queerbychoice (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
queerbychoice) wrote2001-12-05 12:32 am
queerbychoice) wrote2001-12-05 12:32 am
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Test Your Unconscious Biases!
Finally, a set of personality tests that are actually worth taking!
Age Bias—Do you prefer the young or the elderly? This test measures the automatic association between the young and old and positive and negative concepts.
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for young.
[Hmm. I took this test first because it felt the least scary; I didn't think I had any preference.]
Racial Bias: Asian Americans—This test probes for an automatic stereotype that Asian Americans are not as "American" as European Americans.
Your data suggest little or no automatic ethnic association with American or Foreign.
[Yay, so I did learn something from having grown up with all Asian friends instead of Euro ones!]
Gender Bias—This stereotype test measures the strength of automatic association between women and men and the concepts "liberal arts" and "science."
Your data suggest a strong automatic association between male and science.
[This test was by far the most overwhelmingly difficult for me of any of them. I was pretty sure ahead of time that I'd get a rotten score, I was still shocked to find out just HOW extremely incapable I am of associating "female" with "science," no matter how hard I try. Off to feminist reeducation boot camp with me!]
Body Image Bias—Using drawings of people who vary in weight, this test measures automatic attitudes about obese people.
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for fat.
[Cool! Maybe now all the people who keep annoying me by constantly declaring themselves "too fat" will shut up and start trying not to get too skinny for fear I won't prefer them anymore.]
Racial Bias: Weapons—This test measures the automatic association of weapons and harmless objects with Black and White adult faces.
Your data suggest a moderate automatic association between White and weapons.
[Um, actually I'm not used to seeing members of ANY race carrying weapons around in my everyday life.]
Racial Bias: Arab Muslims—This test measures the automatic association of Arab Muslims with positive and negative words.
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Arab Muslims.
[Well, hey, all the Arab Muslims I ever went to school with were cool . . .]
Racial Bias: Black/White Children—This test measures unconscious or automatic associations of "good" and "bad" with Black and White children.
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for White children.
[Bad me. I put off the Black/White tests until the end (except the Weapons one) because I knew I'd do well on any measurement of racism involving other races, but not so well on the ones involving racism against Black people. In California, there's always a good healthy and reasonably integrated mix of all races except Black, which is still extremely segregated. We even have a convenient naming system for segregated neighborhoods around here: any neighborhood that's 75%-100% Black is named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and any neighborhood that's 50%-75% Black is named after Abraham Lincoln, just so everybody knows which races are allowed to live where and all. I currently live in the Lincoln neighborhood, but my unconscious biases are unfortunately more influenced by having been raised across the river in the No Black People Allowed neighborhood.]
Racial Bias: Black/White Adults—This test measures unconscious or automatic associations of "good" and "bad" with black and white people.
Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for White.
[Ack, even worse me.]
Racial Bias: Skin-Tone—Do you prefer darker or lighter skin tones? This test measures automatic preference for skin color using faces that vary in skin tone and positive and negative words.
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for lighter skin.
[Well, this is the only test result that I really feel is inaccurate. I do have definite skin tone preferences, I know, but my perception of skin color is divided for some reason very much into three categories of "light, middle, and dark," so the binary light-dark division presented on this test didn't really jive with the way I actually mentally perceive people - on top of which, the drawings on this test were really awful, and the fake drawn-in skin tones were not realistic looking at all. But I do have definite skin tone preferences in real life: I know that if I walk into a room full of strangers and I need to pick one of them to talk to, I invariably approach someone of medium skin color, with brown eyes and dark hair, and most of the time it's someone who is neither White nor Black. If there's anyone Asian in the room, especially, I'll always go to an Asian person first, because I've gotten used to thinking of Asian people as "the people I fit in with" and of Euro-Americans as "the people who have an annoying habit of mistaking me for one of them, and who I have to push away and put in their place for fear they'll succeed in actually making me one of them."]
What are YOUR Unconscious Biases?
P.S. In other, less important online personality test news, apparently I am a strawberry.
Age Bias—Do you prefer the young or the elderly? This test measures the automatic association between the young and old and positive and negative concepts.
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for young.
[Hmm. I took this test first because it felt the least scary; I didn't think I had any preference.]
Racial Bias: Asian Americans—This test probes for an automatic stereotype that Asian Americans are not as "American" as European Americans.
Your data suggest little or no automatic ethnic association with American or Foreign.
[Yay, so I did learn something from having grown up with all Asian friends instead of Euro ones!]
Gender Bias—This stereotype test measures the strength of automatic association between women and men and the concepts "liberal arts" and "science."
Your data suggest a strong automatic association between male and science.
