Testing your implicit bias with their explicit bias
In publishing "Before the next videotaped Starbucks disaster, everyone should take implicit bias training," USA Today is dabbling in thought control. Written by Derrick Johnson, who is president and CEO of the NAACP, this article leads off stunningly thus: "Everyone should get tested for implicit bias, and if you're a public official or receiving public dollars – it should be mandatory."
A link takes visitors to a site so obviously bent to the left that even the most ardent SJW might find his head tilting. The presumably guilty test subject is confronted with a series of "IAT" (Implicit Attitude Tests). Like this one:
Skin-tone ('Light Skin - Dark Skin' IAT). This IAT requires the ability to recognize light and dark-skinned faces. It often reveals an automatic preference for light-skin relative to dark-skin.
Or this one:
Sexuality ('Gay - Straight' IAT). This IAT requires the ability to distinguish words and symbols representing gay and straight people. It often reveals an automatic preference for straight relative to gay people.
So the implicit bias test calculates the pureness of your thoughts based upon the explicit bias that forms an atmospheric bubble around the already perfectly purified souls of the people who draw up and administer the test. No bias possible in that.
Johnson continues, "This is the beginning of a movement designed to awaken the soul of our nation in ways that not only make us better people, but also a society where we are both accountable for what we know as well as what we are unaware of."
Is Johnson aware that the researchers themselves disavow their own results? From the site:
Important disclaimer: In reporting to you results of any IAT test that you take, we will mention possible interpretations that have a basis in research done (at the University of Washington, University of Virginia, Harvard University, and Yale University) with these tests. However, these Universities, as well as the individual researchers who have contributed to this site, make no claim for the validity of these suggested interpretations. If you are unprepared to encounter interpretations that you might find objectionable, please do not proceed further. You may prefer to examine general information about the IAT before deciding whether or not to proceed.
Johnson demands that all of America take such a test, so I took one. A clumsy two-left-handedness was the most evident characteristic of the questions. In the facial recognition section, one is supposed to choose whether faces are white or brown based upon something other than color. A big red X is displayed if the answer doesn't agree with the researcher's assessment; this feature continually guarantees that the desired response is submitted.
Johnson justifies his call for compulsory mind exploration and assessment by including a video of a woman being tossed to the ground at a Waffle House because she loudly and coarsely refused to comply with a police officer's request. Johnson is in effect saying, "Your reaction to my bad behavior is proof of your unacceptable thought processes."