We at Project RACE recently had the privilege of reviewing two exciting new apps for the iPhone and iPod Touch developed by Harvard anthropologist and Director and founder of Cambridge Diversity Consulting, Dr. Michael Baran and Director of Playtime Interactive, Michael Handelman. These insightful apps are part of a larger effort called The Race Awareness Project. They are both available for download at the iTunes store for only 99 cents. They are: "Who Am I? Race Awareness Game" intended for parents and younger children to play together, and "Guess My Race" for teens and adults.

When we tried out "Guess My Race", we did it as a family, one black, one white and two multiracial testers ranging from 15 to 45 years old.The quiz-style game was fun and interesting and we all enjoyed it! Our first observation was that this app is very much about SELF IDENTIFICATION. Players are to guess how the individual pictured identifies them self. We liked that. It delivers a strong message about the inaccuracies and foolishness of eyeballing. Once you make your choice, you are told the "correct" answer - how they truly identify - and then you slide to the followup screen that explains a bit about why that individual or others like them may choose that identity. It discusses a variety of cultural and historical facts such as "one-drop", stereotypes, and other issues related to racial identity. All well-written, interesting and sure to be enlightening to many.

The options for each individual are different and as we played we wondered where those specific options came from. We assumed that they were all provided by the individual. For instance if I was interviewed for this app and said I am multiracial, my dad is black, my mom is white from Irish and German decent, the options under my picture might be black, white, multiracial, Irish and German with the correct answer being multiracial. One person pictured had only "white" as possible answers. I got that one right! We do not particularly like that you can only choose one response, however we did see "multiracial", "biracial", "other" and "all" as options. Each time you play, you see 10 different faces.

Another thing we found interesting is that this is billed as a race question, when many of the possible responses are not terms that in this country are recognized as racial categories and in some cases not even related to race. For instance, we saw options including: Mulatto, Muslim, atheist, nun, hick, hillbilly, white trash and elite. We assume that when the subjects were interviewed they responded something to the effect of "My dad is a hillbilly and my mom's a white trash hick" Wow! Having said that, most responses are what we recognize in our society as races, nationalities or ethnicities with a few referring to religion, culture, occupation, etc... Perhaps this is seeking to acknowledge that if we're looking at how people identify, in a broad sense, many of us do not look first to our race.

We are a highly competitive game playing family and despite the fact that we scored pretty poorly only receiving between 1 and 5 out of a possible 10 points. We were all intrigued and eager to try again to see if we could improve our scores.

Next we tested the "Who Am I? Race Awareness Game". This application is very similar to the game for adults and teens with the primary difference being that it is a two person game, rather than one you can play alone, and therefore encourages valuable dialog between the people playing. While it is certainly appropriate for even preschool children its usefulness is not, in our opinion, limited to children. I could actually see it being used in diversity training in an educational and even professional setting as an exercise that would promote important discussion.

The lengthy directions at the start of the app not only instruct players on how the game works, but also addresses the importance of discussing race and diversity with children. At the start of each round there is a "tip" aimed at parents with suggestions about how to talk about race and other differences with your children. These were excellent and would also be helpful to child educators.

My mom, sister and I all tried and thoroughly enjoyed it. My brother and nephew, who are multiracial and black, and ages 8 and 10 respectively, really loved it. They did not want to stop playing when bedtime came. They tried both the "easy" and "hard" versions of the game. The only difference between these versions is the number of people you have to choose from, making the selection more difficult.

The game works very much like the popular children's game Guess Who. The first player selects a person from those pictured and gives the second player a clue that will help them guess the right person. There is a lot of flexibility as the clue may be about race or ethnicity, but it may also be something like "I have curly hair", "I wear glasses", "I look like a grandmother", etc. Sometimes a second or even third clue may be needed. It is particularly revealing to give a clue that could not be evident based on the headshot. For instance, "I'm a genius", "I'm deaf", "I am in a wheelchair", "I am a teacher". You are forced to consider how ridiculous it is to ask who looks like a genius? a deaf person? or someone in a wheelchair? After the clue(s), the guesser eliminates people until there is one remaining photo illuminated. The game asks if this is your final guess and once confirmed tells the player whether they have made the correct choice. At the same time it shows how that individual self identifies. As with the adult game, many of the responses are not what Americans consider recognized racial categories. If you tap on the person's photo it will take you to a quote from that person about their identity. Some of the quotes address how others view them differently than they view them self.

The game is enlightening to the "parent" as well as the child, because both players are forced to make assumptions about the pictured person's identity based upon their appearance and frequently at the end of the round it is revealed that those assumptions were inaccurate. As with the first app, this game is extremely effective in exposing the imprecision of eyeballing.

Dr. Baran has welcomed our input and already implemented some of our suggestions. We'd love to see more of us who identify as multiracial included! As the fastest growing demographic in our country, we should be well represented. If you would like to submit your photo and thoughts for possible inclusion in future editions of these apps, go to http://cambridgediversity.com/rap.html for detailed instructions. We commend this project for powerfully highlighting the erroneousness of judging someone's race based solely on their appearance and definitely encourage you to check it out!