Unconscious Bias - activity

Want to better understand unconscious bias?  Check out "Project implicit" from Harvard.

You can take a test and participate in their study here.

From their "About Us" page:

Project Implicit was founded as a multi-university research collaboration in 1998 by three scientists - Tony Greenwald (University of Washington), Mahzarin Banaji (Harvard University), and Brian Nosek (University of Virginia), and was incorporated as a non-profit in 2001 to foster dissemination and application of implicit social cognition. Project Implicit supports a collaborative network of researchers interested in basic and applied research concerning thoughts and feelings that occur outside of conscious awareness or control. Project Implicit expanded into a substantial web-based infrastructure for supporting behavioral research and education that is available to other laboratories. Finally, Project Implicit provides consulting, education and training services on implicit bias, diversity and inclusion, leadership, applying science to practice, and innovation. (https://www.projectimplicit.net/about.html)

Using Humor to Understand Race

Race is a complicated and touchy subject, particularly in the United States.  Below you will find a series of videos that all deal with the issue of race through the lens of humor.  I encourage you to watch through them and ask yourself:
          Why is this funny?
          Or potentially why do I NOT find this funny?
         Would this humor be different if the identity of the comedian were different?
         What is the point the comedian or show is trying to make?
         Does the use of humor make the point easier or more difficult for you to "hear" as the listener?

         Do these commentaries on race resonate with you? 

Humor and comedy play with existing cultural structures - they highlight or twist values and ideas we share in suprising ways. 

Video 1: Key and Peele, Obama's Anger Translator 

Video 2: Trevor Noah, Live at the Apollo London

Video 3: Aamer Rahman (Fear of A Brown Planet) on "Reverse Racism"

  This is a YouTube "Comedy Week" video Titled "What kind of Asian Are You?" Highlighting the microagressions that people of Asian decent often face in the United States.

Margaret Cho talks about her experiences as an Asian American.

In this Key and Peele skit President Obama teaches Malia to drive and requests that the police officer treat him like anyone else...

Another Key and Peele sketch, this one commenting upon the shooting of Trayvon Martin.




Other videos that I could not embed: 

Gabriel Iglesias Talks about being a "Latino Comedian"
  http://www.cc.com/video-clips/18005l/stand-up-gabriel-iglesias--latino-comedian

Assignment 3: Unpacking the Invisible backpack

Part 1:
Please follow the link below and read Peggy McIntosh's "White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Backpack"

http://www.isr.umich.edu/home/diversity/resources/white-privilege.pdf

You can learn more about Peggy McIntosh here.

Part 2:
Respond to the list of questions below.  This should not be formatted as an essay - just respond to each question as it is numbered.

1) This essay was written more than 20 years ago, what items on the list do you think are outdated?  Pick at two and explain why you think they are outdated.

2) Just as the world has changed over the last 20 years to make some of the items on the list out-of-date, there have been changes that will add to the list.  Can you think of at least one example of white privilege that is not on the list?  State that example and explain.

3) What are some other identities that might lead to unearned privilege?

4) Briefly, consider the idea of unearned privilege against the meritocracy ideology.  How is what Dr. McIntosh wrote contradicting the meritocracy ideology?

Please bring your answers to class on Monday, November 4, 2013.

Social Construction of Race resources.

Please watch the video below of Rick Kittles (Director, Institute of Human Genetics, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology and Biostatistics atUniversity of Illinois at Chicago) explaining the difference between race and ancestry

Some other resources on Race as a social construction:


The PBS special "Race - The Power of Illusion" has a quiz about race
http://www.pbs.org/race/001_WhatIsRace/001_00-home.htm

  And a nice list of things to know about Race.
http://www.pbs.org/race/000_About/002_04-background-01-x.htm

UnderstandingRace.org has some nice resources too:
http://www.understandingrace.org/humvar/index.html

The MIT Race-Sci website has a lot of very interesting links:
http://web.mit.edu/racescience/links/