2026-05-07 12:00 UTC
I grew up in a plains state where the population was 98% white. There were two things that helped me to see people who look different than me as people, my maternal grandpa farmer who served in WWII and brought home a strong interest in other cultures and PBS.
My grandpa didn’t make a big deal of it, but he had one of those giant satellite dishes and loved watching shows from around the world despite not understanding any of the languages. He was perfectly happy with his remote and uneventful life but loved seeing variety.
PBS let me see things in other places like documentaries, shows that explored other cultures, and shows like Sesame Street where a diverse group of people juat did normal stuff together and it wasn’t a big deal or anything. Sesame Street was the opposite of my local area and let me see other people as just people. Sadly this did not catch on with a lot of the people around me, who had racist views based on rumors because they personally had not interacted with anyone different than themselves either.
Being accepting of others mainly comes from exposure that lets someone see different people as people, and PBS did, and I assume still does, a great job of doing that.
Replies (2)
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@NickEast_IndieWriter@mastodon.art 2026-05-07 12:31
@snooggums@piefed.world I assume you are correct that they till help people see others as people, which is why it's important for those who don't want us to see each other as people to attack them...
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@TrickDacy@lemmy.world 2026-05-07 16:16
I had a very similar experience to yours.