High and low culture are socially constructed terms. What does this mean for cultural appropriation? Oftentimes, something that is widely regarded as low culture is co-opted by white people and turned into high culture – but only when used in an appropriated context. It becomes redefined when it is appropriated, and often has it’s cultural significance completely ignored as it becomes commodified and used to make money. Take hip hop – no one is saying that white people cannot enjoy, consume or even participate in hip-hop culture. But it becomes a problem when white people are the ones benefiting from it, without acknowledging its history. For example, Kim Kardashian routinely appropriates from Black culture and POC culture, and has been accused of ‘blackfishing,’ or using makeup to appear as if she was a woman of color online for personal benefit. Cornrows are high culture and couture when Kim Kardashian wears them, but low culture or even unprofessional when a Black woman wears them. But the important thing here is not actually the hairstyle Kardashian is wearing – though it is not insignificant – it’s that Kardashian gets compensated, monetary and socially, for appropriating Black culture, while Black women are passed over. It is possible to enjoy other people’s culture without appropriation: do it respectfully, do your research, and don’t make money off of it when it is not yours to capitalize on. Most people are happy to share parts of their culture with you, and even educate you on its significance or history. It is important to not isolate yourself within an echo-chamber and to diversify your experiences beyond what you grew up surrounded by, but always engage with respect.

We make snap judgments about people, using heuristics and bias. This lets our brain make decisions quickly, but they can also be wrong. Often, we recognize patterns and have a hunch before we even start thinking about a problem. I thought this was an interesting connection to the Implicit Association Test and the self-defeating stereotype with women in math. Not only do snap judgments come from others about you or from you about others, but they can also come from you about yourself. However, you can utilize these stereotypes to change your implicit bias test results – I read about a man who took the race implicit bias test and found he had a slightly unfavorable association with Black people, but took the test again after reading about really skilled Black athletes and found that the association shifted to favorable, however, this effect was temporary. Just like the self-defeating stereotype, this is an act of priming.

I took the gender association with Science or Liberal Arts Implicit Bias Test, and had no correlation for either. I wonder if this is due to the fact that I was initially planning to go into engineering, and eventually switched to Liberal Arts. I participated on my school’s robotics team and routinely heard ‘Women in STEM’ as a buzzword, and so I thought I might have positive associations with women and science. This was not necessarily the case, as I just had a hard time matching things in general. Most of my best friends are all engineers or work in some form of science, and there is a pretty even distribution across gender there as well, so that might have also contributed to my neutral results.

I also completed the Gay-Straight Implicit Bias Test and found a moderate automatic bias in favor of gay people. I was a little surprised that it was moderate, as I had expected no distinction or slightly favorable bias towards gay people. I wonder to what extent Pride in the media has impacted my immediate associations, as many of the ‘good words’ I associated with celebration – something that has become more and more prominent in media over the years. I was particularly surprised by the introduction question that asked if I knew a gay person. It hadn’t even crossed my mind that you could get to college without ever meeting a gay person – though I suppose you might have not known that someone was gay. I was also curious about the lack of bisexual representation in the survey, though it might be difficult to account for, I think there should be an implicit bias test for monosexuality vs bisexuality. Biphobia is a huge problem coming from both straight people and LGBTQ+ communities, and I think it would be interesting to be able to map out that implicit bias.

This week’s podcast/readings discussing implicit bias and stereotypes reinforces what I already knew about both of these topics. Especially in my Women Gender and Sexuality Studies courses, these two topics are widely discussed, and how these stereotypes and implicit bias affect the everyday lives of those around us. I find Dr.Bezios’s point so true that no matter what we are looking at or talking about, whether its an ethnic group, our campus culture, or various other  ideas, we inherently create bias in our own heads, even if we don’t mean to, and the only way to curve this and make it better is by exposure to other types of cultures and listening/learning about these cultures.

Hearing Dr.Bezio in the podcast talk about stereotypes of groups of people and the implicit bias’ towards them makes me think  about  my own life experiences. I was privileged enough to never  experience stereotypes based on the color of my skin, and because of the very diverse middle/high school i went to, I did not see as many of these stereotypes come into play; Although I knew it was already present in media and I saw it, I never really saw it in person or experienced as much of it until later in high school and college.

 An area I have experienced implicit bias is the fact that I am Jewish. Although looking at me you might not be able to tell, I am very open when it comes to my religion, as it is a part of my culture and heritage. When I tell people I am Jewish, I am often met with responses such as “you don’t Look jewish”, or “you/your personality doesn’t seem jewish”. This is due to the implicit bias/stereotypes that jews have large/curved noses, or even the assumptions that  Jews control businesses/financial markets or are money hungry, or even the idea that jews agree with everything  that the Israeli government says/are more loyal to Israel than anything else. Sure, this may be true for some people, but is an extreme stereotype that does not apply to the entire group. For those who are open to learning and removing these bias’, I usually try to help educate others, whether its  teaching about jewish history/rituals, or discussing the holidays or letting them try some of our signature food dishes, people being willing to learn and grow truly is a solution to make these stereotypes and implicit bias’ lessen.

