A lot of buildings on this campus have controversial names. I mean, the campus was built over the graves of enslaved persons and a plantation site. A lot of donors and people of power who have been here and who are still here in spirit on the names of buildings were not the greatest of people. And, in my opinion, the only way that we can remember this history of ours is to face it everyday and learn from it. That being said, I agree with what Kendall and Tess said in class, that yes, leaving the names does still allow their presence to be felt and makes me and others uncomfortable, but taking their names off the buildings can allow people to forget what happened. And no one should forget how this campus came to be how it is today.

I think a solution to this issue would to be what was done with Mitchell-Freeman Hall, attaching another name, such as one of the slaves owned by the person, to the current one to allow people to remember the history and also attach a more positive vibe to it.

This morning in my Organizational Behavior class, we talked to Mel Smith, who is the director of diversity and inclusion at Genworth, a local fortune 500 company. He discussed, like Dr. Bezio in the second podcast, that everyone has biases, but that it is important to recognize them. Dr. Bezio also discusses how we must think past the stereotypes we have for everyone because people are so much more than their stereotypes. I am Irish, and like Dr. Bezio who fits a lot of her German stereotypes, my family and I fit a lot of Irish stereotypes as well. But I know I am a lot more than that and it is important to recognize that others are as well.

Another part of the podcast I took a lot away from was when Dr. Bezio discussed representation in film. As a blonde-haired, blue-eyed white person, both Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty, two of the most famous Disney princesses looked exactly like me. I could even identify with Snow White and the Little Mermaid. I was never aware that friends of mine did not have those figures growing up. Now that I am older, I recognize the importance of creating a world where everyone can see themselves in every role model and appreciate the strides many major companies have gone to in order to create more representation on television. I still remember when Cheerios aired a commercial that included a couple that was mixed race, and hearing news outlets say what a big deal that was. Today, many commercials on television include people of all different backgrounds, which shows great progress. However, I know there is still much more to make.

I took the COVID-19 test and found that I have a strong automatic association between COVID-19 and Real vs. Fake. I think that this makes sense because there is so much information available and over the course of the past year it has become easier to figure out pretty immediately what is real and what is fake. If I were to hear that masks do not work, my mind would automatically think fake, which is what the test showed me.

I took the IAT test regarding race, and it came out that I have a moderate automatic preference for European americans over African Americans. This test result does not shock me. I grew up in a town that was 94% white in a county that was 94% white. I hardly knew any African American people during my 18 years of living there all the time, I can recall only a few people. Because of this, it happened that my social circle didn’t include any people of African American descent; it didn’t until I came to college. I have a strong memory of stopping in a rest stop in New Jersey when I was about 14 and being shocked by how many people had different color skin than me; I would soon arrive in Washington DC and be shocked that there were more black people there than I was. Does this make me racist? Absolutely not, at least I think. I was raised to respect everyone regardless of skin color, and live by that. But I think my reaction in this circumstance, and the results of my test, are indicative of me not being raised in a diverse community. Everyone looked like me, and I never had to encounter or witness racism against people of color first hand. My test results prove that I am still getting over living in a very one-dimensional, homogenous community. It shows that I have stuff I need to work on as a result of being a white guy growing up in a nearly all white community.

I took multiple of these implicit bias tests because I was really interested in seeing the results. While some showed me that I had slight biases for certain religious/age/gender groups, I was not surprised by the results. I am aware of my potential biases and I actively work towards overcoming them. Naturally, biases will always exist within us, but recognizing the biases is important so that we don’t act upon them. 

One test/result that confused me was the presidential one in which the results were that I have a strong immediate preference for Joe Biden over Thomas Jefferson. I was pleased that I prefer our president over an old president who owned hundreds of slaves throughout his life, but I was confused as to the relevance of the results. Was it supposed to be comparing old presidents to new? Democratic to republican? If anyone has any idea, feel free to comment lol.

I took the Religion IAT and it just involved three religions – Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. My results were that I have a moderate automatic preference for Judaism over Islam. I am not very surprised at all by these results because out of all of the biases I have, I don’t think religion is a strong one of mine. However, obviously, as we’ve read and heard, this does not mean much because we have implicit biases without thinking about them and we just pass snap judgments without maybe even meaning to. Anyway, I was also not very surprised that, given that there had to be a preference, I have a preference for Judaism over Islam because I am friends with a lot of Jewish people but I do not think any of my friends or even anyone in my schools growing up were Muslim. Because of my environment and the religions I have been exposed to and associate certain people in my life with, it makes sense why my preference leans toward Judaism. I do wish the test included more religions to see what my preference would be because just doing the test between two religions feels too general. Even though I am not surprised by the results of the test, I don’t see how the test I took could determine this automatic preference of mine. All the test had me do was give an immediate response whether something belonged to Islam or Judaism or whether it is something good or bad. When I made a mistake, it was because I was tired of clicking not because of something else, so I would like to take another test to see if there is a better way to determine this implicit bias.

