busyI've always annoyed people trying to apply these tests, because I stop with, "I don't know anything more about that person. All you've given me is a name. That doesn't contain the information you're asking for." Or a picture. Or whatever. Because it could be boy named Sue or a white Irish kid named Javier.
Sometimes when I'm naming characters they just tell me. Sometimes I go looking for things that match. I like using ethnic names because it's a chance for wider representation. I often look up the demographics of a region to find locally common names and ethnic groups. But every once in a while they do something off-pattern, like sex-swapped names, or the Louisiana woman who started screaming curses in Italian.
Assumptions are bug spots that'll stop you from seeing what's really in front of you.
October 11 2015, 22:10:30 UTC 5 years ago
Imagine this: if you found that you were just a bit more nervous if a mysterious man with a name of (looking at the study link) DeShawn instead of Connor was following you, then you'd realize that, although you have an open mind, and are aware of prejudices, and try to swim through the sea of prejudice without getting any on you - it's not easy. Even when you're trying.
And that in itself is incredibly valuable information.
Obviously: I'm not telling you that you, in particular, would be more nervous with one or the other. I'm just shining a light on another part of the study. It's one that matters because, growing up, I was given the impression that "colorblindness" really was the right way to be. This kind of study, properly given, could show me that I'm not as colorblind as I think. If it didn't - due to my weirdness and my fatigue, I missed a lot of prejudices! - at least the results could show me that even if *I* was colorblind, I still had a far better shot at a job than my friend DeShawn.
Well...
October 11 2015, 22:34:24 UTC 5 years ago
I just don't read people that way. My situational awareness looks at things like proximity, speed, gaze pattern, body language, etc. Respective size/condition is a minor note since almost everyone outweighs me anyhow. I do consider clothing because, for example, some are more suited to concealing weapons than others, high heels are poor for running, a person in fashionable clothes may pose a threat but is unlikely to brawl in person, and so forth.
The only occasion I think of where I've patched in "pay attention to skin tone" is if I get in someone's way. I find most social niceties a waste of time, but I'll make the extra effort to say "excuse me" to a person of color because I know that most pink people don't. Doing the same thing that actual racists do, in a context where it readily causes people to misread me, is sufficiently distasteful that I go out of my way to avoid it.
I prefer diverse environments to monocultures. I will, to some extent, prioritize meeting people of color in a mixed group just because my current environment isn't very mixed. If it's usually mixed that one fades back into the background most of the time.
The things I care about are far more based on action than appearance. That means I sort people differently than most do. Doesn't mean I never misread anyone, just come up with different bobbles.