In the Winter 1993 edition of The College Quarterly, Phil King and I discuss a research method for diagnosing and monitoring unconscious patterns of prejudice. In an ever more sensitive multicultural society, such an instrument can have the salutary effect of injecting verifiable data into otherwise emotional debates and increasing awareness of how deeply embedded is bigotry. At the same time as such techniques help illustrate the nature of social bias, we must reflect on what else is happening as disadvantaged groups press their case for equity.
Governments seek enforceable human rights codes.
Public and private institutions introduce rules of conduct setting out penalties for discrimination and harassment. Publishers produce bias-free dictionaries so writers can find words offensive to no one. One goal, it seems, is to sanitize education, cleansing it of conflict in curriculum, pedagogy and personal deportment. Children of committed union members often find the anti-union bias of many economics professors unpleasant. Being offended is part of learning how to think.