You may have heard about the controversy surrounding the SAT over the years since people of color have always done worse on the test. The test-writers have attempted more and more to avoid racial bias in the results. It is clear that the test used to have a significant racial bias. It is less clear if that this is still the case today.
This kind of question is studied in the field of "disparate impact." Salon.com just published this article talking about that field and the risks of having disparate impact especially when you trust algorithms to make the decisions. I would call the old SAT an example of first-order bias, and the remaining issues in the test mostly second-order bias.
The problem is clearly not simple to solve. However, hopefully with time the very data analysis techniques that currently lead to biased decisions can ultimately be used to avoid bias in outcomes.
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