Happily Blind with 20/20 Vision

Here's an interesting (and possibly controversial) test hosted at Harvard's website: Implicit Association Test. The theory is that we subconsciously have prejudices and preferences, whether racial, age, gender, or some other category that divides us into groups.

Project Implicit, the creators of the Implicit Association Test (IAT), which is still either under revision or in the process of being confirmed from what I could tell from the website, is designed to determine those hidden preferences/prejudices that may unknowingly influence our daily thoughts and decisions. However, if you should decide to take the test, think critically about the results. If you are a white male and should score a higher preference percentage for European races, this does not mean your inner child is goose-stepping to "Deutschland Über Alles!" It may only mean that your culture, personal experience, and environment has influenced you to that preference.

Now for a personal aside...

With the exception of the Age IAT, I scored no preference for any of the other listed categories! What does this mean? Possibly, nothing. But it seems to confirm what I have always felt: With the exception of their behavior, I truly seem blind to other people's differences. In other words, I judge people on how they behave (rudeness, kindness, etc.) as opposed to their outer appearance. The only exception to that would be age preference, which makes sense to me since I've been around mostly older people throughout my life and that I date only significantly older women. (That's a whole other post!)

Contining with this thought for just a moment longer (I'm sure I've lost most of my audience by now anyway), I remember as a child, probably 4 years old or so, and playing with a group of children in a creepy place. I think it was either at a hospital or doctor's office, where they have a section of filthy toys for the patients' children to occupy themselves with. I recall playing with two girls who happened to be black. I didn't think anything about it at all - We were three children having fun in a dark, moody environment.

Suddenly, an older woman (probably only in her 20s back then but she seemed older to a 4 year old) told me, almost demanded me, to come over to her. So I obediently did as she said and left my two playmates behind. The woman took me aside and told me in a serious voice, "You shouldn't being playing with them. Those are niggers." HER words, NOT mine!

The stern woman left, and I looked back at the two little girls still playing away. One looked back at me, as if to wonder if I was about to resume playing with them. Somehow, I felt like I had done something bad, so I just sat in one of the stained blue chairs (Where the hell was I? I recall the whole place looking run down!), and waited for my mother to return.

I didn't know what a "nigger" was. The woman could have told me not to play with them because they were communists, Taoists, Norwegians... It would have been the same to me.

I told my mother about this incident years later, and she was furious! If I had told her about it back then, there would have been a serious confrontation between mother and whoever that strange, racist woman was. It would probably have shocked the racist stranger too; While I look white German-Irish, my mother definitely shows her Cherokee heritage!

I guess the point I am making with this recollection is that I seriously suspect racism, as well as many other -isms, are a result of cultural conditioning. We all use labels to separate each other: Caucasians, African-Americans, young, old, etc. If we could reboot the planet and start over with humans, would it turn out the same way? I don't know. Probably yes, maybe not...

Okay, now I am falling into rambling-mode. Always a good place to end a post! Just some food for thought and an excuse for me to post to my blog...

Best wishes to you, regardless of your label!
Drake :)