The Podcast and reading were both very interesting and reiterated bias as I studied it in high school during my ethics class junior year. The podcast began by saying, “bias is dirty.” Bias can be dirty in the fact that it is seen as something wrong which is completely true. However, I have learned that some people come from a bubble where they only interact with diverse environments in very limited situations. It is important to remember that even when something wrong is being said, it is a learning opportunity for individuals. It can be a period of growth as some individuals do not grasp what they have said and view nothing wrong with the situation. Taking these incidents and making them a learning curve by creating open dialogue and not attacking an individual aids in making the change in righting the wrong.

Something that just stuck out to me was the section on stereotypes. I think it is so interesting how stereotypes can easily change my personal perspective of a situation especially when it can be with people I have never interacted with and have absolutely no knowledge about them as individuals. This also makes me wonder how often stereotypes have played a role in my decision making without being fully aware of the  thoughts. And this made me think on a larger scale, such as how many decisions are made daily that are based on stereotypes alone?

Another section that made me laugh was when the questions were brought up. I know for myself, I am used to saying “I’m fine” whenever I am asked how I am doing even when I am not. However, whenever that is answered by someone else, I like to follow up to see if it is true (when time in the conversation allows). All the question in the article were so true and its crazy to think of all the times I have had one of these happen to me.

IAT Response

I decided to take the same IAT that I took in high school during my junior year Ethics class. I was not surprised at the results as I had a hunch it would be similar to three years ago. However, I did think that I am just not as skilled at remembering when the buttons switched categories, so that added an extra difficulty in keeping that straight every round. But, I would take some time during some of the questions as I could not remember what each key represented and would have to read the instructions over a few time. I am not sure if other people had a similar experience or if it was just me but it also could have just been the test I chose.

For my Implicit Associations test I took the age test. My results were that I prefer young people to older people by 30%. I was slightly surprised by this result because my maternal grandparents played a large role in raising me, however I am not too surprised because it is only by 30% and not a large number. It also makes some sense because the college environment we live in fosters a bit of age biases since the people we interact with the most here are our peers within a three year age range and the usually older professors can sometimes be seen as a negative presence of authority.

This week’s podcast came at an interesting time for me as I just did a presentation in my French class on the topic of culture. More specifically, I broke it down into adoptive culture and original culture with original culture being your ethnic heritage or family practices and adoptive culture being the customs that you currently practice or that belong to the country you live in if it is not your native country. I think it is an important facet when considering implicit bias because the cultures in which one grows up heavily dictates what one sees as normal in the world. If your culture has specific norms, for example, it can be strange to see people of other cultures performing actions that your culture does not see as normal.

On that same point, I think Dr. Bezio’s point about media and implicit bias was super compelling. I had already known that representation in the media was important for a feeling of inclusion or having role models that look like oneself but I never thought to take it that psychological step forward. The fact that our minds cannot separate movies from reality and therefore thinks that’s how the world is supposed to be makes stereotypes even more dangerous. If our brains get tricked into thinking harmful stereotypes about specific groups then that makes the levels of implicit bias higher in every person who views that piece of media. This makes our awareness of our implicit bias even more important to consider before publishing something.

Growing up in a very homogenous neighborhood on the north side of Chicago, I attended a very white grade school and high school, and now I am at a college that is not super diverse either. I would not have been exposed to much diversity if I didn’t experience the things I did outside of the white bubble I live in. I have spent every summer attending or working at a summer camp for underserved children on Chicago’s south side where I was sometimes the only white person there. I frequented parishes in the inner city with my family. I travel a lot, to places where I don’t know the language. Basketball has also been a big reason of my exposure to others, with being on teams with people from all over Illinois and playing other girls from across the nation.

All of the experiences make me want to say I don’t have implicit bias – but I do, everyone does. These experiences, though, encourage me to lose the stereotypes that once came to mind when I thought of certain groups of people or concepts. They teach me that although where I am from and America in general puts the white person’s lifestyle/ways of thinking/culture on top and in front of other cultures, white people are not all that in everyone’s mind. Therefore, I agree when the podcast says that greatest thing we can do to reduce our implicit bias is to expose ourselves to everything “other” that we can. I think every person should expose themselves to other cultures and beliefs as much as possible to expand our horizons and realize that what we know now is only part of what we can know. Everybody else has something to teach to us and we can only learn it if we expose ourselves to what others think and believe.

