Do you have a racist bias?

[LadyJaye]

Originally Posted by ajblaise

We all have racist biases. Would you rather see a black person or a white person in a alley way in the middle of the night?

Depends on where I am. I lived in a ghetto area of town for most of my life, and I was suspicious of white AND black men.

I take people on a case by case basis, and certainly not on race. I've been helped and hurt by all racial types, so I choose not to make a decision based on skin color.

[IlyaK1986]

Originally Posted by LadyJaye

Depends on where I am. I lived in a ghetto area of town for most of my life, and I was suspicious of white AND black men.

I take people on a case by case basis, and certainly not on race. I've been helped and hurt by all racial types, so I choose not to make a decision based on skin color.

But which one were you MORE suspicious of?

[Jack Flak]

I wouldn't say I do [have a racist bias], but I definitely have a cultural bias. I try to stay away from unknown people who have their waistbands on their thighs and bigass caps on sideways.

[Splittet]

One should note this test unconscious bias. By far most people have an unconscious bias for their race, although the degree differs, and what one does with that impulse differs greatly as well. Some choose to ignore it and think rationally about it, some go with it. The test does not measure your conscious bias (but correlates with), only your unconscious.

My data suggest a slight automatic preference for European American compared to African American, by the way.

[Anja]

For the first eighteen years of my life I lived in a town so thick with descendents of Norwegian immigrants that to be Swedish was to be "different". That's a favorite down-home expression to evade telling the truth.

I never met a Black person until I was twenty-one and living on the West Coast. And I was frightened. I was certain they wouldn't like me because of my skin color. Imagine my surprise when they didn't seem to notice!

It was while my husband served in the military and a military base was an excellent introduction to different races and cultures because, from my observation, the only discrimination I ever noticed there was one of rank. As a Private's wife I had my share of that.

Since then I have met and found friendships in people of many different cultures and races.

But I know well that my deepest comfort is with Northern Europeans. There is nearly an automatic recognition of facial features and mannerisms which feels like home to me. Guess one could say that, in the multi-culti sense I was raised at a disadvantage. And probably as a minority! Heh.

I've spent decades paying attention to the ingrown prejudices I haul around with me. And I wince when I discover that They still lodge there, sometimes unbeknownst to me until something happens, and - ick - there It still is!

I was saddened this winter when I lived with a mixed group of people for several months and saw so many of my old stereotypes being played out daily that I returned home with considerable repair work to do on my sense of acceptance.

I am searching for a sense of direction with this puzzlement on my part and doing some reading of various cultural news publications to gain more information of what others are thinking with intelligence.

[LadyJaye]

Originally Posted by IlyaK1986

But which one were you MORE suspicious of?

As I said, it depends on the place. I'm suspicious of men, regardless of their color. I've had black men and white men do shabby things to me, and I've also had both demographics come to my rescue, too. I'm suspicious of people based on the area I'm in, not on color specifically.

[pure_mercury]

I am concerned about the bias of this test. It said I had a "strong automatic preference for European Americans" when I, in fact, made mistakes that, by my count, conflated African Americans with positives more often than not. I wonder how much it was influenced by declaring myself "slightly conservative" and "White, non-Latino" at the beginning. . .

[Snail]

I didn't take the race test yet. I found one more interesting that was more directly related to my personal concerns, so I wanted to see how sincere I was about my claims to non-superficiality in this area.

You have completed the Fat - Thin IAT.

Your Result
Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between Fat People and Thin People.
Thank you for your participation. Most respondents find it easier to associate Fat people with Bad and Thin people with Good compared to the reverse.

I'm going to try the race test next. Thanks for the link.

[Snail]

You have completed the African American - European American IAT.

Your Result
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for African American compared to European American.

I sure hope this doesn't mean anything. I don't feel like I have a preference for either group, although I must admit some empathy with any group that I feel is unfairly oppressed, so that might have come through as a subconscious preference. I'm not quite sure what to think of this.

[pure_mercury]

Originally Posted by Snail

I sure hope this doesn't mean anything. I don't feel like I have a preference for either group, although I must admit some empathy with any group that I feel is unfairly oppressed, so that might have come through as a subconscious preference. I'm not quite sure what to think of this.

Do me a favor: re-take the test the same way, but say you are a 40-year-old white male with a high school education, and that you are moderately or strongly conservative.