Nobody wants to be accused of having biases, yet it is impossible to not have biases. Stereotypes are embedded into literally everything in our lives. As a business student with a marketing concentration, I literally learn how marketing relies on stereotypes. Companies group people into segments in order to determine their target audiences and marketing strategies. In America, as Dr. Bezio points out in the podcast, basically all products are marketed to middle class white people. Growing up, implicit biases were placed in our brains by these companies and the media we all consume. The Disney princesses were mostly white, I never saw a black or brown barbie doll until these past few years, and the main characters in my favorite TV shows were always white. It’s really sad looking back as an adult. It is nice to see how media and popular culture have evolved since I was young, but there is still a looooong way to go. 

There is a massive lack of exposure to different cultures, and I agree that exposure is the best, if not only, way to erase implicit biases. I find it problematic that white culture is the default culture. The US loves to call itself a “melting pot,” when in reality, we only ever fully embraced the white European cultures. Historically speaking, non-white cultural voices have been suppressed which is the cause of such strong biases. Nobody talks about white culture because as said in the podcast, white people feel guilty, but we only feel guilty because we know it’s wrong. 

It’s also important to point out how easy it is to find biases and how many different ways stereotyping exists. As a woman I have experienced the consequences of these biases. This is not to say that I have not benefited from white privilege because I certainly have. While it is difficult to admit we have biases, it is an essential step for everyone to take. In order to reverse bias, the first step is awareness, the second step is action (not performative activism!!!).

Whenever I learn something new or see a different perspective about bias or culture or race, I always feel bad for not having that perspective before. That is how I felt while listening to the podcast where Dr. Bezio talks about how “white culture” is the default culture in the United States. We don’t have a “white culture” because everything in mainstream American culture, unless noted otherwise, is “white culture”. When food, movies, books, clothing, etc. are advertised to the public, white people are the expected audience. Things need to be directly advertised or highlighted as being for people of a particular culture if it is for someone other than white Americans. This isn’t something I have explicitly thought about or noticed before, and that makes me feel bad because now looking out on American society, it becomes clear that this is the case. Just like with everything, if I have the privilege of not having to recognize these things, I need to do a better job at educating myself so I can learn them.

I watched a TED talk the other day in honor of Black History Month, and the woman who gave the talk spoke about the lack of representation of black change-makers in history books and in education. She spoke about black inventors, authors, poets, and musicians who have made incredible contributions to society but who are not being recognized in the classroom. And that is where change needs to stem from. If kids are taught about all of the people involved in great discoveries, like the invention of the lightbulb, they would see that it doesn’t matter what you look like – anyone can make a difference. But, right now, history textbooks and school curriculum leave out the contributions made by black men and women, so young boys and girls are only seeing white people do good in general and black people do good only when they are being oppressed. There is a difference in this narrative here, and it needs to change if we want to make change.

I took the Transgender IAT test, and my result suggested moderate automatic preference for Transgender people over Cisgender people. I was surprised by these results, not because I have anything against transgender people or I don’t see them as equals, but I don’t know any transgender people in my life and I don’t interact with any transgender people on a daily basis, so I assumed my implicit bias might leave more towards cisgendered people since that is what my brain is more accustomed to. This makes me question the reliability of the test. With the transgender and cisgender celebrities that were shown, I was more familiar with a few of the transgender celebrities, such as Caitlyn Jenner and Laverne Cox. Therefore, when their pictures were shown, I was very quickly able to identify them as transgender because I knew them before going into the test. I didn’t know all of the transgender celebrities, but I knew more than I did the cisgender celebrities that were on this test. I would be curious to see the results if I knew more of the celebrities, or all of them. I think that part of this test is testing your reaction time as well, and not necessarily your bias towards one group or another.

Looking over which of the different IAT tests I wanted to take, I selected the Able vs. Disabled bodied bias test. Having struggled with a structural hip problems for a significant portion of my life, I have experienced what it is like to be temporarily disabled. Thankfully now, after multiple surgeries, I am healed and working my way back to being completely able-bodied again. No, I am not nor was I ever actually “disabled” in the sense that many people think of it, but I have received disability accommodations and extra support when needed because of my hip. But most if not all of my friends are able bodied, so we differ in terms of our experiences. Additionally, I have found that for some people, including myself, being “able” is a category that is fluid. For some it isn’t, but for others it is. That is why I decided to select that particular test to evaluate my own biases and compare them to my experiences.

The test showed me that I have a moderate automatic preference for able bodied people. I’m not sure quite how they determine that result but I’ll take it for what it is. There is something really uncomfortable about confronting bias, especially being told what your biases are. But consciousness is really important. Dr. Bezio’s conversation about media representation and breaking stigmas and stereotypes makes this clear. Being aware that we all have implicit biases (rooted in our “lizard brains”) is the first step towards disrupting them in ourselves and society at large. Listening to new music or watching a TV show may help us break down biases and being conscious of them in the first place is a great start. Being aware of a problem is always the first step to fixing it. So even if I feel uncomfortable with my own biases, I’m working to fix them!