And there is evidence that the biases and bigotries we hide from ourselves may be the worst.  For one reason, if they remain hidden to us, we won't work to change them.  For two, we act on them, even while we tell ourselves that we are bias-free, then rationalize our behavior.  For three, it is easy to tell who Klansmen are, and prepare ourselves for discussions about them or with them.  But when we listen to most of the pundits and anchorpersons on the teevee talk about the Gates-Crowley incident, we have to watch and listen very carefully to their framing of the story.  Watching their body language, their vacuous questions to "black guests," their need to find someone right and someone wrong in the affair.  Plus to give that story and the President's remarks 90% of the coverage instead of focusing on his speech on health care.  Post-racial society, anyone?

I watched Chris Matthews talk to Clarence Paige and Michael Eric Dyson, and Tweety's comments had me banging my head against the wall.  There was no earthly way that he could accept what they were saying and internalize it; he wanted to tie the whole mess up in a package with a bow, and solve it right there. (Paige and Dyson were great, by the way.)

I saw an interview with Officer no-way-i'm-gonna apologize Crowley, standing with his arms crossed over his chest, defending the Citadel of his self-righteouness.  I have no idea what Professor Gates believes about himself, but getting disrespected even after he told the cop who and what he was probably irked him purple.  Deeper self-knowledge might be helpful for both, and to all the police Crowley purportedly advised so well in racial sensitivity training. 

Harvard developed a series of bias tests that measure a person's beliefs about their biases and how they actually respond to bias-provoking questions and pictures.  The Implicit Association Test is available online, and you can take the demo tests, or sign up to be more formally part of the project.  Categories include gender, religion, sexual identity, skin tone, race, disability, Arab-Muslim, etc. 

I'm going to take them, and I hope many of you will.  I'm guessing our results will increase the level and self-honesty of discussion we have.  And jeez, louise, do we ever need to develop a larger, more explicit vocabulary about racial issues than "racism" or "racial profiling!"

link:    https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/demo/takeatest.html