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The surprises begin when visitors are greeted by a smarmy host provocateur, who gloats from a jumble of video screens. "Hey, there! You look like average people," he says. "I mean, you've gotta be above average or you wouldn't be in a museum in the first place, right?" Pause. "Of course, we all have our limits. And we should. There's no reason to accept the lousy way certain people drive, f'instance -- not to mention how the you-know-whos do business. But I can tell you're not like them!" The host, who pops up regularly throughout the exhibits, points to doors marked PREJUDICED and NOT PREJUDICED. "You know which to choose," he purrs. Predictably (and the museum can sometimes be a bit heavy-handed in its predictability), visitors who choose the NOT PREJUDICED door find it is locked.
Beyond the PREJUDICED door, a monitor shows a white doctor at a cocktail party confiding, "Guess who moved in next door?" The camera shifts to a second group. "I mean, right next door. Can you imagine?" exclaims a black businessman. The camera travels again. "These people, they live like animals!" complains a wealthy white matron. An Asian restaurant owner adds, "You know what they're like -- the way they raise their children." Contends a thirtyish white man: "Sure wouldn't want my daughter . . ." ". . . son . . ." says the Asian. ". . . sister . . ." says a Hispanic woman. The matron finishes: ". . . marrying one of them."
Further inside, visitors encounter historical exhibits on such episodes as the Turkish slaughter of Armenians and the Khmer Rouge atrocities in Cambodia. Displays about the U.S. include a map locating active hate groups and a multiscreen show on the hardships of Martin Luther King Jr.'s civil rights campaigns. A time line shows that the Iroquois were condemned to reservations two years before the U.S. Constitution was ratified.
One of the best uses of interactive technology is in the exhibit dealing with last year's riots in Los Angeles. Viewers can move through a time line detailing events before and during the disturbance as well as the media's role, heroic acts and the conflagration's aftermath. By hitting a few buttons, people can call up interviews with community residents, police, fire fighters and gang members. The computer asks visitors questions about their views of the episode, and those who answer can find out how other people responded.
Mounting a Holocaust exhibit that was distinctive from others around the world took some imagination. An eight-story Tower of Witness will be embedded with hundreds of photos found in death camps. Just as striking is the re- creation of a concentration camp. It begins with a tactile shock: the museum's soft carpeting suddenly gives way to rough concrete. The smells and shadings of stone and steel fill the room. To continue, visitors must choose between passageways labeled ABLE BODIED or CHILDREN AND OTHERS. They have been told the second door meant death for boys and girls and the infirm. The moment is almost paralyzing.