The Washington Post Magazine published a lengthy but provocative piece by Shankar Vedantam regarding a technique which tests for racial bias. The test, known as the Implicit Association Test, was developed by three researchers including Harvard’s Mahzarin Banaji:
AT 4 O’CLOCK ON A RECENT WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON, a 34-year-old white woman sat down in her Washington office to take a psychological test. Her office decor attested to her passion for civil rights — as a senior activist at a national gay rights organization, and as a lesbian herself, fighting bias and discrimination is what gets her out of bed every morning. A rainbow flag rested in a mug on her desk.
The woman brought up a test on her computer from a Harvard University Web site. It was really very simple: All it asked her to do was distinguish between a series of black and white faces. When she saw a black face she was to hit a key on the left, when she saw a white face she was to hit a key on the right. Next, she was asked to distinguish between a series of positive and negative words. Words such as “glorious” and “wonderful” required a left key, words such as “nasty” and “awful” required a right key. The test remained simple when two categories were combined: The activist hit the left key if she saw either a white face or a positive word, and hit the right key if she saw either a black face or a negative word.
Then the groupings were reversed. The woman’s index fingers hovered over her keyboard. The test now required her to group black faces with positive words, and white faces with negative words. She leaned forward intently. She made no mistakes, but it took her longer to correctly sort the words and images.
Her result appeared on the screen, and the activist became very silent. The test found she had a bias for whites over blacks.
That must suck. I think most of us are pretty sure that we aren’t racists or bigots, but its an eye-opener to see how the biases of society seep into our subconscious.
“I’m surprised,” the woman said. She bit her lip. “And disappointed.”
MAHZARIN BANAJI WILL NEVER FORGET HER OWN RESULTS THE FIRST TIME SHE TOOK A BIAS TEST, now widely known as the Implicit Association Test. But whom could she blame? After all, she’d finally found what she was looking for.
Growing up in India, Banaji had studied psychophysics, the psychological representation of physical objects: A 20-watt bulb may be twice as bright as a 10-watt bulb, for example, but if the two bulbs are next to each another, a person may guess the difference is only 5 watts. Banaji enjoyed the precision of the field, but she realized that she found people and their behavior toward one another much more interesting. The problem was that there was no accurate way to gauge people’s attitudes. You had to trust what they told you, and when it came to things such as prejudice — say, against blacks or poor people — people usually gave politically correct answers. It wasn’t just that people lied to psychologists — when it came to certain sensitive topics, they often lied to themselves. Banaji began to wonder: Was it possible to create something that could divine what people really felt — even if they weren’t aware of it themselves?
Being a student of evolution in graduate school, I myself have begun to learn that a great many societal behaviors are rooted in biology and evolution. This behavior is apparently no different
There is likely a biological reason people so quickly make assumptions — good or bad — about others, Banaji says. The implicit system is likely a part of the “primitive” brain, designed to be reactive rather than reasoned. It specializes in quick generalizations, not subtle distinctions. Such mental shortcuts probably helped our ancestors survive. It was more important when they encountered a snake in the jungle to leap back swiftly than to deduce whether the snake belonged to a poisonous species. The same mental shortcuts in the urban jungles of the 21st century are what cause people to form unwelcome stereotypes about other people, Banaji says. People revert to the shortcuts simply because they require less effort.
The article although quite long is an interesting read. I think I am going to take the test for myself now.
The Results-
In the interest of honesty I am publishing my results. They are as follows:
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for White American relative to African American
Wow. I too am embarrassed. I don’t know if I believe the results but I don’t know enough about the method to dismiss it offhand. BUT…I should point out that:
the critics persist. Philip Tetlock, a professor of organizational behavior in the business school at the University of California at Berkeley, and Ohio State University psychology professor Hal Arkes argue that Jesse Jackson might score poorly on the test. They cite the civil rights leader’s statement a decade ago that there was nothing more painful at that stage of his life “than to walk down the street and hear footsteps and start thinking about robbery. Then look around and see somebody white and feel relieved.”
