Thursday, November 03, 2016

A new computer program that morphs faces reverses racial bias in children

Researchers developed a facial photo-matching game that reverses racial bias in children
Lila MacLellan
Flipboard.com
Nov 3, 2016

In a recent study from Yale University, preschool teachers were found to spend more time watching African-American children, and especially boys, for signs of misbehavior, than they did children of other races. 

Sadly, this didn’t surprise anyone who knew it to be true from experience.
"Yale study suggests racial bias among preschool teachers" https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/education/wp/2016/09/27/yale-study-suggests-racial-bias-among-preschool-teachers/ …
More science to prove what black people already knew

These findings, which were published in Child Development, led the scientists to believe that the children were likely extending a negative perception about an unknown race to all people of that category. This is a symptom of the so-called “other-race effect,” which makes it challenging for a person to make distinctions between the individual faces of another race. (It’s at play when you hear someone make the cringe-inducing comment that people of one group “all look alike to me,” but it doesn’t always suggest underlying racism.)

Because learning to individuate faces has been shown to reduce race-based implicit bias in adults, the researchers decided to test the method with children...

Is the dumbest person on the staff in charge of the school?

In my experience there are many school administrators who aren't the brightest bulbs on the porch. In addition there is a problem of arrogance and egotism and lack of empathy in some principals' offices. But if dressing as Donald Trump was a dumb thing to do, voluntarily posing with a woman dressed as Hillary in prison garb was much worse. One wonders if this principal and his secretary planned this display.

Virginia principal dresses as Trump, secretary as Clinton in prison garb
by Vernon Freeman Jr.
Daily Kos
November 2, 2016

R.E. Lee High School website/Emberly Lynn Martin Facebook
Principal Mark Rowicki dressed as Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump 
and School secretary Stephanie Corbett dressed as Hillary Clinton. (R.E. Lee High 
School website/Emberly Lynn Martin Facebook)

STAUNTON, Va. – Some Virginia parents are outraged after the Principal at Robert E. Lee High School in Staunton dressed up as Donald Trump and a school secretary dressed as Hillary Clinton, in prison garb, for Halloween.

A photo of pair was posted on the school’s website in a Halloween photo album of costumes worn by students and staff...

The photo has since been removed.

Since the photos went public, parents in Staunton have criticized the administration for the “politically charged costumes” on school grounds.

One of those parents was Emberly Lynn Martin, who graduated from the high school and has two daughters.

“I don’t care who you are or are not voting for. You are professionals, who work with children. Some more impressionable then others. The fact that any school official would think it’s okay to dress like this leaves me appalled and floored,” Martin wrote on a Facebook post with the controversial image. “What message are you sending to any of them when their high school principal dresses up like a man who wants to deport them, says things like “she’s a nasty woman”, or “grab em by the p—–?”...