After taking the IAT's and reading the hidden bias tutorial I was and I wasn't surprised by my results. I would say that I was surprised that they said I was more likely to associate male with career than family, for example, but at the same time I wasn't surprised because of the way the tests were administered. There is no way that I can associate a word with a category on one side and then flip it around and then expect me to be able to associate the same words with the same speed with little or no mistakes. So more than anything I don't view these tests as being very reliable or valid. From this testing procedure you can learn to not believe in everything that you read and to always question everything around you.

I think that whether or not the tests were reliable or valid, they still make you stop and think about whether or not you truly hold a bias against a specific gender, race or sexuality. So because of that I think that the teacher's intentions for assigning this assignment was just to get her students really thinking about their own biases and prejudices. It is always important to be aware of yourself, especially when it comes to biases, prejudices, and stereotypes. There are going to be plenty of times in life when you are going to be approached by a person of another race, sexuality, age, weight, etc. and you are going to have to interact with them in some way. So because of this it is important to identify your prejudices, biases and stereotypes so that you can work on changing you views for the better, especially when most of them have been placed upon you at a young age. Having prejudices, biases, and stereotypes they are only going to hold you back from really enjoying the world and life.

I don't think that any prejudice/ bias is OK to have, because you are generalizing to a whole community/nationality based upon what you may have witnessed in the media or from one person. Not all Black people are ghetto and lazy, not all Asians are extremely intelligent and organized and not all White people are preppy and can't dance. When you generalize like that you are not seeing the individual for who they really are.

Besides taking the Gender-Career test I also took the Sexuality and the Skin-tone tests. After seeing my results from the Gender test I really wanted to see what my results would be when it comes to these two particular tests. I took the Skin-tone test because I myself am half Black/ half White and I don't believe that I'm biased in anyway toward White or Black people, especially since I'm close with both sides of my family. I took the Sexuality test because some of my best friends are gay and I've never had any problem with any homosexual's, gay or lesbian, way of life.