If a prominent black civil rights leader could hold such a bias, Tetlock and Arkes ask, what do bias scores really mean? Whatever the IAT is measuring, Tetlock and Arkes argue, it is not what people would call discrimination — no one would dream of accusing Jesse Jackson of harboring feelings of hostility toward African Americans.
This test is wonky. I would be interested in seeing a similar test with different abstract concepts. I’m sure you’ll similar results.
Abhi, i took the test after reading the article yesterday– i received the exact same result you did.
the article is long, but worth every word. totally thought-provoking, whether you agree with it all or not.
I read this article too (of course, I’m a Post fanatic.)
Over the holidays, I watched a BBC programme called “Child of Our Time” which follows a group of kids around from birth and tries to answer the “nature or nurture” question. The episode I watched (“Identity Crisis”) follows the kids at age 5. They asked a bunch of kids different questions about identity: what do you want to be when you grow up (favorite answer: bunny), nationality, religion, etc.
The saddest/scariest part for me: they had posters with four pics: white kid, black kid, South Asian Kid, East Asian kid. They matched the gender of the kids on the poster to the child, and asked: who is nice, who would you want to be your friend, who is most likely to steal, etc. etc. It was heartbreaking to watch the little black girl pick the black girl as the person she would not want to be her friend. I think it was especially scary b/c the kids are FIVE.
Anyway, you can see more about the programme here .
-D
I’m BACK!!!!!!!!!!! I’ve been screaming this for years!!!!!! especially after my stints in corporate America! I racism against Black people is woven into the fabric of American life. I think people learn how to hate Black people like driving a car! I agree with Toni Morrison’s assertion that part of becoming an American (from an immigrants perspective) is to acquire an anti-Black bias!
Please note that I meant to say that I think I racism against Black people is woven into the fabric of American life.
I read the article. I have to do the test when I have time. The article was a little sad to read but I was so happy that it was documented. I’m so sick of people saying some Black people are crazy because we know what is up when we are dealing with anti-Black bias but the situations are sooo subtle because everyone is sooo into diversity and liberal. I also believe that some immigrants acquire a serious pro-white preference which my friend (another Black woman) says makes total sense because they (immigrants) are trying to assimilate into American society. How do you assimilate into American society? HATE Black people!!!
I’m almost finished. I’m soooo excited. I really like the truth! And for the people on the other side, yes, Black people probably have anti-white bias too or anti-immigrant biases, or whatever. I know I didn’t grow up hearing anything positive about white people. I was told not to trust them (white people) which makes a lot of sense being raised by former Southerners.
The interesting thing is that I was not raised with any anti-immigrant, anti-Jewish, anti-Latino, or anti-Asian sentiments. I was only feed a lot of garbage about not trusting white people. Please note when I use the term white people, I mean white Americans. I have a major Europeans from Europe fetish that I won’t allow even my precious family to mess with. Give me France or give me death! I’m leaving because I’m done crashing your party!
I must add that I do believe that racial biases may be linked with class. Therefore South Asians of lower economic standing in the USA may not have anti-Black bias. I’m really done now! Sayonara! 🙂 🙂 🙂 I’m so happy that its sick!
Interestingly, the New Yorker writer Malcolm Gladwell, whose mother is Jamaican, scored the same way on this test and says half the blacks in the U.S. do as well. Discomfiting all around.
I’m not surprised about that either! Self-hatred is a powerful things (hence Michael Jackson)!
As a Black American woman, I really don’t want to return to the USA because of all the stereotypes and mad hatred spewed about us (Black people). (But I have to return to the USA eventually because I have a debt to pay to my community.) I really realized the depth of the madness being spewed in the media since I am abroad. Black people in America have been demonized and dehumanized. Unfortunately, some of us don’t have the skills to critically analyze our situation, so we hate ourselves and its everywhere, especially in hiphop music. I don’t buy that N-word is just a word bullsh*t. When Black people hate themselves, they call each N-word. Some people use fair skin coloring cremes in their four walls (like Indians & Africans), Black Americans let the whole world know that some of us hate ourselves. I am finally leaving your party 😉
Maybe this could explain my Hindi class fiasco 😉 Yes, I took a Hindi class and it was a very interesting experience.
