It’s been some time since I read Malcolm Galdwell’s ‘Blink’. At the time when I read it, I thought it was an eye opener. I especially liked his stories/ examples on how instinctively, without even knowing it, we make decisions about people, races, and things in the blink of an eye. In the book, some of his stories highlighted how black people in the US experience instinctive racism due to the type cast expectations/ views that white people have of them.

I didn’t think of the book again till a few days ago. I follow the show ‘Are you smarter than a 5th Grader’ that is currently being aired on star world (mostly because it makes me feel smart…. You have to see the Indian version to realize that the Indian level of required competence for the show is really much higher than the American) Jeez…! There I go blinking and type casting. Sorry.

So anyways, like I was saying I watch the show quite regularly and one day Alana (the one black kid that is part of the 5 member class) gave two wrong answers to consecutive questions. And of course the participant who was banking on her answer to stay in the show had to leave. It got me thinking…the show definitely has a way of fixing some answers and getting the kids get some of them wrong (it would appear very unnatural if they got everything right every time) and I started to notice which kids got how many wrong answers… and viola! For every wrong answer by a kid, Alana got more answers wrong. Was it coincidence? Was Alana not as smart as the other whit kids? Or were they making Alana get the maximum answers wrong because there is a general belief that black people are not so smart? I even started to notice that contestants tended to pick Alana early in the game, as they expected the easy questions early on.

It made me think of ‘Blink’… because I’m not sure if the producers of the show planned on doing this or instinctively every time they were decided who would get answers wrong, they think of Alana.