Implicit Biases

I took a test today that tells what level of a particular bias one has. I thought long and hard about which bias test to take (there were many, details later) and decided on taking the race one because I had a clear-cut answer to most others. I know for sure where I stand on Gender, sexual orientation for example.

On race, as it pertains to being Black or White, I do not think I am racist against either. I do not believe, for example, that in interviewing two equally qualified candidates for a job I'd give the Black or White person the job simply because of their skin color. I do think that I may be a little more inclined to give it to the Black person given the systemic injustice and inequality Blacks face as a people in the U.S. However, the real deciding factor will be the actual candidates themselves and who I feel will be the best fit for the company.

In short, I believe that people are a product of their environments, not their skin color. However,in America, skin color often denotes the economic and sometimes educational opportunity available and accessible for a person so it is imperative to look at a person as a whole, to not make race a basis of deciding in favor of any candidate but also not be colorblind because both approaches will be unfair. Giving someone unfair advantage over someone else because they belong to our preferred race is just pur bigotry and ignoring their color altogether leads to eliminating the context of their story in a still deeply racially biased society of the USA.

Before I took the test, I was a little unsure about how it would work and how accurate it might be. I decided it to just go with it though, just give it my best and be as honest as I could be given the very vague (and seemingly convoluted) nature of some questions. My feelings after I took it? It verified my assumptions about myself. Still a little unsure about the accuracy of their methodology, especially the part about bias being related to how fast and slow one was pressing a key. I felt in my case it was more related to the perpetual sleep deprivation and the fact that I was feeling really sluggish while taking one part of the test.

Before I took the test, I believed that despite the idea of fairness that I have as it pertains to hiring a person, I may actually feel a little more comfortable in the company of a White stranger than a Black one.

One part of the notion being that if I were to be alone at night on a particularly long elevator ride with a strange, rough looking man, I would feel less uncomfortable if said man was White rather than Black. However, if said man was actually well dressed, refined looking, the reverse would be true. I’d be more comfortable with the Black man than the White man. 

Why? Educated, refined Black men, in my opinion, tend to be more upstanding than their White counterparts. Simply because of the economic and educational opportunities afforded to each race, it is highly likely that the White man just went through college because that’s what the society expected of him and the Black man went through college despite society’s expectations, and that builds character. For the rough looking man, the same economic reality means that the person is perhaps more a product of the system if he is Black than he is of choice, which is more likely to be true if the man is White. The systemic injustice means the man is perhaps more likely to be resentful, brazen in committing a crime and in general, live up to the society’s expectations of them. 

Second reason for feeling more comfortable in presence of a White stranger rather than Black is that, in general, if I were to compare, as a Brown, immigrant, Muslim woman who didn’t have much interaction with either race before moving to the U.S., I’d say that I might have a slightly positive experience of White people rather than Black people. White people smile more at me when walking on the sidewalk, for example. I have never been catcalled by a White man but many times by Black men. When I encounter harassment, usually, it’s a White man who has come to my defense, never a Black person. In workplace or other group environments when I have initiated contact, White people have been more open to hanging out with me. Blacks have generally kept to themselves or rebuffed me. In conversations and attitudes at my different workplaces, the White people are more likely to be un-harried and have something positive to say. When teaching at schools, public and private, mostly in the county with America’s richest Black population, I have observed that despite the income inequality usually reversed between the races here, Black teens are more likely to be rude and quarrelsome than the White teens. They tend to get loud and physical more often and sooner than their White or Latino counterparts. The same is true of my WMATA experience. 

However, in contrast to the above observations, the conversations I have had with Black coworkers also tend to be more heartfelt and ‘real’ than the ones I have with the White coworkers. My conversations with White people tend to be more ‘polite’ and superficial. Perhaps that’s a difference between Black and White cultures, at least how it has been in my experience. So in answer to the question in the test whether I think assimilating Black culture more thoroughly would enrich American society, I’d say if it means being more real in talking to each other, then yes. If it means being rowdy, disrespectful and loud on public transportation and in individual interactions, then no, it wouldn’t.

It is perhaps simply my preference but I appreciate polite language, soft-spokenness, and respectful mannerisms regardless of race. Whichever race I see exhibiting these mannerisms; I know I’d always have a bias towards them. Speaking of which, I see a distinct difference between African Americans and African immigrants from the continent. Most Black people who are not African Americans actually tend to exhibit my preferred qualities more than Whites or African Americans. This, to me, means that it actually doesn’t depend on race at all but on social conditioning. 

Even though, based on my experience so far, I’d perhaps be more mentally prepared to confront abusive behavior when a Black high-schooler charges up to me in rage than when a White student walks up to me in anger (yes, there has always been a difference in how they approach a teacher in anger, in my observation), I’d, especially after having confirmed my biases through this test, be more inclined to treat them as a person as whole regardless of their color. 

I wonder if this preference is because of my own conditioning through my religion that I place a high value on conduct and behavior. Islam has strict teachings against racism and nativism. The Prophet Muhammad said in his last sermon that no Black has superiority over a White, no White has superiority over a Black, no Arab is superior to a Non-Arab and no Non-Arab is superior to an Arab except by piety. Meaning that it’s a person’s conduct that makes them superior or inferior in the eyes of God and people rather their skin color or national origin.

So, all in all, I wouldn't say that I was surprised by the results but I would say that now with my heightened awareness, I'd try my best to not let my biases affect how I interact with a person based on their color but to respond to them as a person as a whole. What implicit biases do you think you have, age, gender, religion, skin tone, weight etc.? Why do you think you have them?