Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity
Encyclopedia
The Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity, or BITCH-100, is an intelligence test created by Robert Williams in 1972 oriented toward the language, attitudes, and life-styles of African American
s. White
students perform more poorly on this test than blacks, suggesting that there are important dissimilarities in the cultural backgrounds of blacks and whites. Some argue that these findings indicate that test bias plays a role in producing the gaps in IQ test scores. Similarly to the Williams test, the Chitling Intelligence Test
is another example of a culturally biased test that tends to favor African Americans.
Both of these tests demonstrate how cultural content on intelligence tests may lead to culturally biased score results. Still these criticisms of cultural content may not apply to "culture free" tests of intelligence. The BITCH-100 and the Chitling test both have explicit cultural assumptions, while normal standardized test
s are only theorized to have implicit bias. The fact that a test can have bias does not necessarily prove that a specific test does have bias. However, even on cultural free tests, test bias may play a role since, due to their cultural backgrounds, some test takers do not have the familiarity with the language and culture of the psychological and educational tests that is implicitly assumed in the assessment procedure.
Blacks face one big problem in the test environment. Some Blacks came to America as slaves, so they came here not because they wanted to, but because they didn’t have any other choice. Therefore, these slaves and their descendants spent much of their time keeping with the behaviours of their African cultural roots, becoming conditioned by American slavery and learning these behaviours, and then trying to function successfully in the mainstream American society.
Beverly Daniel Tatum writes that dominant cultures often set the parameters by which minority culture
s will be judged. Minority groups are labeled as substandard in significant ways, for example blacks have historically been characterized as less intelligent than whites. Tatum suggests that the ability to set these parameters is a form of white privilege.
African American
African Americans are citizens or residents of the United States who have at least partial ancestry from any of the native populations of Sub-Saharan Africa and are the direct descendants of enslaved Africans within the boundaries of the present United States...
s. White
White American
White Americans are people of the United States who are considered or consider themselves White. The United States Census Bureau defines White people as those "having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa...
students perform more poorly on this test than blacks, suggesting that there are important dissimilarities in the cultural backgrounds of blacks and whites. Some argue that these findings indicate that test bias plays a role in producing the gaps in IQ test scores. Similarly to the Williams test, the Chitling Intelligence Test
Chitling Intelligence Test
The Dove Counterbalance General Intelligence Test, informally known as the Chitling Intelligence Test, is an IQ test based on African-American-specific item content, which is often used for instructional purposes in education and psychology. The Chitling Intelligence Test was created by Adrian...
is another example of a culturally biased test that tends to favor African Americans.
Both of these tests demonstrate how cultural content on intelligence tests may lead to culturally biased score results. Still these criticisms of cultural content may not apply to "culture free" tests of intelligence. The BITCH-100 and the Chitling test both have explicit cultural assumptions, while normal standardized test
Standardized test
A standardized test is a test that is administered and scored in a consistent, or "standard", manner. Standardized tests are designed in such a way that the questions, conditions for administering, scoring procedures, and interpretations are consistent and are administered and scored in a...
s are only theorized to have implicit bias. The fact that a test can have bias does not necessarily prove that a specific test does have bias. However, even on cultural free tests, test bias may play a role since, due to their cultural backgrounds, some test takers do not have the familiarity with the language and culture of the psychological and educational tests that is implicitly assumed in the assessment procedure.
Blacks face one big problem in the test environment. Some Blacks came to America as slaves, so they came here not because they wanted to, but because they didn’t have any other choice. Therefore, these slaves and their descendants spent much of their time keeping with the behaviours of their African cultural roots, becoming conditioned by American slavery and learning these behaviours, and then trying to function successfully in the mainstream American society.
Beverly Daniel Tatum writes that dominant cultures often set the parameters by which minority culture
Minority group
A minority is a sociological group within a demographic. The demographic could be based on many factors from ethnicity, gender, wealth, power, etc. The term extends to numerous situations, and civilizations within history, despite the misnomer of minorities associated with a numerical statistic...
s will be judged. Minority groups are labeled as substandard in significant ways, for example blacks have historically been characterized as less intelligent than whites. Tatum suggests that the ability to set these parameters is a form of white privilege.
See also
- History of the race and intelligence controversyHistory of the race and intelligence controversyThe history of the race and intelligence controversy concerns the historical development of a debate, primarily in the United States, concerning possible explanations of group differences in intelligence...
- Race and intelligenceRace and intelligenceThe connection between race and intelligence has been a subject of debate in both popular science and academic research since the inception of intelligence testing in the early 20th century...