Opinion: Implicit Kramers?

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I’m an admirer of Michael Shermer’s writing (I cited him in my last pronouncement on intelligent design (http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05271/578754.stm).

But readers of his op-ed about everyone’s inner Kramer should know that the Implicit Association Test used to out closet bigots is controversial.

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2004/12/19/invisible_bias.

Even if one accepts that a test (or brain scan) can ferret out concealed bigotry, it makes sense to observe the traditional distinction between words and thoughts, even if in some situations it’s something of a legal fiction. Michael Richards’ offense was what he said (and to whom he said it), not the imagery of his unconscious.

Instead of congratulating Richards for ‘having the courage to confess in public what far too many of us still harbor in private,’ we should lament that that he didn’t respond to those hecklers with ‘Yo-Yo Ma!’ or ‘Hochie Mama!’