CULTURE/SOCIETY: Skeletons In The Closet

I don't know how true this is, but I found it interesting. It's from my work's newsletter. - OlderMusicGeek

Explaining the ‘skeleton in the closet’

Hundreds of years ago when English physicians wanted to learn about the human body, it was difficult because there were numerous regulations to follow.

Doctors were typically allowed to dissect only one body over the course of their education, and once the dissection had been accomplished, the physicians were reluctant to give up their prized possessions.

But it wasn’t socially acceptable to keep the skeletons, according to Webb Garrison in his book Why You Say It. Consequently, doctors often hid them in a dark corner or closet where they wouldn’t be discovered easily. Eventually the phrase “skeleton in the closet” came to mean hidden evidence of any kind.

CULTURE/SOCIETY: Our Hidden Prejudism

This is from me, not reprinted from elsewhere. - OlderMusicGeek.

NPR's Talk Of The Nation had this interesting show about our hidden prejudisms. It was inspired by an article from Scientific American. On their blog for the show, The Blog Of The Nation, they had link to two tests to check your hidden biases.

This is my results of the first test -

Your data suggest a moderate automatic preference for Us compared to Them.

Depending on the magnitude of your result, your automatic associations may be described as 'slight', 'moderate', 'strong', or 'little to no preference'. How implicit associations affect our judgments and behaviors is not well understood and may be influenced by a number of variables. As such, the score should serve as an opportunity for self-reflection, not as a definitive assessment of your implicit thoughts or feelings. This and future research will clarify the way in which implicit thinking and feelings affects our perception, judgment, and action.

A link to The Project Implicit that has the test
I have to admit that I'm embarrassed that it is "moderate" instead of "slight".

I mean I knew I had some prejudisms and bigotry. I mean how can one be in this culture - or any culture - and not have some.

I mean even if we don't talk about the obvious ones, like blacks. I know of some other ones I have. I know I have a tendency to look down on rural people. I look down on poor people even though I'm not that well off - but I grew up in a middle class household. And I have a tendency to think that fundamentalists Christians think in a certain or particular way.

So I guess the more I think about this, the more I think it may be right.


Below are my results of the second test where you decide if someone has a gun and if you should shoot them -

Your Score: 280
Average reaction time:
Black Armed:799.6ms
Black Unarmed:1035.84ms
White Armed:801.2ms
White Unarmed:849.44ms

A link to the test, Shooter Affect

Well, here my racism for all to see. My time for seeing them as armed was equal - yay to me!

Then we see how much longer it took me to decide if a black was unarmed compared to a white - almost 1/4 as long! And I'm the father of a half-black child! Yikes!

Guess I still have a ways to go to take care of my own racism!

A link to The Talk Of The Nation show about our hidden biases
A link to The Blog Of The Nation on our hidden biases
A link to the Scientific American article