Friday, May 7, 2010

Sorting People

The PBS documentary, Race -- the Power of an Illusion, explores race in society, science and history. It has a great companion website.  Sorting People asks you to sort people according to race based solely on appearance.  It's an interesting exercise exploring not only our conception of race, but also in the photographed  individuals' conception of their own race.

I did very badly in sorting, getting only one out of four right in each category.  Try it yourself, and post your results in the comments.

8 comments:

Beth said...

It reminds me of this quiz
http://alllooksame.com/exam_room.php
which I scored "hopeless"

Jeff and Madeline said...

I use something similar to this with my students. Changing perceptions has to start somewhere.

Project Ni Hao said...

I did badly, too. I got 5 right - one in each category and 2 in the Asian category.

Michele said...

So interesting! I didn't do well either getting only 9 correct. Years ago I scored "hopeless" on the alllooksame exam.

travelmom and more said...

Thanks for sharing this link, I passed it on to my colleagues and think I will use it in my Civil Rights unit. I took the quiz and didn't do very well; however I think I could have gotten one or two more if the photos were a little bigger. I also scanned through the site and found some great quotes about white privilege.

Anonymous said...

I didn't do well, but I didn't expect to.

DS is half white/half East Asian and he saw a photo of his cousin who is half white/half Hispanic and goes, "He looks exactly like me!" And they do look exactly alike...but why shouldn't they, since they are related?

Anonymous said...

Eight out of twenty. Interesting!
Sue (aka anonymous)

Gwyn said...

I got six correct... Very eye-opening.