What Would You Do If You Saw a Black Father With a White Child Being Harassed?

Jan. 28, 2011 — -- What would you think if you saw a black man walking down the street with a white child, or a white man with a black child?

President Barack Obama, Tiger Woods and Derek Jeter all share a common bond: each is the child of an interracial marriage. Through most of U.S. history, such unions were taboo, but more recently, interracial marriages have become more popular -- up 20 percent in the last decade -- and the number of mixed-race families in America is steadily increasing.

Nevertheless, all too often assumptions are made and suspicions are raised when a parent does not look like his or her child.

What would you do if you heard a black father and his white daughter being harassed by a waiter who didn't believe that they were in fact father and daughter? To find out, we set up a "What Would You Do?" scenario and rigged cameras in a popular cafe in the New York suburbs, Rock 'n' Joe in Millburn, N.J. We hired actors to play a racist waiter, a black father and his white daughter. Would anyone stand up to our waiter as he berated our father-and-daughter pair?

Customers are already enjoying their morning cup of Joe when we send in our father and daughter. They have a seat next to two male customers and, as soon as they sit down, our waiter comes to take their order. Our waiter doesn't miss a beat as he begins to question our father.

"What's the story here? What's the relationship?" he asks.

"What are you talking about?" our father answers. "That's my daughter!"

The two male customers are trying to ignore the confrontation. One even puts his headphones on. Still unconvinced, our waiter continues to probe, this time asking the daughter if she is okay. The father tells him that she is fine. But our waiter still doesn't believe it.