Racist Family

When I watched this I thought that this was actually some kind of dramatization (like a Jerry Springer episode). I guess that such a family is possible today, though I hope, due to increasing social norms discouraging overt signs of racism and especially anti-semitism (post WWII), that such a family would be imposed with greater restrictions on with whom they could associate (The swastika's and the Nazi memorabilia are even more of a taboo then the confederate flag and confederate memorabilia).
Although it makes for an intense Tyra show, I believe that such recognition of racism--as a novelty--does even more harm then good for the racial dialogue in the U.S. The presentation of such overt racism undermines a lot of the current prejudice research that recognizes such overt racism as being rare and not representative of the nation's racial climate. Instead, this unabashed bigotry only makes it more difficult for people to acknowledge racial bias in themselves. Research continues to talk about the inability of individuals to recognize their own racially biased thought processes (Aversive Racism; Gaertner & Dovidio, 1986). In seeing such overt racism it is incredibly easy for people to disassociate themselves from "that kind" of prejudice. Furthermore, it also makes it problematic when trying to call someone on a racially biased behavior or comment. If the 'racist family' is what people have in mind when thinking of a racist, then no wonder why they get defensive when someone considers their behavior to be racist. Such an accusation of racism entails association with this ludicrous portrayal of inhumanity--and people don't care to be associated with such things.
Having an exemplar of prejudice and racism that is congruent with the 'racist family' is absolutely obsolete an unrepresentative of much of the U.S. population. Fortunately, the one thing that federal legislation has done for civil rights is to make it all but illegal to hold such overt and threatening views toward other citizens (not saying that people still don't feel that way, it's just illegal to act on those feelings). Be that as it may, our nation's history of depraved racial relations has indeed set a precedent of overt racism that continues to be the measuring stick by which all other racialized or biased acts are measured. Such reference power sets off a defensive blockade that in turn makes racial dialogue unapproachable. In the case of the racist family above, the term 'racist' is mandatory in describing their views, however when handling less extreme offenses, I think it is important to exchange 'racist' for more situation-congruent terms like 'biased', 'racially biased', or 'racially charged' in order to facilitate better discussion without defensiveness and hostility. After all, sometimes people know not what they do.

I want to echo what Cassie said about a family like this existing in modern society. The presence of such glaring bigotry makes my skin crawl because that means that they have an ingroup somewhere that tolerates even half of their beliefs. Their children go to school somewhere, and they live in a neighborhood somewhere and associate with others somewhere. I understand that persons of similar interests can cluster and buffer themselves from the world, but it no less scares me when thinking about like-minded individuals of this caliber hanging out.