Implicit Racism

Firstly, I went into this test a little bit skeptical. I felt that no matter how well I did it was going to show that I had an unconscious bias towards white Americans and viewed them as good over the others. The test starts out with black on one side and whites on the other. It then adds words of bad on the left side and words that are good on the right side. Then associates black with bad and white with good. I wonder how the results may differ if the test starts out with White with bad and Blacks with good.

There exists in our community a monster, a monster as old as mankind itself. This monster is known by many names; some call it racism, others discrimination but the only thing certain about this monstrosity is that it can be overcome if we all unite to fight against it. Racism is “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race” (Merriam Webster). Racism has multiple causes ranging from living in a secluded community, to the basic instincts of mankind which likes exemplify the differences found in others not like themselves. Racism can destroy the foundations on which a community is laid upon and can intrude upon the peace and sanction of many of its members. By informing members of the community on the reasons why racism continues to persist, encouraging acceptance and providing further education on how to relieve racial tensions, we can resolve the issue of racism once and for all.

In today’s society, announcing one’s aversion towards people different from them is the fastest way receive ridicule. In general, society has progressed to a point where being xenophobic, racist, and sexist is socially unacceptable. Despite this progress, society still suffers from the effects of racism, xenophobia, and sexism. Why is that? The answer has to do with the fact that while explicit expressions of these behaviors are seen as unacceptable, implicit associations still permeate our society. These associations lead to implicit bias. Implicit bias is readily becoming the most pervasive form of bias in our society. It contributes to both micro and macro-level inequalities, and raising awareness of implicit bias is crucial in order to suppress its effects on society. This paper will start with a discussion of what implicit bias is. This will be followed by a discussion of the effects of implicit bias. It will conclude with a discussion of how implicit bias can be combatted.

Implicit bias plays a significant role in today’s society, whether the members realize it or not. The online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy says,” ‘Implicit bias’ is a term of art referring to a relatively unconscious and relatively automatic features of prejudiced judgement and social behavior” (Brownstein 2015). Implicit biases are often based on stereotypes. Stereotypes, as defined by OpenStax, are “oversimplified ideas about groups of people” (OpenStax College 2015:248). Implicit biases can be problematic for many reasons. One way implicit biases are troublesome is due to the fact that it is unconscious, so it is usually out of a person’s control. People are often unaware of their own and how they use it. A very common way implicit biases are seen in society is through discrimination. Discrimination is defined as “prejudiced action against a group of people” (OpenStax College 2015:248). If a man and a woman are considered as potentials for being hired, the employer may have an implicit bias either towards or against men or women influencing them to hire one over the other based on their gender. This exemplifies a modern concern of gender discrimination as well. Implicit biases can come in many forms from gender, race, weight, sexuality, and many more. These factors can influence an individual’s treatment of others if they have significant bias. In society, these implicit biases can negatively influence minority and other groups and lead to inequality.

discusses the results of a Implicit Association Test which measures a persons automatic association between mental representation of objects in the memory. Nearly 88 percent of the white race who took the Implicit Association Test show inherent racial bias. They have found when white people carry a implicit racial bias that they subconsciously prefer white people over black people in areas such as employment and academic. People don't even realize that they have a subconscious biases against a certain race. Which can affect how they interact with them. America still has a problem with race, The Civil War ended many years ago but the war between races still exist . Once we acknowledge the truth behind inherent racial bias we can move towards

My results for the Race IAT assessment were that I had no automatic preference between black and white people. 18% of people scored the same result as me. I do agree with my results because I did not think I was racist before the test so I was hoping I would get this result. The test measured whether I carried implicit racism or not by measuring the strength of association between the concept and evaluations. In this case, the concept was european and african American or black people and white people and the evaluation was good or bad. I think that it is a valid way to measure whether someone is racist but if you are trying to measure if someone is racist they should try this test and another test so the person can get

The Implicit Association Test or IAT is a valuable tool that those in the criminal justice system use; often times during the hiring process candidates will be required to complete the IAT so that hiring officials can see if they have any unconscious bias. The IAT is still relatively new in terms of psychological research only being created in the 1990’s by psychologist Anthony Greenwald (Kaufman, 2011). Individuals who take the race portion of the test are shown pictures of Caucasian and African-American males or females, then are given positive or negative words that they associate with each race as fast as possible. After taking the test it measures the unconscious bias that everyone has deep down (Kaufman, 2011).

