Implicit Biases: Symptoms of Larger Cultural Problems

Implicit biases are present in every judgment we make. They are informed by cultural, environmental, and familial forces. The three tests I took were: Presidents, Religion, and Weapons.

The first test I took was Presidents, and here are my results:

This was by far the easiest test to complete. The differences between John F. Kennedy and President Obama are clear. The implicit biases that could come into play here are race and possibly lived experiences; those who lived during Kennedy's presidency might have a fonder view of him. Politically and morally I prefer President Obama, but I feel as if this test was too easy, and it was not difficult to say the correct answer. I really do not have too much to offer in terms of reflection when it comes to the Presidents test.

The second test I took was the religion test and here are my results:

This test intrigued me. It was much more difficult to keep all the words associated with the religions straight while doing this test. To be perfectly honest, I view all religions in the same way. I war born and raised a Hindu, but by the time I was in high school, I was an agnostic for all intents and purposes. I generally consider myself to be an atheist, but as Richard Dawkins so eloquently stated, it is impossible to be a true atheist, because there will never be any empirical evidence to disprove a higher power. As a Hindu and Indian growing up, I was exposed to Islamophobic propaganda from not only the American media, but also from the Indian media. Muslims were generally the bad guys. Christianity is definitely held in high esteem in the United States, and this is why the test stated I view Christianity as the most favorable. I personally believe that Christianity is not inherently better or worse than any other religion. Spirituality is something I value and respect, but I believe institutionalized religion has sometimes gone too far. Christianity has gone too far in this country in the form of the KKK, Islam in the form of ISIS, Buddhism in the form of Buddhist monks slaughtering Muslims in Myanmar. I definitely got off topic here, but Christianity is definitely held in high regard in the U.S., while Islam continues to get the brunt of media criticism due to our collective paranoia and biases.

My final test was weapons, and here are the results:

 This was very interesting to me, and I feel the least representative of my views. Now, it is very easy to say that I am just ignoring my biases, and that very well may be. The problem is, I usually associate guns with white people. Most of the mass shootings in our country are propagated by white people, and then those who are adamant about second amendment rights are generally white people. I will say that my test glitched for a second in that I kept on clicking a button and it would not register after I clicked it a few times it registered then gave my five straight X's because it registered late. All of that being said, there is definitely some bias in me. African-Americans tend to be portrayed as violent, or animalistic in some way by the media. It's why White people rioting after the Broncos win the Super Bowl is no big deal, but Black people rioting because of justice system failures is somehow worse. Black men are referred to as thugs while those in Oregon are considered "patriots." There is a real problem when it comes to the portrayal of races in this country. Could you imagine if a band of Black or Arab men did what those militia members are doing in Oregon? It's an interesting issue, and I do not want to make it seem like I am discrediting this test. I think we all need to realize that biologically race is not a thing, it is a social construct. Many of the implicit biases ingrained in our societies stem from system oppression propagated and perpetuated by the sensationalist media. If we, as a nation, realize this, we can begin to try to mitigate the effects of bias, for these stereotypes and biases serve only to tear us apart.