Racism: The IAT Test

I just took the Race IAT test to see if I have any bias, and it turned out that I have a slight preference to black people. I am white and this result surprised me mostly because I have only personally known four black people in my lifetime and the rest have been white. However, I do not believe that this test truly tested if we are racist or not. I think the test was based off of reflexes and how quickly you can hit the space bar when you see specific words or faces. I do not believe that I am biased in any way towards people based on their race. I cannot say that I do not have thoughts regarding stereotypes, but I would never deprive someone of equal opportunity because of their race. 

In my opinion, there are people who are racist and there are people who are prejudiced. I believe that all people are slightly prejudiced because we all grow up in different areas and cultures that influence how we think about a certain race or religion or ethnicity. Prejudice is when you are biased or think certain thoughts about someone subconsciously. It’s those thoughts you have when you first see a person and we all have them. To me, being racist is when you go out of your way to offend another race, religion or ethnicity. When your thoughts are directed at people based on the color of their skin or prayer book in their hand. And most especially someone is racist when they base their words and actions on something we can’t really control; our race or ethnicity. 

           Some people believe that by admitting to the fact that we are prejudiced will help stop discrimination in the world. But I disagree because the fact of the matter is that no matter whether or not we admit that we are prejudiced, we’re still going to have those same thoughts about people. Admitting it won’t make it go away. I do not believe that prejudice is a problem because everyone has it about everyone else. Racism is the problem and in order to target that, we need to just keep doing what we’re doing; we are learning to accept people for who they are. It has been a slow process, but it’s not something that can be rushed. We can’t stop stereotypes from surfacing or prejudices from being in our minds, but we can change who we interact with and how we do so.