Ok so I took the test and the results are depressing. I have a strong preference for light skinned people and I have a moderate dislike of Arab Muslims.
That test has more bias than I do. I didn’t list my own ethnicity before taking the test, so it assumed I was African-American. I correctly made all the correct associations, except once I identified a face that was supposed to be “white” as “black”.
At the end the test said I had a slight bias against “whites” in favour of “blacks”.
Doesn’t this test just show bias, not necessarily racism stemming from such bias? I agree with Ms. World that the US culture is indundated with the stereotype that white is better, but maybe like Russell Peters said we will all just be beige one day…..and pick something else to be biased about say curly hair or straight…
It may be random, but in the 2 times I tried it and in the time described in the article, the first way is euroamerican=good and afroamerican=bad. Once you get in the habit of doing that, then you have to switch. Wouldn’t one criticism of the IAT be that it predisposes people to associate them that way when typing? That could be one explanation for the outcome of the study. On the other hand, if (as may be the case) it starts off as euroamerican=bad and afroamerican=good half the time, and people still trend the other way, then the outcome is as stands.
(And, from my time spent hanging out in William James, the psych area at Harvard, I’d say they frequently don’t control for such things. So many tests I took… so many of them, I’d say something about the test afterwards and the tester would say they weren’t controlling for that, or weren’t aware that people might look at the questions asked in that way and answer from that perspective, etc., but that they were under deadline so they probably wouldn’t restart.)
come ON…as if there wasn’t any reason people might be scared of blacks? they do commit 50% of murders and robberies in the US, after all…and have vastly disproportionate rates of assault, rape, and other violent crimes:
http://www.fbi.gov/filelink.html?file=/ucr/cius_03/pdf/03sec4.pdf
it isn’t white golf courses that are “inner city” neiughborhoods that cops fear to tread
besides, i bet that if they tested blacks that blacks would come out with racism against whites. and wanna bet that whites wouldn’t have negative reactions to asians or indians?? there’s a reason for these reactions.
as chris rock said: “Blacks complain that the media distort our images. Get real, Rock says, “when I nervously go to a money machine at night, I ain’t lookin’ over my shoulder for the media!”
be a little more critical people!!!
I personally am one of those Black people that have a pro-African American preference and anti-white bias, according to the test. so Come On, you are right about that one.
If you are scared of Blacks. I
ll be honest and admit that Im scared of white men. Ill takedangerous Blacksovercrazy white menwho have a history of enslaving people and landing in other peoples back yards (India, most of East Africa, South Africa, and the USA) and calling it discovering a new land. But hey, what`s a little slave trading and colonialism amongst friends?don’t know about you, but I watch the white/asian/hispanic guy following me to my car as I leave the train station in the evening just as closely as the black guy.
i think that’s critical enough.
I will actually try to leave now because SepiaMutiny really isn`t the space for me to get into debates over race.
But I must add that this is a test about biases. Racism and biases are not the same thing, in my view. I do think biases could lead to racism. But having a anti- whatever bias doesn`t automatically mean you are burning crosses on lawns or yelling-Go home ~~!
I think dealing with anti- whatever biases is a very subtle situation. I believe that our biases show up in our personal lives, in who we befriend, date, or socialize with, and sometimes who we are willing to listen to.
I
m Ms. Pro Black woman and Im always down with sisters of every color (Im a feminist.) But I have realized that Im not feeling white American middle & upper middle class hetero males (I love gay men of all colors). They have to prove themselves to be worthy of spending time in my presence (in a social context that is non-work related). I know this is very unbecoming behavior and prejudice on my part. Ive also realized that it lessens my character as a person because it shows my lack of compassion towards another human being (unless they shown themselves to be a jerk). I am working on that. Im trying to decolonize myself (I don`t think its going as well as I hoped).The test isn
t a judgement but more of a call to any interested parties to take a more critical look at what is going on in American society regarding how we view each other. Please remember that babies arent born with an innate knowledge of racism or any anti-immigrant, Muslim, Black, Indian, white, Jewish, Arab, gay, etc. biases. We all learned this stuff as we got older.Peace to you all!