[This test was by far the most overwhelmingly difficult for me of any of them. I was pretty sure ahead of time that I'd get a rotten score, I was still shocked to find out just HOW extremely incapable I am of associating "female" with "science," no matter how hard I try. Off to feminist reeducation boot camp with me!]
Body Image Bias—Using drawings of people who vary in weight, this test measures automatic attitudes about obese people.
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for fat.
[Cool! Maybe now all the people who keep annoying me by constantly declaring themselves "too fat" will shut up and start trying not to get too skinny for fear I won't prefer them anymore.]
Racial Bias: Weapons—This test measures the automatic association of weapons and harmless objects with Black and White adult faces.
Your data suggest a moderate automatic association between White and weapons.
[Um, actually I'm not used to seeing members of ANY race carrying weapons around in my everyday life.]
Racial Bias: Arab Muslims—This test measures the automatic association of Arab Muslims with positive and negative words.
Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Arab Muslims.
[Well, hey, all the Arab Muslims I ever went to school with were cool . . .]
Racial Bias: Black/White Children—This test measures unconscious or automatic associations of "good" and "bad" with Black and White children.
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for White children.
[Bad me. I put off the Black/White tests until the end (except the Weapons one) because I knew I'd do well on any measurement of racism involving other races, but not so well on the ones involving racism against Black people. In California, there's always a good healthy and reasonably integrated mix of all races except Black, which is still extremely segregated. We even have a convenient naming system for segregated neighborhoods around here: any neighborhood that's 75%-100% Black is named after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and any neighborhood that's 50%-75% Black is named after Abraham Lincoln, just so everybody knows which races are allowed to live where and all. I currently live in the Lincoln neighborhood, but my unconscious biases are unfortunately more influenced by having been raised across the river in the No Black People Allowed neighborhood.]
Racial Bias: Black/White Adults—This test measures unconscious or automatic associations of "good" and "bad" with black and white people.
Your data suggest a strong automatic preference for White.
[Ack, even worse me.]
Racial Bias: Skin-Tone—Do you prefer darker or lighter skin tones? This test measures automatic preference for skin color using faces that vary in skin tone and positive and negative words.
Your data suggest a slight automatic preference for lighter skin.
[Well, this is the only test result that I really feel is inaccurate. I do have definite skin tone preferences, I know, but my perception of skin color is divided for some reason very much into three categories of "light, middle, and dark," so the binary light-dark division presented on this test didn't really jive with the way I actually mentally perceive people - on top of which, the drawings on this test were really awful, and the fake drawn-in skin tones were not realistic looking at all. But I do have definite skin tone preferences in real life: I know that if I walk into a room full of strangers and I need to pick one of them to talk to, I invariably approach someone of medium skin color, with brown eyes and dark hair, and most of the time it's someone who is neither White nor Black. If there's anyone Asian in the room, especially, I'll always go to an Asian person first, because I've gotten used to thinking of Asian people as "the people I fit in with" and of Euro-Americans as "the people who have an annoying habit of mistaking me for one of them, and who I have to push away and put in their place for fear they'll succeed in actually making me one of them."]
What are YOUR Unconscious Biases?
P.S. In other, less important online personality test news, apparently I am a strawberry.
3
The tension will prove to be helpful if we allow ourselves to ride it and know when to take a break and to strive for dialogue instead of debate. I am not going to debate with you. I am going to share and attempt to share in ways I hope you can understand and wait for you, honestly, to let go of some of the stuff you carry. If you feel this is unfair, I am sorry. I cannot become "equal" with you as I have spent my whole life being a cultural other. I cannot erase twenty-six years of my life and I am not asking you do that either -- only to consider it as I had to consider those years when I first started to delve into the issue of race and ethnicity in the country.
What I meant by "Black friends" was that you were attempting to use you relationships with other people of color to cow me. AND that was a poor move. I am not going to submit to you. White culture and people were demystified for me long time ago. With the huge help of a text called _Yurugu_ by Marimba Ani. Not to mention that to bring up your more "pleasant" experiences with people of color is a common weapon in the racist arsenal whose only purpose is to furthe divide people of color so that we can never unite and dismantle European/Euro-American/"white" hegemony and imperalism.
Racism is the glue which holds all the other -isms in place. Racism ensures that there can never be a unified movement because "race" is the visible marker that divides us from each other. Pretending it doens't exist only makes the problem worse as the default (in the language and mindsets of ALL Americans across cultures)is always "white"/European/Euro-American.
And I have to wonder... how honest were any of them with you? Did they tell you when they felt... trampled upon? Did they lose their fight with internalized racial inferiority and oppression just to keep you as a friend?
Did they?