1) What was your experience like completing the Implicit Association Tests? Did you feel stressed? Anxious? What were your thoughts while reading your results? Were you surprised? Upset? Or, were your results what you expected?
This was not my first time doing the Implicit Association Tests. We had to complete them in graduate school for one of my classed. My experience was fine. Just like the last time I did it. I didn't necessarily feel stressed but I did feel some feelings of anxiousness because it has been about 5 years since my first time with the Implicit Tests. My thoughts on my results weren't super surprising to me. I did get a slight automatic association for Native American and European American. For me, this was a little surprising in some ways but others not due to having some family history of Native American culture.
2) What were your initial reactions to this video? What feelings or thoughts did it bring up for you? What types of bias did you notice while watching?
I absolutely love this video! The message behind the video and her social experiment, just can't be put into words. I work with kids from the age of elementary school all the way through high school. Seeing her class at such a young age be able to recognize discrimination, segregation, difference of power, and be able to name some of the racial slurs they have heard was so impactful. I don't think that people understand that children are like sponges, they absorb everything; good, bad, or in-different. Children also model behavior so the children of the class were modeling the behavior of the teacher and it affected their self-confidence, the way they learned, etc. This is an amazing video and I am so glad more people were exposed to it. It says a lot.
3) Reflect on your own racial identity. Are there any experiences that you related to in the videos above? Think about some of the discussion in the videos centered around colorism and privilege. In the racial group that you identify with, has the societal favoring of light colored skin ever impacted you? Were there any experiences from racial groups you don't belong to that surprised you, or that you had never considered before?
As being a white female, I related to the video where my race was represented the most. I related to the woman saying, "I didn't know that I could have a conversation about race." These were not conversations that I had a child with my family because I am white. I am not sure if it has favored me having lighter skin in any situation. I do know that in my area if you speak Spanish (or bilingual) you are more sought after due to the growing need in my community. The video about Black Women was not surprising but really touched my heart in a different way. I am used to being treated differently in a work setting because I am not a man but I have never felt that as being not white and not male. I think that there is so much to be said about the strength of Black women in our culture and how misrepresented they are. The video Growing Up Black made me sad. Made me sad to think that parents of Black young men (they were the one's represented in the video) have to have conversations about safety, how to not come off alarming to the white woman on the street, and the relationship between being a Black man and the police. I can't imagine that as a parent being aware that my child because he looks different, could be treated differently, and less than others. He could potentially be put in danger because of a perception. Mind blowing to me.
4) What are your thoughts about the concept of white culture, identity, and entitlement as they were discussed? What are your thoughts about the concept of white privilege?
I honestly never thought about white culture. I didn't know that one existed and I didn't know that just because my skin is white that it meant that I was automatically apart of something. I keep playing a Macklemore song over and over in my head. He says "It seems like we're more concerned with being called racist, than we actually are with racism". Since starting this learning process this song means something different and talks about things that make White people uncomfortable. We are uncomfortable because for a lot of us, if we don't talk about it or acknowledge it then it doesn't exist. It doesn't directly impact me so why do I need to address it? As I have learned that is just as much of a problem than addressing it and having those uncomfortable conversations. The TedTalk video really explained that by not addressing it, we are just as much of the problem. I believe that there is white privilege that exists in our culture of America. There is also a white privilege that exists if you are a white male from White women and people of color.
