October 22, 2008

Are you racist....?

I saw this the other day and was extremely puzzled by it.

It's called the Implicit Association Race Test and it attempts to identify inherent racism in individuals.

So I took the test and, apparently, I'm racist. Which did surprise me.

Let me explain:

This version of the Implicit Association Test measures unconscious or
automatic associations of "good" and "bad" with Black and White people

But it is done in such a way that it is subliminal.

In the test you are shown (in various sequences) a number of faces which you have to identify as "African-American" or "European-American" (Or to put it easily 'Black' or 'White'). Thereafter you have to associate a number of words as being either 'good' or 'bad'. These words include 'evil', 'happiness', 'joy', 'anger' etc.

Then (and this is the crafty part) they flash up either a word OR a face and you have to identify African American' / 'European American' or 'good' / 'bad'. Then they swap things around so that what was good is now bad and what was black is now white and the exercise repeats.

At the end of it all it gives you a rating (which it doesn't explain) and calls you racist. The principal is that if you are racist then you will associate white with good and black with bad.

Bu here's the kicker - if you get an answer wrong it tells you and lets you have another go!. As far as I recall I got one answer wrong and, apparently this put me in 48% of people who have a 'Strong automatic preference for White people' (incidentally this is a non-ethnic percentage, Black people have the same automatic preference for White's.

I do not understand this test at all. Can someone else take it and let me know where I'm going wrong?

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