Wednesday, June 2, 2010

IAT Response

I took the race test first and showed little or no preference - not surprising given my family and scored slight bias on the gender test. My family was visiting over the weekend and they all took the test. My husband also showed little or no preference on race and moderate bias on gender and my sister and brother- in law showed slight bias on race and gender. Nobody was very surprised although I think my family was a little nervous to take the test in front of my husband - what if they showed lots of bias - how embarrassing! Anyway we were all rather relieved and feeling rather smug about the whole thing when the question of bringing it to my daughter's attention was raised. Then things got a little tougher. My family has enjoyed a relatively quiet life here in RI, and we don't often encounter (or at least register) explicit or implicit racism and my daughter is a normal teenager- completely oblivious to anything that dosen't directly affect her or her i-pod. Do I really need to call her attention to the subtle nuances of bias that this test can reveal? Will the knowledge be helpful to her as she navigates high school? I didn't think so byt my sister did. After some spirited debate my husband and I agreed not to show her the test unless it came up in a discussion.

1 comment:

  1. I appreciate your sharing a personal perspective that included your family's. It made me laugh to read about the relief everyone felt after the test results were in!

    I am wondering... do you think your daughter is already aware of such nuances revealed by this test? Do you think she sees things but does not discuss them? [I'm not saying show her the test or don't; am not taking a stand on that! :-)] Am just thinking aloud, knowing that teens can take in a lot before they express themselves.

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