January 7, 2021

Overview

This reflection-based activity guides students in understanding their implicit racial bias. This activity promotes anti-racism and can support students in the development of their racial identity.

According to Maryfield (2018), Implicit racial bias “can cause individuals to unknowingly act in discriminatory ways. This does not mean that the individual is overtly racist, but rather that their perceptions have been shaped by experiences and these perceptions potentially result in biased thoughts or actions.” All people have unconscious thoughts and actions, but “becoming aware of implicit racial bias creates an avenue for addressing the issue.”

According to the White Racial Identity Development Model by Helms, as white students have experiences that confront their prior conception of the world, they are prompted to reflect on their own racial biases and are doing the work to move from the Contact Stage to the Autonomy Stage of their identity. Read more on Helms’s White Racial Identity Model. White students must experience discomfort and sit with guilt but be careful not to settle into guilt. For more information about White Identity Development, please refer to our Instructor Resource Guide: Racial Identity Development.

The implicit racial bias test is one of many created by Project Implicit. Project Implicit uses the Implicit Association Test (IAT), a tool developed by Anthony Greenwald, Professor of Psychology at the University of Washington, and Mahzarin Banaji, Professor of Social Ethics at Harvard, to study prejudice in social contexts. The IAT assesses unconscious or implicit bias in the context of social identity. The test was later implemented in a study that is ongoing, Project Implicit, and is currently housed on servers at Harvard. To hear Dr. Greenwald and Dr. Banaji discuss this research, view this video.

Activity Goals:

• To prompt students to think about their implicit bias in relation to race.
  
• To explain implicit racial bias and how it is relevant to anti-racist teaching practices in all classes.

Anti-Racist Pedagogy Principles:

The following anti-racist pedagogy principles are incorporated into this activity guide. For a review of the principles, visit our Practicing Anti-Racist Pedagogy homepage.

• Principle 1: Anti-racist pedagogy acknowledges racism in disciplinary, institutional, and departmental contexts
  • In this activity, students interrogate how bias shows up in their lives as students, in their relationships on campus, and in projects, research, or assignments in their field of study.
    
• Principle 3: Anti-racist pedagogy disrupts racism whenever/wherever it occurs
  • By exploring implicit bias in relation to race in this activity, instructors and students are taking steps to critically self-reflect on how implicit bias impacts their perspectives and actions.
    
• Principle 4: Anti-racist pedagogy seeks change within and beyond the classroom
  • In this activity, students reflect on how implicit bias impacts their experiences in the classroom and on campus.
    
• Principle 6: Anti-racist pedagogy focuses on the importance of process over time
  • This activity is note intended to be a one-off lesson. Revisiting this activity throughout the semester is encouraged. Students also reflect on how they can continue learning about and interrogating their implicit bias beyond this activity.
    

Racial Bias Test Activity Guide: