Race Face Test

I have been reading the book Blink which discusses how humans make decisions in the Blink of an eye, and how our subconscious mind often knows what’s going on before we do. In the book they talk about a an IAT (Implicit Association Test) that studies how you associate white people and black people with good and bad things. This “Race Face Test” is an eyeopening experience and I think something that everyone should experience. To take the test go to the Harvard IAT Page. When you get to the site, choose “Demonstration” from the first page. Click through the disclaimers and choose the “Race IAT” from the menu of tests.

When I did the sample IAT inside of Blink, I could see some obvious problems arising for myself. The IAT gives you a word or picture, and asks you to associate that word or picture with one of two categories. At first they simply ask you to pick out the white or black faces, which is simple enough. I won’t go too far into it since it isn’t an easy thing to explain, (Malcom Gladwell uses graphics in Blink) but I encourage you to take the test, you will have some realizations about yourself.

In Blink, Gladwell says that most people score poorly on the test and if you score poorly on the test it does not mean that you are a racist. He draws a line between conscious and unconscious thoughts, and that having subconscious ideas does not mean you will act on those ideas in a conscious way. Unfortunately our subconscious controls a lot of our thinking and we can spend a lot of time fighting that. If you subconsciously associate black people with negative things, you can’t help but wonder how that has influenced you throughout the years.

Blame it on society, your grandfather, your 1st grade teacher - obviously we all have a long way to go before we can reach any type of equality. The next time you’re walking down the street and instantly feel threatened by someone for no reason, stop and think about how they must feel - they deal with that bigotry with nearly every person they cross paths with, every single day of their lives.