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Racism: The Implicit Associations Test Essay

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What is racism? The definition given by Merriam Webster’s dictionary is, “a belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial difference produce an inherent superiority of a particular race”. From the definition alone we can see that racism and prejudice are horrible and incorrect errors in a person’s thinking that no one would, or should, be proud to admit to having such feelings. Is it true though, that race or prejudicial feelings do not come into consideration at all to such people who profess they truly do not bias towards those of another race or group? A person may be showing signs of modern racism in which they outwardly show and act as if they are an unprejudiced person, while inwardly …show more content…

The results for my first test showed that I have a slightly higher preference for Hinduism values over Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. I did not think that these results were accurate because I associate my beliefs with that of Christianity’s, so I decided to take the test again. The results of taking it for a second time were surprisingly similar, with 2 differences. This time Christianity and Judaism were the same, but Buddhism was added and rated as more positive and Islam was rated as less positive. While having respect for some of the teachings from each of these religions, I do not believe that they were completely accurate but they may have a grain of truth. Due to the bad press and publicity that Islam receives in America, I could have a slightly more negative view of it - even though I know that what is being represented in the media is not that of the whole religion. With the case of Buddhism being rated higher, I do respect its overall values of being a nice and good person so that could be the deeper reasoning as why it was rated that way.
Two of my other tests showed that I strongly associate European Americans with American and Asian Americans with foreign and slightly associate Native Americans with foreign and White Americans with American.

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