(Dis)abled persons are equal, but secretly I’m scared of white people

There as been a growing body of research that has focused on the concept of implicit racism or racism that occurs unconsciously (Banaji & Greenwald, 1994).  To systematically measure an individual’s level of implicit racism, Greenwald et al. (1998) created the Implicit Association Test (IAT).  Specifically, the IAT measures the extent to which an individual associates two categories or concepts.

The first test I completed was the Disability IAT. My result showed that I had little to no automatic preference between disabled persons and abled persons.  In other words, I responded at a similar speed when abled persons images and good words were paired together as when disabled persons images and good words were paired together. Overall, I would say this result is consistent with how I consciously view and behave toward people in both groups, particularly toward people who could be considered disabled.  In the past, I’ve actively sought out situations where I would have to interact with both abled and disabled persons.  For example, I was part of the marching band which emphasized psychical able-ness or ability.  By contrast, I coordinated an event at our regional Special Olympics where children with various physical disabilities participated in typical field-day activities. However, I cannot think of many instances where I interacted with people who are disabled or heard many derogatory references about them.  Therefore, it is possible that I do not have an automatic preference because I do not consciously or unconsciously think about them as good or bad; they just are. Another possibility for my result could be that I’ve learned to associate good words with people who are disabled because both my grandparents have documented disabilities and have the handicap sticker (the blue sign that allows you to park in a handicap spot).  Growing up, I spent a lot of time with my grandparents and saw them use the sticker, and because I think my grandparents are amazing, I may have equated their good personality traits with other people who are disabled.  Regardless of why I show little to no preference between these groups, I will admit that I was a bit relieved with this result because consciously I know there is no difference between them with it comes to being good. 

The second test I took was the Weapons IAT. My result suggested that, when compared to Black Americans, I had a slight automatic association of White American with weapons.  In other words, I responded quicker when White American were paired with weapons than when Black Americans were paired with weapons.  I don’t believe that this result is consistent with my conscious beliefs about the association between races and weapons because I realize that people of all races commit crimes with all sorts of weapons.  In fact, I thought I would have been primed to associate weapons with Black American simply because almost all the stories in the media are about people of color committing crimes.  With that being said, maybe I got this result because I am aware of the stereotype surrounding people of color with weapons and I unconsciously overcompensated, which resulted in an associate between White Americans and weapons.  Another possible explanation could be that as a woman of color, I am unconsciously threatened or scared by White Americans because of the racist acts I’ve seen and heard of.  Put another way, maybe on some level I think I am more in danger when around white people than when around non-white people because of the color of my skin.  Overall, this Weapons IAT (more so than the disability IAT) as made me think of how my own race and gender interact to influence how I may implicitly view others, particularly those in the majority.  That is, the stereotypes and prejudices I learn could be completely different than those that an upper/middle class white female or male may learn.       

        

n = 644 

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Banaji, M. R., & Greenwald, A. G. (1994). Implicit stereotyping and prejudice. In The psychology of prejudice: The Ontario symposium (Vol. 7, pp. 55-76). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. K. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74, 1464-1480.