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Skylar Barber- Section 17

Dear Dr. Rogers,

My name is Skylar Barber. I am a white woman. My social class is probably the working middle

class. I am attending Clarkson to get at least a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. I think

I have an interesting ancestry. I believe one of the men who signed the Declaration of

Independence, Charles Carroll, is my ancestor. I also have great-grandparents who were German

and Polish. I grew up in Ticonderoga, NY. Then, in the summer of 2017, we moved to

Watertown, NY. I am Roman Catholic; in fact, I never went to a public school. I went to St.

Mary’s School in Ticonderoga. After we moved, I went to Immaculate Heart Central (IHC).

Many things have made me who I am today. However, I think the biggest influence on my

personality is my family. My immediate family consists of my mom, dad, and younger sister. I

also have many cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents. In my family, we show affection by

making fun of each other. We are also very sarcastic, which, sometimes I think, has rubbed off

on me too much. I also have two basset hounds, a boy (Brutus) and a girl (Daisy). I love to play

sports, be outside, and read. I play soccer, basketball, softball, and golf. I hope to play anything

but basketball for Clarkson. I think a key part of who I am is my determination. I have a favorite

quote that my grandpa gave me to put on my wall. "The difference between the possible and the

impossible is in a person's determination". I never give up if I really want to do something.

There are many issues in the world today, and I am not blind to them. I don’t know a lot about

sociology or looking at things from a sociological lens. However, I am aware of the inequalities

in society between races, classes, and genders. I am by no means an expert on the subject matter,
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but I am aware problems exist. In this class, I hope to become more aware of inequality in

society as well as improve my writing. My goals for my first semester at Clarkson are to finish

the semester with a 4.0 GPA and participate in at least 2 clubs/sports.

I think my implicit bias test results were accurate. The implicit bias test showed that I have a

moderate automatic preference for light-skinned Asian people. I got these test results because I

do not have anything against dark-skinned Asian people. However, the more I have in common

with someone, the more I prefer their company. The implicit bias test showed that I have a slight

automatic preference for Physically Abled People. These results are accurate because I like to be

active, so I prefer someone I can be active with. The implicit bias test showed that I have a

moderate automatic preference for Straight people over Gay people. My test results showed this

because I am straight and gravitate towards people I have more in common with. The implicit

bias test showed that I have a slight automatic association for males with Career and females

with Family. I got these results because a female and a male can both be associated with Career.

However, when I think of family, I usually think of kids. A woman must carry a child for nine

months to give birth, while a male does not, so I associate the female more with family. The

implicit bias test showed that I have a slightly faster sorting of ‘African Americans’ with ‘Bad’

and ‘European Americans’ with ‘Good’ than ‘European Americans’ with ‘Bad’ and ‘African

Americans’ with ‘Good'. These results are this way because I know more ‘European Americans

than ‘African Americans.’ I am sure there are ‘Good’ ‘African Americans' out there; I just have

met more ‘Good’ ‘European Americans.’ The implicit bias test showed that I have little to no

automatic association between present and past with White Americans and Native Americans.

My results show this, because while Native Americans existed in the past, so did white

Americans. White Americans exist today, and so do Native Americans. I also live in upstate New
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York and have been to the Great Plains, so I have learned more about Native American culture

than some. This means I consider it more present in my life than others.

Sincerely,

Skylar Barber
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References

Project Implicit. (2011). Project Implicit. Harvard.edu; Project Implicit.

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatest.html