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Dads in the Mix: Born Suspect
Let’s play a game. I present a general description of a person and you tell me what the first image of that person is that pops into your head?
 Ready, let’s begin . . .
- A doctoral math student in a university – A person sitting in an arm chair in front of the television – An accountant – An aerobics instructor – A basketball player – A terrorist – A male hairdresser – A panhandler – A stay-at-home parent.
Did each of the people you thought of have a gender, a skin color, a sexual orientation? Certainly, not everyone would imagine the same type of person but I am willing to bet that for more than half of people, at least in America, the first image in their minds would be similar or identical.
The math student is an Asian or white male; the armchair TV person is male and probably overweight, maybe also wearing tightly-whities and a wife-beater; the accountant probably male, maybe Jewish and with glasses; the aerobics instructor is a woman, most likely blond, thin and muscular; the basketball player is black and tall; the terrorist is Arabic; the male hairdresser is homosexual; the panhandler is most likely male and the stay-at-home parent is definitely a woman! Certainly, there will be variations but my point is, we group people based on stereotypes and preconception. Chris Rock put it best when he said black people are “born suspect.” In the same way, blonds are born ditzy and easy, people genetically predisposed to obesity are born lazy…you get the picture.
It is natural human behavior to pre-judge and, even necessary. If we look into the eyes of a person behind the wheel of a car when we are crossing in front of them, we need to make a judgment if they are going to try and zoom out in front of us or even hit us. But, often that judgment is based on skin color, gender, age, etc. We should make the judgment by the look on their face and their physical movements and general behavior. It is true that stereotyping sometimes has a basis in truth but, it is generalizing and people are not all the same. We are all individuals and should be treated as such. The problem is exasperated when stereotypes or prejudices, even unconscious ones, are negative; it more than often leads to discrimination.
Another blogger, Don’t Blame The Man asked very eloquently in his post about Tiger Woods, if, although we may live in a “post-racial” society, our hearts have made the leap to accept interracial relationships? I ask if we have made the leap to reject prejudice in all forms? I think, when it comes to prejudice, there are many people whose hearts have made the leap but their minds have not. There is a psychological phenomenon called “mental residue” wherein, even those of us who are committed to equality with all our heart, have hidden biases, including negative ones. These are instilled in us from all kinds of places and we cannot escape them. Parents, media (that’s a big one), clergy, friends, school, etc. all implant in our head different biases and, as we mature, we can better sift through them but it is very difficult because as adolescents, we absorbed like sponges and the “mental residue” remains.
I made a comment on a post a while back stating the fact that we are all prejudice to some extant. First of all, as I mentioned, that is not necessarily a bad thing but very easily can be and often is. The best way to stop it from turning into discrimination, hatred and worse, is to recognize it, acknowledge it and confront it. I wrote this post to respond to people who questioned my statement about us all being prejudiced and I would like to further back it up now.
In my research I found definitions of bias, prejudice and discrimination, explanations of why, how, where, when and who and much much more. Basically, I compiled far too much information to present in one blog post. So, I thought I’d just let you all test yourselves and see what happens.
The IAT test or Implicit Association Test was created to test levels of unconscious bias. I encourage you all to take some of these tests yourself and see what lurks in the hidden crevices of your minds or sometimes pushes its way to the front of the line.
Understanding Prejudice, is a site which provides information and educational resources directed at understanding prejudice and discrimination.  The IAT test they have will let you select specifically race or gender tests.
Another resource is Project Implicit, which was created by psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington. If you register there you will take random topic IAT tests. If you want to try a specific one like, weight, sexual orientation, race, disability, etc, just go to the “Demonstrations” test link and follow the instructions.
If you want to find out more about IAT and prejudice in general, check out this page at Teaching Tolerance.
