucker is joined by psychosociologist Sylvain Delouvée (teacher-researcher at the Laboratory of Psychology, University of Rennes) and our “great witness” Lucien Jean-Baptiste, who brings his perspective as a committed director and actor.

Over the course of the program, experiments spectacularly deconstruct the unconscious mechanisms that lead to racism: social categorization, stereotypes and prejudice, right up to discrimination. The result is a clear understanding that we are all subject to these mechanisms without realizing it, and that it is by becoming aware of them that we can effectively combat them.

“Are we all racists?” is undeniably an unprecedented program, as it tackles a profound (and highly topical!) social issue in a new, entertaining and highly accessible way.