Implicitly Silly

Project Implicit is supposed to reveal subtle or not-so-subtle prejudices we have. They do this by performing a test through a website (https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/) where you have to press the E and I key AS FAST AS YOU CAN as to whether a picture corresponds to European American or African American and/or a positive or negative word. Then they scramble them so the positive words are associated with either background. If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is. I find myself having to look at each category for which key I’m supposed to press.

Supposedly this can reveal slight preferences. Maybe that’s true, but I think the IMPLICATION is that it can reveal bias, possibly even racism. But since you’re supposed to go as fast as you can, how can that detect racism? Racism at its most sinister is due to much more than a split-second key press. Racism is due to prejudice leading to well thought-out planning, culminating in social laws and policy.

Everyone’s minds are constantly churning, and everyone has evil thoughts sometimes. What matters is if those thoughts are acted on in a sustained long-term way. If I pass someone of a different ethnicity on the street and some nasty slang term comes to mind, but I just walk by, does that hurt anyone or anybody? If anything, I’ll tell my own mind to shut up with that negative bullshit.

Project Implicit is constantly emphasizing against the one thing that real life situations have, that makes them meaningful: time.