MTV has just launched a three-year campaign called Look Different, which is attempting to finally end bias on the basis of race, gender or sexual orientation.
The campaign – which is a combination of on-air content, videos such as the BuzzFeed collaboration and online and social media content – aims to ‘accelerate the fight against racial, gender and LGBT inequality’. A lot of content will be hosted on lookdifferent.org and is aimed predominantly at the young, white community in an effort to dismantle stereotyping.
MTV's president, Stephen Friedman, explained to BuzzFeed: ‘You look at our white audience: they said only 30% of them growing up ever talked about race – so that’s 70% that are not talking about it! Half of our audience in general doesn’t feel comfortable even having a conversation around gender, around LGBT issues, or race. So the question was: why?’
But it’s not just about ending deep-rooted racism – as part of this year’s programme, MTV is making a documentary called Untitled Whiteness Project, which is going to explore the anxieties that young white people face as they shift from the majority to the minority in American society.
‘There’s an opportunity to open up and explore by putting the spotlight on the experiences of young white people as they’re navigating the college admissions process or they’re wondering how come there are diversity clubs for all these different groups, but there isn’t a white club,' says MTV Senior Vice President, Jason Rzepka. 'There will be instances in which we need to make clear that there are privileges that people have inherently — if that’s class, if that’s race, if that’s gender. That’s part of the equation: to create an understanding and acknowledgment of privilege as a concept. Through working on this campaign, I feel very aware of my privilege and I want to use my privilege for good. Any great social movement is populated by allies. It can’t just be about the oppressed people.’
It’s a great sentiment, and we can't wait to see how the project develops, especially if MTV has plans to bring it to the UK. Until it does, visit its website and take the ‘snap judgement test'to see just how unbiased you are – you might be surprised.
**Follow Sophie on Twitter @sophiecullinane **
This article originally appeared on The Debrief.