Claiming my Inner Bitch

Project Implicit

I added a category to my links today and revisited Project Implicit as a result.

This post at Bitch | Lab got me to thinking about race and research. That's when I realized I didn't have a link to Project Implicit in my lil' corner of the blogosphere. Project Implicit is a Harvard study collecting data and analyzing people's implicit associations. I find it fascinating. I amended my link omission quickly. While at the project's site, though, I realized it's been ages since I'd participated in the study.

I signed in (yes, you do have to register with an e-mail address to participate but I promise I've never gotten a bit of mail from them. The e-mail address is a mere formality.) and was directed to a test comparing Britney Spears to 50 Cent. This, coincidentally, melded nicely with another post at B | L. And there's been all that buzz going on recently about Britney's hoochie! Hmmm...I felt a post coming on already.

Anyway, if there are two things I couldn't care less about on this earth it's probably Britney Spears and 50 Cent. I know very little about them except that, unlike Bitch | Lab, I have seen Brittney's crotch shot. Somebody I respect, maybe Veronica from Nine Pearls, started me on a tangent recently that, at some point, led me to cross the path of Britney's twat. I was not impressed.

So, here I am on Project Implicit staring at pictures of Britney and 50. And I knew before I started the test how it was going to turn out. I seem to have a "strong automatic preference for Britney Spears over 50 Cent."

I despise Britney Spears...even more than I despise violent rap music. I know (knew) nothing about 50 Cent except his stage name. Yet I still had more of a tendency to relate 50's picture or name with negative terms and Britney's with positive terms.

It just goes to show you how insidious this racism thing is. I commented on Maxjulian's blog, thefreeslave, about my perception of the Ali-Frazier fights in the 70's as the contest of "The Good Black Man" versus "The Bad Black Man." And, although I knew it was wrong, I still rooted for Frazier not only because he was a Philadelphian. I rooted for him because I didn't recognize this man Muhammad Ali was and it/he frightened me.

I've grown up a little bit since then, yet I still "have a strong automatic preference for Britney Spears over 50 Cent."

Don't think the work is ever finished. There is always some buffing to be done to smooth over the rough edges, always more brilliance to be gained. I am both sorry and glad that I am, and will remain, a work in progress.

tags: culture / social justice / racism / science

Labels: culture, people of color, racism, science, social justice

posted by Cheryl @ 12:38 AM