Implicit Racism

In class this week we have been discussing different races and how they are perceived. Although most people like to think that they are not racist or try not to have negative views of different races, it is very difficult not to classify different people by the color of their skin and their physical features. Its not only Americans who stereotype people by their race, but all people and races have their own opinions of other races, and usually these opinions or assumptions are wrong. In class we did an activity where we had to group people into what race we thought they were, based on just their faces. This was a difficult task because as a class we barely guessed anyone's true race correctly. These results just go to show that people cannot just assume that someone is a particular race based on how they look. I took the Implication Association Test for Race, and my results said that I have "a moderate automatic preference for European American compared to African American." This is disappointing because I like to think that I am not racist and I try to think of everyone in the same way. However, according to this test I subconsciously associate American-Americas with negative words. This could be because of the media's influence and the area in which I live and was raised, in North America with mostly upper-class white people who look like me. This just proves that unfortunately it is difficult not to be slightly racist today due to many different factors, even though most people try their best not to be.