Tuesday, January 22, 2008

Do You Have an Implicit Preference About Race?


"Your data suggest little to no automatic preference between European American and African American."

I would be lying if I said that didn't give me a bit of relief.  But isn't that an issue for liberals?  That we're wondering if somewhere in us, society had hidden away a bit of prejudice that will pop out, through no control of our own?

I know that I am guilty of sometimes expecting a certain response from a certain group, based on past experience.  If there are any that are race or culture based, I'm not aware of it.  Mine are more things like expecting a single child-free person to have an "I don't have kids, but if I did, I'd ..." attitude.  Which is unfair.  (And probably says more about me ... yes, I've run across that attitude several times, but more importantly, I recognize that I was guilty of it.  As the joke goes, we all were better parents before we had kids.)

Anyway, I just took the black/white test.  It will be interesting to see where I fall in other categories.
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3 comments:

  1. ogre10:56 PM

    I had the same result when I took it. I take some comfort in it when some yahoo insists I'm a racist because I have non-normative views on the subject of AR/AO work.

    I'm over there close to Thandeka, somewhere. I find it fascinating how many UU ministerial students I've met who seem to agree--and are extremely dubious about admitting that to the MFC. There's a perception that this is a point on which heretical views are not tolerable.

    Sad.

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  2. Lizard Eater7:34 AM

    Count me in the Thandeka camp. Was just quoting her this weekend.

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  3. Comrade Kevin2:39 PM

    I think we ought to acknowledge that as human beings we are susceptible to prejudicial thinking. The Age of Enlightenment proposed that human beings could reach some state of moral perfection through the application of reason, which is what we as liberals take to heart. We see racial equality as a deeply moral issue but as previous posters have pointed out, we are often quick to condemn those who have them rather than bothering to understand their reasons.

    In that respect, we are no less harshly critical, unforgiving, and judgmental than the right-wingers we criticize. Christianity and religions that spun off from it were based on the idea of forgiveness and yet we are so quick to overlook that.

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