Featured Video

 

Race: The Power of an Illusion

This documentary challenges one of our most fundamental beliefs: that humans come divided into distinct biological groups. This definitive three-part series is an eye-opening tale of how what we assume to be normal, commonsense, even scientific, is actually shaped by our history, social institutions and cultural beliefs.

 

Part 1: The Difference Between Us

Everyone can tell a Norwegian from a Nubian, so why doesn't it make sense to sort people into biological races? Examine the contemporary science - including genetics - that challenges our assumptions about human groups.

 

Episode 2: The Story We Tell

Hasn't race always been with us? Explore the roots of the race concept, including the 19th century science that justified it, and how it gained such a hold over our minds.

 

Episode 3: The House We Live In

Race may be a biological myth, but racism gives different groups vastly different life chances. Forty years after the Civil Rights Movement, the playing field is still not level, and "colorblind" policies only perpetuate inequality.


Video Library

 

We encourage you to take advantage of our great collection of diversity resources. All Diversity Council videos are available to Olmsted County residents for checking out with a $25 deposit.

 

 

Children & Youth

 

All Together (29 min, VHS)

Renowned ventriloquist Jonathan Geffner brings his friends for a lively celebration of diversity. Along with Jonathan’s whimsical puppet partners, kids will learn about respect, cooperation, conflict resolution, and much more.

How We're Different and Alike (10 min, VHS)

Featuring lively music and colorful animation, this program talks about how and why people are different, and how even people who look different share many similarities.

 

Oliver Button is a Star (56 min, VHS)

Tomie DePaola's classic children's book is retold in this musical about a boy who is ridiculed because he'd rather sing and dance than play sports like 'normal boys.'

 

Prejudice: The Monster Within (30 min, VHS)

From subtle comments to vicious attacks, prejudice is one of the oldest and most dangerous problems our world faces. This film weaves youth interviews with examples of prejudice from slavery to the civil war in Bosnia in order to help each one of us arrive at solutions for combating the “monster within.” 

 

Adjusting to Classmates from Other Cultures (16 min, VHS)

 

The Respect Series (VHS)

 

 

Adult

 

Multicultural People of North America (VHS)

This series explores the history and culture of various immigrant groups in the United States and illustrates how all immigrants except African Americans came to this country for common reasons.

Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes (1 hr. 32 min, VHS)

The definitive documentary on Jane Elliot's famous classroom experiment in which students are discriminated against based on eye color.

 

A Class Divided (56 min, VHS)

Condensed story of Jane Elliot's famous classroom experiment in which students are discriminated against based on eye color. Students who participated in the experiment reunite to discuss how it affected them.

 

The Essential Blue-Eyed (30 min, VHS)

Edited version of Brown Eyes/Blue Eyes

 

Eyes on the Prize (50 min, VHS)

The Teaching Tolerance series documentary on the Civil Rights Movement, 1954-1965.

 

A Time for Justice: America's Civil Rights Movements (38 min, VHS)

This film from the Teaching Tolerance series depicts the battle for civil rights as told by its foot soldiers, who stood their ground until they won their freedom.

Mighty Times (47 min, VHS)

The Teaching Tolerance series documentary on the legacy of Rosa Parks.

 

Mighty Times: The Children's March (40 min, VHS & DVD)

The Teaching Tolerance series documentary on the children who marched for Civil Rights.

 

One Survivor Remembers (DVD & VHS)

The Teaching Tolerance series documentary on the life of Holocause survivor Gerda Weissmann. Winner of the Academy Award for best documentary short subject.

 

A Place at the Table (40 min, VHS)

The Teaching Tolerance series looks at history and identity through the eyes of today's youth.

 

Viva La Causa (40 min, DVD)

The Teaching Tolerance series documentary on Cesar Chavez and his movement for social justice.

Blacks & Jews (85 min, VHS)

This documentary goes behind the volatile faultline between blacks and Jews to probe the roots of distrust and discrimination.  More than simply a study of a specific ethnic conflict, this film offers everyone concerned about diversity a primer on how dialogue breaks down – and what it will take to open it again.

 

The Shadow of Hate: A History of Intolerance in America (40 min, VHS)

Produced by three-time Academy Award winner Charles Guggenheim, this documentary from the Teaching Tolerance series spans three centuries to examine this country's ongoing struggle to live up to its ideal of liberty, equality and justice to all. A powerful perspective on historical events from the ordinary people who lived through them.

 

Freedom Writers (15 min, VHS)

When a racial incident occurred in her classroom, 23-year-old English teacher Erin Gruwell spun it into an ongoing dialogue that ultimately changed the lives of 150 inner-city students.  ABC News correspondent Connie Chung documents the story of the group as they confront hatred through writing.

 

True Colors (17 min, VHS)

ABC's Prime Time tests racism in St. Louis by sending out a black man and a white man to shop, look for an apartment, apply for a job, buy a car, and hail a cab.

 

The Color of Fear (1 hr. 30 min, VHS)

This award winning documentary by Lee Mun Wah follows 8 men of various races as they are thrown together on a weekend retreat and discover each other's fears. DVD or VHS

 

Last Chance for Eden (88 min, VHS)

Award-winning director Lee Mun Wah presents a film about nine men and women in an honest and emotionally charged conversation about how racism and sexism have affected their lives and families.

 

Matters of Race (4 parts, 60 min each, VHS)

No Shortcuts: Challenging Cultural Bias when Working with People (VHS)

Starting Small (1 hr, DVD)

The vision of community that the early childhood classroom provides can color children's ideas and expectations about equity, cooperation and citizenship for a lifetime. This Teaching Tolerance film features classroom activities, teacher insights, and commentary from noted childhood development specialists.

 

The Family of God (VHS)

A guide to helping pre-adolescents respond to racial stereotypes.

 

Not in Our Town (VHS)

A documentary on the grassroots response to racism and hate crime that started in one small town and spread across the nation. Rochester began a Not in Our Town campaign in the 90's.

 

Wealth, Innovation & Diversity (31 min, DVD and VHS)

Futurist Joel Barker discusses how diversity is necessary for innovation and the creation of new wealth.

 

The New Americans (115 min, 115 min; 170 min, VHS)

This 3-part series follows the lives of recent immigrants as they follow the American Dream.

 

The Golden Door: Our Nation of Immigrants (26 min, VHS)

An overview of immigration in America.

 

Race: The Power of an Illusion (3 parts, 56 min each, DVD & VHS)

This powerful three-part series uses the science of genetics to demythologize race and explores race as a sociological construct.

 

A Framework for Understanding Poverty (VHS)

Dr. Ruby Payne's groundbreaking 6-part series on the culture of poverty.

 

Crash (122 min, DVD)

This compelling urban movie tracks the volatile intersection of a multi-ethnic cast of characters struggling to overcome their fears as they careen in and out of one another's lives.

 

This is My Home: A Minnesota Human Rights Education Experience (DVD)

A complete toolkit, together with curriculum, for integrating human rights education in the classroom.

 

Living Together: A History of Prejudice in Olmsted County (19 min, VHS)

Produced by the Diversity Council.

 

Viva La Difference (13 min, VHS)

Rochester students talk about first impressions and how they are not always correct or fair.