Ms. World… they’ve done those tests on babies too. Show them pictures of various people and see whether they have a happy reaction or otherwise. They’re born with biases as well, honey 🙂
I
ll takedangerous Blacksovercrazy white menwho have a history of enslaving people and landing in other peoples back yardssure thing, i’ll take the reverse. so would everyone who wants to come from africa or haiti to the US.
ain’t no white guys going around enslaving people today.
plenty of very dangerous black neighborhoods though, so dangerous that even jesse jackson admits they’re dangerous.
http://216.239.57.104/search?q=cache:r1Oa3N0gkrMJ:www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/charen030800.asp+jesse+jackson+footsteps+behind&hl=en
Even Jesse Jackson once admitted that if he is walking alone at night and hears footsteps behind him, he is “relieved” if he turns and finds that the pursuer is white.
looks like jesse isn’t afraid of being enslaved by those 21st century white slavers and colonialists!!!
what`s a little slave trading and colonialism amongst friends?
also – you must not know that blacks enslaved other blacks and that blacks have committed genocide against other blacks.
but what’s a little ignorance among friends? especially when it gets in the way of self righteous posturing over white “racism”.
I haven’t taken the test yet, but from the description, the order of the associations needs to be counterbalanced. If you have learnt “white = positive, black = negative” to pass the first part of the test, and then have to learn “white = negative, black = positive” to pass the second part, the association rules you learnt for the first part are going to interfere with your rule learning and performance on the second part.
The test-taker would have to take the test in one order one day, and then several weeks later take it in the other order, and then the delays in the second part of each test would have to be compared to see if one set of delays is on average longer than the other set – if you find this effect, then there is bias against whichever group has the ” = positive” rule for the longer delays.
Anyone who has done more than a cursory study of slavery or colonization realizes that the effects of history continue well into the present. For better and for worse, the world would not be they way it is now if it was not for European colonization. So please don’t play the “that was in the past and it is over” game.
And remember that blacks enslaving other blacks, while just as wrong as whites enslaving blacks, is a power play based on other factors (such as belonging to an opposing political party). It is NOT based on the “scientific” theories of the modern period that presented one race as more evolved than another, and like it or not, are still at the basis of much of today’s Western thought.
Out of 5000+ years of recorded history, the idea that people of different races, cultures or genders can be truly equal has really only been around for about fifty years, and it hasn’t even gotten CLOSE to permeating the entire world.
We are living in the midst of a very new movement. We can’t say that racism is dead just because we celebrate MLK Jr. day as a national holiday. We can’t expect that people who have been oppressed for hundreds of years within the context of a certain culture are suddenly going to wake up to a blank slate and (want to) aspire to the same economic class as those who oppressed them. The world does not work like that. Change happens slowly, but it does not happen at all if people do not work to effect it. That means everyone of every race.
What we can do is keep calling out racism as wrong when we see it. This is a harder task than it seems, considering that we learn what we live from our parents, who learned from theirs before them, etc. Somewhere along the line there must be a major paradigm shift that calls out the racism of previous generations to be wrong.
My great-grandparents lived right in the middle of the racist paradigm of the early 20th century. My grandparents were of the generation that said, “I don’t mean to be racist, but I just can’t trust black people.” My parents were of the hippie generation that loved everyone, but still told racist jokes and sent them around work via fax. What will my children say of the interracial attitudes of my generation?
I have never owned a slave, nor have I colonized a faraway land. But that doesn’t mean that I have license to perpetuate discrimination.
And I’m the token white girl, so I am writing from the perspective of a white person taking responsibility for her part. No one is exempt. Examine your own history and figure out how you too can work towards creating equality for everyone.
It’s interesting how you cherry pick your stats. For anyone interested CO is probably referring to Table 43 in the PDF.