Through Banaji and Greenwald’s writing, I was most surprised by the heavily researched correlation between our held implicit biases and our predispositions to certain behaviors. Banaji and Greenwald discussed the implications of women associating romantic partners with the fantasy of Prince Charming. Research done by Laurie Rudman showed that “‘associating romantic partners with chivalry and heroism may curtail women’s direct pursuit of power’” (Banaji and Greenwald, 116). That is crazy to think about. Growing up as a white, straight girl in the United States, the fantasy of Prince Charming was ingrained into me since I could watch Disney films or little kids shows. I am sure I hold that implicit bias (I wouldn’t argue against it), but the fact that that could subconsciously mean I have less drive to pursue power is hard to wrap my brain around. I think something could be said about balancing the exposure young girls, or boys, have to the Prince Charming stereotype as a romantic partner with exposure to material that shows self-efficacy and independence to help counteract the effects of this implicit bias. Showing girls and boys fighting for themselves and thriving on their own skills and talents could help prevent the fact that the Prince Charming stereotype could very well lead to “‘nonconsciously [inhibiting] women from competing with men for status and prestige’” (116). 

The discussion of the “romantic partner = fantasy hero” stereotype reminds me as well of the discussion in the podcast regarding white culture being the default culture in the US. Although the storyline of the damsel in distress being saved by the hero exists across almost all cultures, the United States for a very long time white washed this stereotype until it only represented white people. “Snow White”, “Beauty and the Beast”, “Rapunzel”, “Cinderella”, all hold a message that could be understood across cultures, but the people remain to represent only one: white American culture. It’s scary to know that people who are looking to elevate one culture over another can do so even through unassuming children’s movies. The active decision to white-wash entire casts and scripts contributes to the lack of representation in the media for a very long time. As Bezio discussed, it’s exciting to see that it’s finally changing– but only a little bit in the grand scheme of things. We have a long way to go, but the heroes in movies are changing and the damsels in distress are beginning to fight their own battles and that is a really cool thing for future generations.

The results for my implicit bias test were pretty much what I was expecting, just not to the extreme that they determined. The results showed that I have a “strong” automatic preference for one group of people over another. This categorization of “strong” makes me feel a little uneasy for sure even though I definitely trust the results of the test and the methods that go into it. Maybe this is just my preexisting bias speaking, but even as I was taking the test I felt almost led towards one end of the spectrum of opinions than the other. My test was comparing two groups of people and also using vocabulary associated with good and bad things. The test started with relating the group of people that I more closely relate to and know more about in general with the good words. By the time I got to the section of the test that related the second group of people to the bad words, it felt like it was already ingrained in my habit of taking the test that I would associate the good words, no incorrectly, with the first group of people. The longer I spent with the test the more it felt like I was overthinking everything and psyching myself out! But maybe that was just my bias showing up 🙂

I was not largely surprised by my results from the IAT test that I took. This was not the first time that I had taken one of these tests so I tried to take a different one. The test that I took was the skin color test and my results did not surprise me much. I showed a slight preference for light skin which I think especially considered the recent events of the past year is something that I have given much more thought to recently. Obviously I would prefer if I showed no preference and had no implicit bias but that is simply not the reality of the world we live in. I acknowledge that I grew up in a very white area with little diversity and was exposed to diversity but never in my day to day life. I think that this made a bit naive in the way that I viewed issues of skin color and I think that implicit bias tests like this help to recognize and work to override these mind bugs that have developed. Ultimately, while I am not surprised by my results, I hope that I can continue to work to counter act my implicit biases and remove them from my decision making.

The conceptualization of stereotypes and implicit bias as “mindbugs”  creates an interesting description of how bias impacts everyday life both on an individual and cultural level. First off, the idea retroactive inference and memory mindbugs are largely ignored when eyewitness accounts are considered for legal purposes is concerning. The trust that we have in others to be completely focused and able to remember at any given moment shows a flaw in relying on memory. It is not necessarily any individual’s fault that their mind has deceived them, but it still should be considered by the larger culture especially during trials. Furthermore, the distinction between white lies, colorless lies, and blue lies exposes how much of life is fabricated from lies. Of course each of these lies are told to make oneself or those around them feel better. But regardless of whether or not lying will protect someone, it is concerning how easily we let these little things slip out. Colorless lies that involved impression management intrigued me and made me evaluate both my own and those around me in how we manage our self image in different social or professional settings. These small mindbugs that are within ourselves are clearly linked to the larger development of societal stereotypes.

Stereotype threat and colorless lies seem to propose an interesting link. Hiding things from ourselves and managing who we appear to be leads to falling into the stereotypes of one’s given group. Whether it is gender stereotypes for a woman who is a stay at home mother or stereotypes of a different group, there is a great deal of intersectionality between the different mindbugs that we come across. How we counter these mindbugs is an ever present question for a society that is working to improve. I believe the method of just exterminating them oversimplifies how deeply rooted stereotypes are in individuals and in society. Of course removing the problem is the easiest answer, but it fails to consider all of the challenges that come with trying to demolish such a large and ubiquitous road block. I find the same issues with simply attempting to bypass mindbugs because again this is clearly a seemingly simple way to removed stereotypes from our thinking. However, it again is not that simple to just “outwit” the minbugs that have become so pervasive. I see the proposed numerical approach as the most realistic in solving the problem of mindbugs. This may simply be because I am a numbers person who likes to deal with facts and statistics, but ultimately I find it more challenging (though no impossible) for humans to ignore numbers as it is much harder to try and infiltrate them with outliers that justify stereotypes.