APUSH Wiley Interactive Race Activities Name

APUSH | Wiley | Interactive Race Activities Name:

For the next two or three class sessions, we’ll be exploring the concept of race, from biological, historical, and sociological perspectives. Each perspective will be enormously useful for APUSH purposes and understanding current events. Today we’ll complete some interactive race activities with the class laptops. Follow the instructions that follow and email your assignment to as an attachment when fully completed. The due date is Tuesday, by the time your class meets.

Feel free to discuss with your peers as you go.

Step 1: Save this document after opening it on your laptop. Be sure your full name is recorded at the top.

Step 2: Read about Harvard’s Project Implicit Program and associated tests below. Use the highlighter to capture the most important information (highlight in yellow) and anything you’re confused about (highlight in red). Then respond to the question that follows.

Harvard University runs a Project Implicit program for testing implicit (hidden, inherent, unspoken, buried, indirect) biases for gender, sexual orientation, race, etc. Today we’ll take one of their tests that measures for implicit racial biases we might have. The test is based in part on the book Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People (2013) by two renowned psychologists whose work has profound sociological implications. Here is a summary of the book:

I know my own mind.I am able to assess others in a fair and accurate way.
These self-perceptions are challenged by leading psychologists Mahzarin R. Banaji and Anthony G. Greenwald as they explore the hidden biases we all carry from a lifetime of exposure to cultural attitudes about age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, social class, sexuality, disability status, and nationality. “Blindspot” is the authors’ metaphor for the portion of the mind that houses hidden biases. Writing with simplicity and verve, Banaji and Greenwald question the extent to which our perceptions of social groups—without our awareness or conscious control—shape our likes and dislikes and our judgments about people’s character, abilities, and potential.
In Blindspot, the authors reveal hidden biases based on their experience with the Implicit Association Test, a method that has revolutionized the way scientists learn about the human mind and that gives us a glimpse into what lies within the metaphoric blindspot. The title’s “good people” are those of us who strive to align our behavior with our intentions. The aim of Blindspot is to explain the science in plain enough language to help well-intentioned people achieve that alignment. By gaining awareness, we can adapt beliefs and behavior and “outsmart the machine” in our heads so we can be fairer to those around us. Venturing into this book is an invitation to understand our own minds.
Blindspot is a book that will challenge and change readers for years to come.“Banaji and Greenwald deserve a major award for writing such a lively and engaging book that conveys an important message: Mental processes that we are not aware of can affect what we think and what we do. Blindspot is one of the most illuminating books ever written on this topic.”—Elizabeth F. Loftus, Ph.D., distinguished professor, University of California, Irvine; past president, Association for Psychological Science; author of Eyewitness Testimony.

Do you think you might be implicitly biased toward other races? Why or why not? Aim for 3-5 sentences.

Response:

Step 3: Go to this link: click “I wish to proceed”  click “Race IAT” and take the test. Be as honest as possible when faced with questions and be as focused as possible during the sorting tasks. ***If the link does not work, open Chrome and do a Google search - “harvard implicit bias test.” Then click on “Take a Test – Project Implicit – Harvard University.” Be sure to select “Race IAT.”

What were your results (automatic preference and strength of preference)? Were you surprised? Why or why not? Note: These are results from the tasks, not the questions (the survey is used by researchers to show contrasts between stated views and actual views). Aim for 3-5 sentences.

Response:

Step 4: Actively read more about the tests now that you’ve completed them. Use the highlighter to capture the most important information (highlight in yellow) and anything you’re confused about (highlight in red).

How Does The IAT Work?The IAT measures the strength of associations between concepts (e.g., European American and African American or Black people and White people) and evaluations (e.g., good, bad). The main idea is that making a response is easier when closely related items share the same response key. We would say that one has an implicit preference for European American (or White people) relative to African American (or Black people) if they are faster to categorize words when European American (or White people) and Good share a response relative to when African American (or Black people) and Good share a response key.

Why Should I Care About My IAT Score?Implicit preferences can predict behavior. Implicit preferences are related to discrimination in hiring and promotion, medical treatment, and decisions related to criminal justice.

What Can I Do About an Implicit Preference That I Do Not Want?Right now, there is not enough research to say for sure that implicit biases can be reduced, let alone eliminated. Packaged "diversity trainings" generally do not use evidence-based methods of reducing implicit biases. Therefore, we encourage people to instead focus on strategies that deny implicit biases the chance to operate, such as blind auditions and well-designed "structured" decision processes.

Other People's Results: The summary of other people's results shows that most people implicitly prefer European American (or White people) to African American (or Black people) - i.e., they are faster sorting when good words and European American (or White people) images go with the same key. Notably, more than 50% of the people included in this graph report having no difference in their attitudes toward the two racial categories.