Research centers for the study of racial bias have developed experimental studies to help understand how race can, for instance, influence a police officer to shoot an unarmed suspect. The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is one of the most commonly used tests for this study. IAT was developed by three scientists, Tony Greenwald (University of Washington), Mahzarin Banaji (Harvard University), and Brian Nosek (University of Virginia) (“ProjectImplicit”). Their “Project Implicit” program was designed to identify our societal biases through the association of faces (black and white) with words (good and bad). This program uses a scoring algorithm that can identify those who are faking the test with approximately 75% accuracy (Cvencek et al.).

The anecdotal instances of racism in Rankin’s Citizen together demonstrates the existence of a structural form of racism. The anecdotes demonstrates that if a person is of colour they suffer different treatment which distinguish them to be an ‘other’ type of person. The idea behind these racist encounters can be further categorized into three categories: overt racism, covert racism, and institutional racism, and these ideas together form the basis behind structural racism.

The Implicit Association Test is a Harvard study that measures people’s associations with certain types of things and people, one of the many tests includes race. When looking at the statistics that are exhibited by each test’s results, it shows that 68 percent of people have a preference towards white people while a measly 14 percent have a preference towards black people, the remaining 18 percent being in between. This is largely because of societal influence that sways the biases of people largely towards white people and negative associations that are wrongfully placed upon black people. Staples reflects on this issue and its causes and effects in his essay “Black Men and Public Space” Utilizing his strong of persona and ethos, he states

The First test I took was the Race (‘Black –White ’IAT). In my opinion, the test was unnecessary. The IAT fails to incorporate life experience, it is computer based which means it is error prone. You may have a preference towards white or black people, but that doesn’t make you racist. Your preference may stem from the way you were raised and demographic you are a part of. The results of my Race IAT stated “Your data suggest no automatic preference between Black people and White people”. The results were accurate with what I predicted. Growing up, I went to a predominantly white elementary school, so many of my peers were Caucasian. We moved when I was 11, so the middle school I attended was predominantly African American., and my high school

I was curious to take the IAT racial test because I had never heard about it before. After taking it, I did some research and I found interesting explanations about what it broadly measures as well as opinions from different researchers about its use and accuracy. At first, I was a little bit scared to take it because I was afraid to discover myself having strong automatic associations that I was unaware of. When I consciously think about my values and what I stand for, I consider myself as an open-minded person who is not racist and values the globalization and multicultural mixer. However, my results suggested a moderate automatic preference for European American compared to African American. Honestly, I was surprised when I saw this answer

Knowing, understanding, and being aware of personal biases is the first step in the development of plans or strategies overcoming biases. As nurses we must recognize and be more sensitive to the care provided to patients and understand that differences do exist in and between the differing races, cultures, and ethnic groups (Giger, 2013, p. 3). The Implicit Association Test (IAT) is used to identify and provide an awareness to biases that are consciously or unconsciously present in an individuals actions and beliefs (Project Implicit, 2011). After completing the Race IAT, Gender-Career IAT and Religion IAT, I will discuss the prejudices, biases, and stereotypical thinking present in my life and share what steps can be taken to reduce or eliminate

For this assignment, I chose the Race Bias Implicit Association Test. I was surprised because I have taken this same assessment for another class years ago and my results changed. The first time I took the test, I received a result that did show a slightly biased preference for European American’s over African Americans. However, this time, I took my time to read and select the answer that I thought was best. However, this time around, the data suggested no automatic preference between African Americans and European Americans. I was honestly shocked at these results after conditioning myself to believe that slight implicit bias was normal after reading my results on my first attempt a few semesters back. The first time I took this test, I was devastated by the thought of even the slightest bit of bias as I’ve always been a bit of a social justice warrior when it comes to race issues. Initially I attributed the results to poorly worded questions and then attempted to rationalize by

For this assignment, I’ve decided to complete the Race Implicit Bias Test. I decided to take that test because I wanted to see which race I had an automatic preference toward. I expected my results to be either be neutral or have a slight preference to White people to Black people.