Not Me?

In one of my classes we were asked to take the Implicit Association Test, which is attempting to identify your implicit bias based on the speed of association of words with images. I had taken it years ago when Malcolm Gladwell wrote about it in his bestseller, The Tipping Point. The test that he took and got the most notice about race and the association of black with danger, negativity and so on. Frankly, I wasn't surprised by the results of my preferring White because of my upbringing in a majority White neighborhood and the reinforcement of radicalized notions in media, film, etc. of African Americans in US American society.

What was interesting and disconcerting is to hear my classmates (majority White) discuss the test in terms how it didn't seem valid to them and that the results must be about muscle dexterity of their finger. On and on went the rationalizing of how the test can't possibly indicate their bias. It was essentially a collective denial of the realities of bias and that, yes, each person is biased whether about race, gender, class, ability, and so on. All I can sense from most is "Not Me?"

Yes, you. And me. All of us.



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