ShmoopTube

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[Coop and Dino singing]

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Bundle up, 'cause we're gonna lay a cold, hard truth on ya: life is tough. [Man with chili for a head in the snow]

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Yup.

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Bad things happen.

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Sometimes you reach for the cookie jar, but instead of getting a handful of chocolate [Boy reaches for cookie jar]

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chip cookie goodness, it falls on the floor and you end up with a smashed cookie jar.

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Dem's the breaks, kids.

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But sometimes when things are bad, people focus less on how to solve the problems, and

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focus more on who to blame, even though blame won't bring your delicious cookies back. [Boy pointing to man for smashing cookie jar]

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One common way of blaming others is something called scapegoating.

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It doesn't have anything to do with actual goats, however, so don't worry: no animals

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were blamed in the making of this video.

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Scapegoating means singling out someone or some group to take the blame. [Dino teaching scapegoating]

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When scapegoating happens, people tend to think that others are the source of their

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problems, even when the people being blamed have nothing to do with those problems. [Finger points to a dog]

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Here's an example: imagine someone has a tree in their yard, and after it falls down in

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a storm, they blame their neighbor.

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Which would make perfect sense….y'know…if the neighbor somehow controlled the wind. [Man blaming neighbor for tree falling down]

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Different people and groups have been scapegoated for all kinds of reasons: their gender…

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…their nationality…

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…the color of their skin…

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… even their beliefs.

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And in case you haven't guessed, these are pretty bad reasons to blame people for stuff

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they didn't do, so scapegoating is not an activity we'd recommend taking up in your

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free time. Do something else. Knit. [Girl knitting]

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Because scapegoating commonly involves blaming general groups of people, it often relies

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on stereotyping which is when someone thinks that an entire group of people all share the

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same thoughts and characteristics. [Dino discussing stereotyping]

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So, for example, when people scapegoat Muslims, they talk and think about Muslims as if they're

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all the same, and equally deserving of blame…

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…even though individual Muslims have different beliefs and attitudes about all sorts of things. [Muslim children sitting down by a tree]

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You know, because they're different people.

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Scapegoating often comes up when people are experiencing a lot of difficulties.

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They're angry, and they feel like they need to blame someone.

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However, in tough times, lashing out at people who aren't even responsible for your problems [Man apologises to group of girls]

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doesn't solve anything.

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Better to just glue that cookie jar back together.

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And also, you know, treat others with respect. [Cookie jar glued together falls on the floor]

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