possible mandatory reading for RaceFail 2009ers

[flea]

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/21/opinion/21blow.html

Research studies on unconscious racial prejudice, and why being "colorblind" makes you more racist rather than less.

Comments

[noradeirdre.livejournal.com]

Dang, I took that test and was strongly biased toward european americans.

[larisa57.livejournal.com]

I've seen a few articles questioning the usefulness of that test, though -- apparently, a lot of scientists now think that all it's actually testing is what's most familiar to you, rather than any unconscious biases. (I took a bunch of them, and the one that ended up the strongest was a bias toward Jewish symbols and against Christian ones. And I'm sure that a significant part of that was that I recognized the Jewish symbols instantly, while I had to kind of ::squint:: ::tilt head:: "Is that a communion wafer?" for a lot of the Christian ones.)

[ellenbs.livejournal.com]

Yeah - I got 'no bias', but I think that's more the result of being a good test taker.

The fakeness of being 'color-blind' thing is my favorite Colbert Report running joke. "I don't see color - people tell me I'm white, and I believe them because I can get a cab after dark / cops call me 'sir' /" etc.

My strongest instinctive bias is against large groups of youngish men - I was in Birmingham (UK) when a soccer game got out and was suddenly the lone woman in a sea of men. It's the closest I've ever come to fainting from terror. Being engulfed in a sea of men chanting "You'll never walk alone" is my least favorite weird travel experience.