THIS IS THE MAIN POST
The instructions for this Discussion Forum is different than the others. Please read carefully.
First please take an Implicit Association Test (link below). You can select whichever one you desire. Secondly, watch How to overcome our bias: Walk toward them video (Link Below).
Please discuss your experience/reaction to completing the test, and watching the video. Please list which test you completed and the reason you selected that particular test. What did you learn about yourself? Were you surprised about the outcome of the test? How did the information in the video help you to more fully understand your test results and what it meant for you based on your lived experiences?
Please write a reaction/response to at least one of our classmate’s post.
https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html (Links to an external site.)
Link (Links to an external site.) Watch Video – How to overcome our bias: Walk toward them.
LanE RESPOND TO THE MAINPOST
After watching the Ted Talks by Verna Myers, I felt not only emotional but had to have a moment were I just laughed and then had to think. I am a white female from a white family. I am my 87 year old grandmothers primary care taker when it comes to medical situations and she has been staying with me for the last week and I had a moment that made me really relate to the example that Verna Myers gave. I had the moment were the thought came across my mindGrandmas is a bigot! We were watching grandma appropriate things; it was a show that looked at the east coast states such as Vermont and Massachusetts. The show talked about the farm where the move Cider House Rules was filmed. They showed the workers on the farm and they were Jamaican Americans that were the primary workers on the farm. My grandmother made an undertone comment that I can`t remember right now, but all I remember is thinkingWow. I also can bring up the reading by Hays, it was discussed that there are words and phrases that we use that can be interpreted negatively.
This is what Hays calls microaggression. Microaggression refers to verbal, behavioral, and environmental insults and slights that minority group members experience from the dominate culture (Hays, 2016). I have noticed many times people that I know, or that I might overhear lump a minority group together and say something like they are just here to live on welfare and take jobs from us, This is a continued bias that unfortunately is throughout the county I live in because I live in a white rural area that uses allot of Mexican immigrants for their vineyards and orchards. We even see it in our Cal-Trans workers. As discussed by Michael Moats in the Hoffman reading, white privilege is still very real. Moats discussed that the tendency to give the better opportunities to white men is still very real. It is very prevalent in our local Cal-Trans, the hard labor is typically done by men of color and the white males are typically the supervisors.
For the Implicit Association Test I chose the age test. I chose this because I am in an age gap relationship and I wanted to see what kind of result I would have. My partner is much older than me so I assumed that I would have a slight preference for older people. My actual result was a moderate automatic preference for Young people over Old people. I was shocked at first but then I thought, most of my close friends are similar in age to me and I am young. The video reminded me that there are so many biases out there in our everyday life as well as in the media. We are told and showed that youth is good and old age is bad. Every commercial and advertisement about age is negative and vice versa.
Reference:
Hays, P.A. (2016). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and
therapy. (3rd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Hoffman, L., Hoffman-Cleare, H., Granger, N., & St. John, D. (Eds.) (2019). Humanistic
approaches to multiculturalism and diversity: perspectives on existence and
difference. New York, NY: Routledge Francis. Available as E-book via the
following link. (Proxied for Saybrook use) Access URL:
https://tcsedsystem.idm.oclc.org/login?url=https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/9781351133357 (Links to an external site.)
Myers, V. (2014). How to overcome our biases? Walk boldly toward them . Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/verna_myers_how_to_overcome_our_biases_walk_boldly_toward_them (Links to an external site.)
Project Implicit. (2020). Take a Test. Retrieved from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)