I'm a Racist? Huh?
Eric L. Hinton
April 18, 2008
I'm a 39-year-old Black man and I'm
a racist …against other Blacks no less.
Say what?
Well, that's what a University Of Chicago online psychological test tells me.
Click
here to take the test yourself and tell us how you
score.
Profiled recently in The New York Times, the online pop psych test presents you with
images of 100 Black and white men. Some are armed, while others are carrying
nothing more dangerous than a wallet or a cell phone. Unfortunately, if you're a
Black man in New
York, you're fully aware of the danger of carrying
seemingly harmless objects.. From Amadou Diallo, who died after being shot at 41
times by police as he reached for his wallet, to the case of Sean Bell who,
though unarmed, was gunned down by NYPD officers in a confrontation after a
bachelor party, New York is ripe with examples of how deadly being a Black man
in the wrong place at the wrong time can be.
With that in mind, I took the online
exam. I was presented with these images and prompted to either shoot or holster
my weapon depending on my split-second determination of whether the target was
carrying a weapon or not. You lose points for being too slow and deliberate. The
point of the exam is to gauge your instinctive belief of whether the target will
be armed based on skin color.
My results were … disappointing.
First, my overall score was 435.
The score is determined by getting points for a "good" shot -- shooting a target
that is armed -- and losing points for either getting shot or shooting an
unarmed target. Compared to an unscientific tally of other co-workers who took
the test, Black and white, my score was about average.
But what concerns me is that, armed
or not, I "shot" Black targets faster than I shot white targets. I shot Black armed targets at an average
of 0.631 seconds versus white armed targets at 0.662. Even more disturbing - I shot Black
unarmed targets at an average of 0.783 seconds versus white unarmed targets at
0.792.
Fractions of seconds? Yes, but still
unsettling when you consider the real life implications of armed police officers
who make these life and death decisions in real life situations as they
encounter Black men on the street.
Do I accept the results on face
value? I haven't decided yet. Ultimately, how much weight you want to put into
an online test like this is for you to decide. As The New York Times article
pointed out, Harvard University has a series of similar exams that are
supposed to test unconscious levels of
prejudice on everything from race and gender to age.
I have a friend with a passion for
debunking studies who calls attention to a number of contributing factors that
could have played into my score, including how many Black versus white targets
are frontloaded into the exam Nevertheless, my friend, a white woman,
felt compelled to take the test twice after scoring a low 45 the first time
around. She also shot Black
targets, armed and unarmed, faster than whites her first
time.
If I were to accept the results on
face value, should they really shock me? Just because I'm a Black man doesn't
mean I'm immune to the barrage of images of Black men in handcuffs that parade
across my television screen every night. If anything, perhaps I'm more sensitive
to it. How many times have I watched coverage of a horrific crime on the evening
news? Before the alleged assailant appears on TV in handcuffs, how many times
has the same thought run through my head - "Please don't be Black." It shames me
that there's actually a split-second sigh of relief when the suspect isn't
Black. Sadly, no, it wouldn't completely shock me if the test is right. On some
deeply subconscious level, I somehow feel more "threatened" by men who look like
my father - who look like me - than I feel by white men. It wouldn't completely
shock me, but it would disappoint me greatly.
More Affirmative Action >>
Readers' Comments
Posted: Monday, Apr 13, 2009
I'm a Racist? Huh?
Eric When you took the test you were looking at the color of their skin, since you would call yourself a racists. I took the same test and try it out but instead I looked at their peoples hand to see what they were carry, I didn't even bother looking at the person if they were back or white or what ever color of their skin is. My score was 595 Average reaction time: Black Armed: 634.32 ms White Armed: 781.92ms Black unarmed: 751.12ms White unarmed: 751.16 I know I was kind of slow of some of my responds, only because I couldn't figure out if they were carrying a phone or a gun cause they way there were holding it. I don't think I am a racist, because truthfully to me it has nothing to do with racists, it has alot too do how the test was presented. Try taking the test again, but this time counts how many of the people were wither black or white and see which one the test shows. Sometimes test like people who were racists themselves, since racists people comes in all different colors or religion belief and the way they were brought up made these.
Lara Nunes
|
Send Your Comments About This Article Now
©DiversityInc. Reproduction in any format is absolutely prohibited.
|