Murder and nonneglient manslaughter: White 48.9% Black 48.1% Forcible Rape: White 64.1%, Black 33.4% Robbery: White 35.2%, Black 62.8% Aggravated Assault: White 59.3%, Black 38.3% Burglary: White 71.4%, Black 38.3%
Overall: White 70.6%, 26.6% Arrests in 2003
So where exactly did you the 50% of murders? Or was it a combination of Murders and Robberies?
it isn’t white golf courses that are “inner city” neiughborhoods that cops fear to tread ..besides, i bet that if they tested blacks that blacks would come out with racism against whites.
Well, duh, that’s what this whole article was to show BIAS not racism.
So what are the reasons? And don’t use stats, because stats can be read anyway you want them to be read.
as chris rock said: “Blacks complain that the media distort our images. Get real, Rock says, “when I nervously go to a money machine at night, I ain’t lookin’ over my shoulder for the media!” be a little more critical people!!!
Yeah, your criticism is mostly regurtation.
All american father and son in a Red stat, running a slave prostitution ring.
Another slave ring in Chicago.
I’m sure I can find more instances and usually in the West it has to do with sex and prostitution. On the flip side, the Sudan still has slavery going on well as the geonicidal issues.
He was referring to the issue of Black on Black crime.
Don’t throw stones when you live in a glass house.
Murder and nonneglient manslaughter: White 48.9% Black 48.1% Forcible Rape: White 64.1%, Black 33.4% Robbery: White 35.2%, Black 62.8% Aggravated Assault: White 59.3%, Black 38.3%
ahahaha sluggo you freakin’ DUMBASS, you think something’s missing there? like maybe hispanics perhaps? maybe maybe perhaps?
heck leaving out hispanics out of violent crime stats is like leaving big pun out of the top 90’s rappers. it just ain’t done son!!! these are big contributors we’re talking about son!!! mara salvatrucha don’t want you to be dissing their murdering abilities
FBI #’s are right for blacks but hispanics are counted as white. try Cali #’s. add them in and you get a very different picture for example:
http://justice.hdcdojnet.state.ca.us/cjsc_stats/prof01/00/22.htm
no way no how are whites committing 70% of the violent crime in the usa. crime rates in order: blacks #1 with a bullet, hispanics next, then whites, then asians.
this by the way answers your question about why whites don’t fear asians or indians nor vice versa…they aren’t fearing being shot, mugged, raped, or robbed by the chinese or indian kid.
spin spin spin all you want, but inner cities are dangerous for a reason and that reason isn’t chinese girls.
who raped the central park joggers? who pulled off the wichita massacre? who burned down LA during the riots? who burned down freddy’s fashion mart?
guess it was the koreans.
oh yeah and what % of violent crimes in NYC are committed by blacks or Hispanics? Think it’s 50%? 60%? maybe 80%?
Nah loc, try 89.2% of violent criminals in NYC named by victim as black or Hispanic:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/nypd/pdf/pap/stopandfrisk_0501.pdf
but maybe those racists need to start looking out for chinese girls and white slavery rings…yeah just like all those christian suicide bombers…danger danger will robinson!!!
Well BB, it seems your reading comprehension skills aren’t too developed and that as I stated you can manipulate statistics which you did. This is what I wrote:
Can you read that word, Arrests? Did I write that 70% of white’s committed murders and robberies? Has the train arrived at the station yet? Accordingly your spinning with the stats again. The statistics were for the UNITED STATES, not for California. Do you understand the concept of population in regards to statistics?
The US Census for 2000 reported that there were 281,421,906 million people in the US. It’s not completely accurate due to illegal immigration and non-returns, but it’s the numbers they have. White people account for 194,552,774 Hispanic or Latino: 35,305,818 Black: 34,658,190
So according to these population figures it is more than possible that 70% of the Arrests were white.
