The Implicit Association Test was an interesting activity to participate in. While doing the tests I was thinking about how we have been socialized to so quickly be able to categorize individuals into racial categories. I was not surprised by my results. I did not feel too stressed I did notice that it was interesting how the test had us identify two groups of people, but also look at other categories of things, which can be associated with good and bad.
I have seen the brown and blue eye racism experiment with children a couple of times and was recently talking with someone about this experiment. This experiment is a powerful example of how easily humans can be influenced by something that is said. This is so evident in American society, as the facilitator mentioned America has been set up for whiteness.
I am a white female. Although, I could not relate with most of the experiences shared in the videos of the different individuals. I really enjoyed watching these videos and hearing the individuals experiences very important and valuable to hear. One of my biggest take aways from the video was as a white person it is so important to listen, to ask questions, to be humble and not assume. So many of the individuals expressed pain and frustration with people assuming things about them and putting them in an assumed box.
I was aware of the terms white privilege and white entitlement prior to this training. I definitely believe white privilege is real, sometimes so real, white people can be ignorant to the fact that they even have this privilege. I have talked with other white people who have tried to tell me that they have experienced racism and I had to explain that I don't believe it is possible for a white person to experience racism, not saying that your life has not been hard, but the color of your skin is not contributing to the challenge. I thought it was interesting how the facilitator spoke about how many white people do not really have culture. This is something I have thought about before, but never really understood. Whereas, many of my friends of different races and ethnicity have more tradition and rituals that come along with their culture. I never really thought about it on this deep of a level to think that white people do not have culture, because our country has been created for white people. Yikes!
