Racism covers prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race than one’s own. In spite of this definition, however, not everyone agrees what constitutes racism and what doesn’t. To this end, researchers at the University of Maryland and the University of California, Santa Barbara created their own instrument for measuring White majority racism directed against non-White minorities.
Forget the political compass test, this is the real thing. Come join me and find out how racist we all are.
FAQ:
Q:“What’s the point of a racism test that by its own admission bends the meaning of racism?”
A:“Shut up, you racist”
This wasn’t very nuanced. I prefer the tests that have you select one image over the other quickly and then tell you how racist you are on a subconscious level. Those are more interesting.
Racism in Western countries is mostly a thing of the past.
It may sometimes be necessary for Western governments to detain or investigate non-Whites for actions that would not arouse suspicion if done by White people.
It is okay to ask non-Whites if they know a friend, coworker, or classmate of yours who is of the same race as they are.
It is okay to make jokes about the food that is served in restaurants owned by non-Whites (e.g., lots of garlic in restaurants owned by Arabs, dog meat in Asian restaurants, etc.).
White people have a duty to educate themselves on the racist actions of their forebears.
It is offensive to ask non-Whites “where they are really from.”
Western history books should take care to stress the contributions of non-Whites to Western civilization.
It is okay to assume non-Whites live up to their racial stereotypes (e.g., Black people are good at sports, Asians are good at math, etc.).
It is offensive to tell non-Whites that “they speak English so well.”
It is okay to assume that people mostly have friends that share their own ethnicity.
It is okay to assume that the kitchens in restaurants owned by non-Whites are generally dirtier than the kitchens in restaurants owned by Whites.
It is legitimate for Western countries to impose stricter immigration restrictions on people from non-White countries than they do for immigrants from White countries.
It’s okay to portray non-Whites in commercials as acting subserviently towards Whites.
It is okay to portray non-Whites in Western movies in accordance with racial stereotypes (e.g., Arabs as prone to violence, Asians as non-assertive, etc.).
It is okay to portray non-White characters in TV shows as speaking poor and/or heavily accented English.
It is offensive to ask non-Whites if they can teach you sports that people of their race have traditionally been good at (e.g., if Black people can teach you basketball, if Asian people can teach you martial arts, etc.).
It’s okay to portray minorities in commercials as being bad at English.
It is offensive to suggest to non-Whites that they look like celebrities who share their ethnicity (e.g., that Asian people look like Bruce Lee, Black people look like Will Smith, etc.).
It is offensive to suggest that all people of the same, non-White ethnicity look alike (i.e., that all Black people look alike, that all Asians look alike, etc.).
I don’t really think minorities in the West were historically the target of racist actions.
My forebears? They were peasants until the mid 20th century.
Taiwanese people wanna know their English level all the time and ask them. It’s racist to tell them how they are doing?
I guess that if the character calls for an immigrant, who cares if they are white or non-white? Is there a difference? If the character calls for a Nonna, then get one that fits the bill no?
11.19% less prone to general racism than the average person.
9.27% more prone to socio-historical racism than the average person.
5.07% less prone to perpetual foreigner racism than the average person.
2.1% less prone to racism than the average person overall.
I prefer to think of it as more knowledgeable of socio=historical racism than the average person, but that’s what a racist would say.
Plus I couldn’t be bothered to use the slidy indicators, so used ‘agree’ and ‘disagree’ as yes or no.
I answered a lot of can non-whites be portrayed… questions as neutral. I think if that role is the only non-White character of his/her ethnicity in the movie, then probably no. If there’s like 2 or more of them, and they are portrayed differently, then sure.
I guess that’s what got me higher in the general racism portion.
Scored high because while I don’t find any of those offensive, I do find them potentially in bad taste, annoying at worst. Like I just roll my eyes when someone tells me I’m good with chopsticks rather than feel any sort of offense.
36.19% less prone to general racism than the average person.
28.73% less prone to socio-historical racism than the average person.
43.07% less prone to perpetual foreigner racism than the average person.
36.1% less prone to racism than the average person overall.
The IDRlabs Racism Test was informed by research published in peer-reviewed scientific journals such as: Liang, C. T. H., Li, L. C., & Kim, B. S. K. (2004). The Asian American Racism-Related Stress Inventory: Development, Factor Analysis, Reliability, and Validity. Journal of Counseling Psychology, 51(1), 103–114. doi:10.1037/0022-0167.51.1.103 and Loo, C. M., Fairbank, J. A., Scurfield, R. M., Ruch, L. O., King, D. W.,Adams, L. J., & Chemtob, C. M. (2001). Measuring exposure to racism: Development and validation of a Race-Related Stressor Scale (RRSS) for Asian American Vietnam veterans. Psychological Assessment, 13, 503–520.
The work of these researchers has also in part been informed by the actual, lived experiences of non-White immigrants to Western nations, primarily the United States of America.