Maybe, just maybe, you should take this up with the FBI, since they wrote the report. But let’s follow your logic here: how would you describe Sammy Sosa. Sosa is from the Dominican Republic, so he is considered latin, but if police officer were to report seeing him what would the descripition be? Correct, black. What about the actor Martin Sheen, his ethnic background is latin as well, how would a police officer describe him as well? Correct, white. What about someone from an African nation, just how would you tell the difference between them and a black person from the US? Similarly for someone who is half-black, half-white but has all the looks of a typical black person. Why not break it down even more, what if someone is irish, german, french, italian, native american..just how would you identify them? We could even take it down to the country,town of their births, but why stop there, let’s go to genetic markers. Maybe, just maybe, you could help redo the whole police/intelligence system in the US to wait several days to figure out the ethnicity of someone before reporting what they are; So why don’t you tell me who is white? Who is black?
Actually it’s more than just about whether just whites are scared. It’s about perception and bias, which is what this whole article was about. You obviously fit the profile of someone who doesn’t understand (nor cares) about the history of the sociopolictal and econimic issues that have often made minorities such as blacks and hispanics into pariahs. What your talking about is the tangible fear that people can relate to, i.e. assault, robbery and murder. And sure if you look to certain areas of the US, especially in urban areas such as Los Angeles, NYC, Atlanta, and Chicago there is greater number of minorities and the possibilities of violent crime being commited by that minority is higher. Crimes are committed everyday, no doubt about it, but often the most reported are highly violent ones. And also what is not reported is that in terms of population it’s not worse than it was 60years ago, in fact it has been reduced somewhat since 1994. Am I going to be afraid that Key Lay is going to assault on the street, no, but then again I believe that anyone is capable of doind something so I’m always cautious. But like I said these are more tangible fears because it’s possible that it may happen to you because you see it on the nightly new every night.
What is often not talked about though is often non-violent crimes causes huge amounts of devastation. Take for example, Enron. Enron executives, board members, and others in the heirarchy (did you see any black or hispanics there?) rigged the energy markets in California defrauding the state for almost $20B. Because of the rolling blackouts many small business, especially those that need refrigaration for conituous use, lost their business. They also lied to their investors and even their own workers. Several thousands of people were affected by these actions, yet no one is scared of this or even really bothered(except for those in California at the time), because it’s an intangible threat. How about this, here we have information that the Bush administration suppressed a report by the EPA that after the world trade center towers there was huge amount toxic dust that went out, and because of the suppression, several thousand workers now suffer severe respitory health problems; not to mention that this dust went into the ventilation system of all the buildings probably within a half-mile to mile radius. How many babies, children, adults, and senior citizens were affected? But again this non-tangible threat that is not brought on a daily basis on the news. So yes, people will more scared of black and hispanic people, but as this article stated it’s all about perception and bias, which you seem to have loads of.
Again, your ignoring population issues with your stats, nor have you broken it down by burrough. And where the arrests occurred.
It seems apparent that you have no concept of what the word “racists” means. Nor have you conceded that you were incorrect about your assertion that white people don’t do slavery. On a side note did you read the article about the father and son in Kansas, and how they enslaved a girl as young as 14? And what is all that about Chinese girls?
Some history on the KKK Southern poverty law center reports on groups, such as the klu klux klan and neo-nazis, who have many of their beliefs rooted in christianity. And yes, not just groups with white people in them. Information on racists, fascists, and neonazis in Europe. Timothy McVeigh and the Murrah building. Here’s some more wiki information.
It’s obvious your knowledge is very limited and focused primarily on what you see on the telivision. By the you are as grammatically deficient as you are mentally.
muhahahaha… it looks like everybody’s done talking. which means i get the last word. i should go around posting my comments on threads that are long dead. for the record. i took the test. i said i was asian. Isn’t it time they put south asian on the list as a separate race group?
Your data suggest little or no automatic preference for European American relative to African American
It does start off associating good with white ppl, but isnt that what we’re trying to find out… if things like that bias people naturally?
how did this end up a litany of statistics about racially profiled crime? if you look at it, its more money and power than race that contributes to crime. well, since nobody else will read this, i think i’ll stop typing now.
I took the test after rading the article today, yes I know I am a little late. My test was inconclusive. Your data suggest little or no automatic preference for Black American relative to White American
This is fucked. I’m a young white lesbian and it said I had a slight preference for fat people, blacks and old people and it said I prefered straight people and non-ay-rabs