The Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity

In 1972, Dr. Robert L. Williams II, also known as one of the fathers of African American Psychology, created the Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity, the BITCH-100 . This test was an examination to demonstrate that intelligence tests show racial and cultural biases . This test also demonstrated that Black students do better in tests than white students when the test is geared towards Black speech and experiences, rather than white speech and experiences. Through this, he showed that standardized tests have an inherent racial bias that unfairly discriminates against Black students. He went on to study Black speech patterns and coined the term “Ebonics,” which refers to African American Vernacular English (AAVE).

The Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity (BITCH) is a 100-item multiple-choice test in which a slang term is to be matched to a translation which may also be in slang . The BITCH is composed entirely of words, terms, and expressions that are particular to a subculture within the Black population . BITCH items were selected by an empirical criterion: items on which whites averaged as well as blacks, were eliminated. The terms--on the order of chick, grass, and Afro--are not exclusive to the black community, but the requirement of matching one such term to another makes the test difficult for the subject who picks up his slang from the middle class communication media. The test measured Williams' black subjects reliably; for a sample of black youths, the standard error was less than 3 points on the 100-point scale; for Williams' whites, about 6.

According to Dr. Williams, the BITCH is a culture-specific test. It was not intended to be a culture-fair or culture-common test. The research has been guided by several considerations. The first problem facing anyone attempting to devise a test is the election of items. For the BITCH, the content of all items was drawn exclusively from the Black experience domain. A fairly comprehensive election of items was made from a variety of sources. The words included were taken from the Dictionary of Afro-American Slang, the Word in the APGA Journal, friends and the author's personal experiences gained from living and working in the Black community. The original word list consisted of 175 randomized items. .

### Vocabulary items

Here is an example of excerpts of vocabulary items:

1. Boot: a) cotton farmer b) black c) Indian d) Vietnamese citizen

2. Clean: a) just out of the bathtub b) very well dressed c) very religious d) has a great deal

3. Mother's Day: a) Black independence day b) a day when mothers are honored c) a day the welfare checks come in d) every first Sunday in church

### Limitations

There is no published data on validity of the BITCH.  Walker (1976) reported SES differences may lead to scoring differences, as they found lower SES participants scored lower on the BITCH than middle class participants.

### Robert Williams II

Robert Williams II was born in Little Rock, AR. He reported he began to be interested in assessments when he took an aptitude test in high school that suggested he would be better equipped to do manual labor than go to college, which damaged his confidence. He was convinced by others to attend college, and eventually received a Master's Degree in psychology from Wayne State University in Detroit, MI. Williams was then hired as a psychologist for Arkansas State Hospital, the first Black person to hold such a role in the state. He received his PhD in clinical psychology at Washington State University. Following the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Williams founded the Association of Black Psychologists (ABPsi). Williams reported after developing the BITCH, "My prediction was that African Americans would do much better on the Black intelligence test than they would on conventional tests, and white students would do very poorly. That was supported.” He died in 2020 at the age of 90.

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED070799.pdf
2. ↑ https://news.stlpublicradio.org/education/2020-08-20/psychologist-robert-l-williams-ii-wash-us-black-studies-founder-dies-at-90
3. ↑ https://guildservices.org/8-black-psychologists-who-made-history/
4. ↑ https://web-p-ebscohost-com.williamjames.idm.oclc.org/ehost/detail/detail?vid=5&sid=4724c253-678f-4ff8-9ed9-e0ed3e7db38d%40redis&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZT1zaXRl#AN=test.6979&db=mmt
5. ↑ https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007%2F978-0-387-71799-9\_46
6. ↑ http://people.uncw.edu/robertsonj/SEC210/BITCHtest.pdf
7. ↑ https://web.s.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=0&sid=2757795f-f411-4980-afc3-e3b4440c8e43%40redis
8. ↑ https://scholarworks.csun.edu/handle/10211.2/5352
9. ↑ https://source.wustl.edu/2020/08/obituary-robert-l-williams-ii-founding-director-of-black-studies-program-90/