Q&A: MTV’s Look Different Campaign

Look Different, MTV’s anti-bias campaign, equips young people with resources that expose hidden biases and prompt meaningful conversations about why and how to combat biased behavior and perspectives. The campaign’s resources are free, easily accessible online and backed by research.

Look Different is a treasure trove for educators as well. Teaching Tolerance reached out to Noopur Agarwal, vice president of public affairs for MTV, to get the scoop on the inspiration behind Look Different and what educators should know about this innovative campaign.

What was the impetus for Look Different?

MTV created the Look Different campaign in 2014 to help youth in the United States better recognize and challenge hidden racial, gender and anti-LGBT biases, empowering them to create a more equal future. While Millennials are widely considered the most diverse and tolerant generation in U.S. history, 94 percent see bias in their lives and 8 in 10 believe bias is at the root of a lot of the world’s problems, according to MTV research.

Additionally, discrimination based on race, gender and sexual orientation can be quite subtle—and most young people feel ill equipped to respond when they see it. The Look Different campaign was designed to illuminate these issues while providing the audience with meaningful tools and resources to discuss bias and combat it.

What do you want young people to know—or be able to do—after being exposed to the campaign?

We want young people to realize that bias is all around us, though sometimes hidden from plain sight, and that it is often at the root of many social justice issues. Once they are more aware of bias and its impact, we hope they will take action to challenge it, from uncovering their own biases and privileges to engaging in conversation and calling out bias when they see it. 

How do you decide which topics to tackle?

To kick off the Look Different campaign, MTV conducted a comprehensive, nationally representative study of Americans 14-24 years old to better understand subjects like fairness, equality, privilege and discrimination. From this research, along with conversations with young people and expert partners like the Southern Poverty Law Center, we were able to determine which topics were top of mind for our audience and most ripe for exploration. These topics include microaggressions, racial profiling and privilege.

What are three audience-favorite resources?

Three of our most popular resources on Look Different are:

• Implicit Bias Quizzes: Developed in collaboration with Project Implicit, a nonprofit hosted at Harvard, Look Different created two Implicit Association Tests, simple but powerful quizzes designed to unearth our unconscious racial and gender biases. Countless members of our audience have told us the quizzes are enlightening and eye-opening.
         
• The Bias Cleanses: Our seven-day de-biasing programs deliver scientifically grounded, daily exercises to help people unlearn biases that have built up over years. Developed in partnership with the Kirwan Institute, the racial- and gender-bias cleanses include activities like setting a counter-stereotypical image as the background on your phone, engaging in intergroup contact and consuming media that help build empathy for people of other backgrounds.
   
• Look Deeper: In response to the fact that nearly 70 percent of young people believe that there should be more safe online spaces to have respectful discussions of bias, MTV invited its audience to help create a platform for conversation around these topics through the "Look Different Challenge.” The winning idea inspired the creation of Look Deeper, a digital space where young people can share personal stories about bias in pop culture, the news and in their own lives using images, videos, audio clips, links and more.

How might educators use Look Different in their teaching or own learning?

Educators are invited to use all Look Different materials, ranging from our Emmy Award-winning video content to our interactive tools, to start classroom conversations and provide meaningful action steps. To facilitate educational conversations, we offer a comprehensive toolkit with videos, online resources and discussion questions, as well as a special discussion guide to accompany our documentary film White People. Materials for educators can be found here. 

What type of pushback have you received? And what was your response?

The Look Different campaign has been very well received, but there are some young people who tell us they aspire to be “colorblind” and that talking about racism and other forms of bias is what perpetuates the problem. We know these young people are well intentioned so our goal is to use programs like White People and our YouTube series Decoded to help them understand the necessity for conversation and action to address the underlying systemic issues that prevent us from being truly equal.

Is there anything else you’d like the Teaching Tolerance audience to know about Look Different?

Look Different is connecting deeply with the MTV audience: 95 percent view the campaign favorably and 94 percent say it matters, according to MTV research. Many of these young people are taking to social media to engage with the campaign and to help drive a meaningful conversation on bias, which has led #LookDifferent to trend both nationally and globally on Twitter. Even more importantly, Look Different has inspired the audience to take a stand, leading to over 1.5 million actions taken by young people nationwide. We hope educators, parents, young people and anyone interested in fighting bias will follow our campaign (Twitter, Tumblr) and use Look Different as a resource.

Have you used any of the Look Different resources with students? Leave a comment and tell us how it went!