Celebrity Pop Quiz
Professors Thierry Devos and Mahzarin Banaji used images similar to these in their "American = White" studies. Study participants categorized celebrities as American or Foreign at rapid speed. Even when the Asian-Americans were n-th generation-U.S. citizens and the White-Europeans were not, an "American = White" implicit association emerged. Dr. Banaji often refers to our implicit associations as the thumbprints of the culture around us. Lately, I have been thinking a lot about that American = White fingerprint, in light of the spike in bias, hate, and violence against the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities during the pandemic.