What About Order Effects?One very common question is about the order of the parts of the IAT. The answer is yes, the order in which you take the test can influence on your overall results. But, the effect is very small. So if you first pair African American (or Black people) + bad and then pair African American (or Black people) + good, your results might be just a tiny bit more negative toward African American (or Black People) than they would be if you had done the reverse pairing first. One way that we try to minimize this order effect is by giving more practice trials before the second pairing than we did before the first pairing. It is also important to know that each participant is randomly assigned to an order, so half of test-takers complete African American (or Black people) + bad and then African American (or Black people) + good, and the other half of test-takers get the opposite order.

What is your reaction to this test and the information provided on this document? What thoughts/questions do you have? Aim for 3-5 sentences.

Response:

Step 5: Actively read the flyer from PBS’s RACE—The Power of an Illusion series. Use the highlighter to capture the most important information (highlight in yellow) and anything you’re confused about (highlight in red).
Our eyes tell us that people look different. No one has trouble distinguishing a Czech from a Chinese, but what do those differences mean? Are they biological? Has race always been with us? How does race affect people today? There’s less – and more – to race than meets the eye:

Race is a modern idea. Ancient societies, like the Greeks, did not divide people according to physical distinctions, but according to religion, status, class, even language. The English language didn’t even have the word ‘race’ until it turns up in 1508 in a poem by William Dunbar referring to a line of kings.
Race has no genetic basis. Not one characteristic, trait or even one gene distinguishes all the members of one so-called race from all the members of another so-called race.
Human subspecies don’t exist. Unlike many animals, modern humans simply haven’t been around long enough or isolated enough to evolve into separate subspecies or races. Despite surface appearances, we are one of the most similar of all species.
Skin color really is only skin deep. Most traits are inherited independently from one another. The genes influencing skin color have nothing to do with the genes influencing hair form, eye shape, blood type, musical talent, athletic ability or forms of intelligence. Knowing someone’s skin color doesn’t necessarily tell you anything else about him or her.
Most variation is within, not between, "races." Of the small amount of total human variation, 85% exists within any local population, be they Italians, Kurds, Koreans or Cherokees. About 94% can be found within any continent. That means two random Koreans may be as genetically different as a Korean and an Italian.
Slavery predates race. Throughout much of human history, societies have enslaved others, often as a result of conquest or war, even debt, but not because of physical characteristics or a belief in natural inferiority. Due to a unique set of historical circumstances, ours was the first slave system where all the slaves shared similar physical characteristics.
Race and freedom evolved together. The U.S. was founded on the radical new principle that "All men are created equal." But our early economy was based largely on slavery. How could this anomaly be rationalized? The new idea of race helped explain why some people could be denied the rights and freedoms that others took for granted.
Race justified social inequalities as natural. As the race idea evolved, white superiority became "common sense" in America. It justified not only slavery but also the extermination of Indians, exclusion of Asian immigrants, and the taking of Mexican lands by a nation that professed a belief in democracy. Racial practices were institutionalized within American government, laws, and society.
Race isn’t biological, but racism is still real. Race is a powerful social idea that gives people different access to opportunities and resources. Our government and social institutions have created advantages that disproportionately channel wealth, power, and resources to white people. This affects everyone, whether we are aware of it or not.
Colorblindness will not end racism. Pretending race doesn’t exist is not the same as creating equality. Race is more than stereotypes and individual prejudice. To combat racism, we need to identify and remedy social policies and institutional practices that advantage some groups at the expense of others.

Which items (A-J) did you find most shocking? Why? Aim for 2 sentences.

Response:

Which two items do you see as the most essential when trying to understand the concept of “race”? Aim for 4-5 sentences.

Response:

Step 6: Click this link, to access the PBS interactive website, RACE – The Power of an Illusion.

Click “Learn More.” Complete the “Sorting People” exercise (see tab on the right). How well did you do on the sorting exercise? What do you think was the purpose of this activity? What conclusions popped up when you were finishing the exercise? A bulleted list of ideas works for this prompt.

Response:

Click “Explore Traits.” Choose one of the options and summarize what you learn. A bulleted list of ideas works for this prompt.

Response:

Click on the “Where Race Lives” tab to “[e]xplore how government policies and past discrimination have made generating wealth easier for some Americans than others.” Click on “A Tale of Two Families” and read through the stories of Byron and Max. Be sure to read through the final slide. In your own words, describe the purpose of this particular activity and any questions/thoughts you have about it. Aim for 3-5 sentences.

Response:

Step 7: Save your work and send to Ms. Wiley at as an attachment. Be sure to use your class hashtag (#block3 or #block4) in the subject line. In the message of your email please let me know if you felt these activities were worthwhile for high school students at CBE. Thank you for your feedback.