By Whose Authority, Part One: Do I have a problem or an obligation?
Over the last month, I have completed several personality and conflict-style inventories: Myers-Briggs, the Enneagram, Style Matters, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI), and a couple of others. I completed these inventories for several reasons.
1. As part of a process to obtain a new ministerial license.
2. To meet school and class requirements.
3. For comparable data to better understand how my work, “Beyond the Wall,” aligns with these inventories. We can discuss those comparisons later.
As part of this process, someone in Minnesota assessed the over-600-question MMPI. He then sent the assessment to a mental health professional in Seattle, whom I met with over a Zoom call to discuss the results. As we discussed, one finding echoed something I'd heard before, but I couldn't hear it again. He said the assessment revealed, "I may have a problem with authority."
A problem with authority. Really? You don’t say!
As you would imagine, I questioned that finding. I wondered how much of the interpretation was based on Eurocentric or Freudian assumptions.
I asked the professional in Seattle, who, like me, is a Christian, but unlike me, is not black, whether he had ever heard of the B.I.T.C.H. test. It stands for “Black Intelligence Test of Cultural Homogeneity,” developed by an African American Doctor of Psychology, Dr. Robert L. Williams. I brought it up to question the cultural assumptions behind an assessment and its interpretations.
His answer: I have not heard of it.
So, what happens when a white assessor interprets more than 600 questionnaire responses of a potentially highly biased evaluation from a retired, 68-year-old African American? I am curious how much weight the evaluation gives to "my" culture, my history, and my lived experience. After all, white men in Minnesota created the original evaluation in the 1930’s. Since then, the MMPI has been modified several times, but I am not aware of the extent to which "sub-cultural" data, or dominant-culture bias, influenced its evolution. What evidence do I have that cultural competence had informed the process used to gauge my answers? How could I tell whether they understood the context of my responses? And without this information, how could I agree to the outcomes now projected?
I asked whether it was fair that I should accept interpretations from an evaluation that is historically biased and steeped in Eurocentric, Caucasian homogeneity, rather than the readily available heterogeneity data. I suggested perhaps the assessor of my responses should indicate his knowledge of history and its effects on society with a high BITCH score.
I then told my friend in Seattle that I felt extremely judged by this evaluation, which I feel reflects more the power and degradation of assimilation than discovery, self-identity, and personal awareness. I wonder how those who wrote the evaluation would score on the B.I.T.C.H. test?
I pressed the issue.
A Black minister, a descendant of enslaved people and an inheritor of a history of social disenfranchisement, is being asked to accept the findings from an evaluation most likely harboring the absence of any other race but white. How well does that test understand “my” culture? What made this interpretation authoritative?
Do I have a problem with authority? I asked. Or is the problem that authority has not been clearly defined—or worse, assumed? I continued, considering my questions and their implications: would you say I have a problem with authority, or an obligation to question it?
What does it mean to question an authority that demands I survive its presence? In my mind, I am thinking of Emmet Till, Rodney King, Michael Brown, Trayvon Martin, George Floyd. On a grand scale, how can I be sure of what is good and fair, rather than a manipulative, cunning way to symbolically cut off my feet and call me Toby?
A young white female calls the police on two innocent black young adult men for sitting at a table in a Starbucks coffee shop, and the "authorities" arrest the men. Whether it is corporate America, academia, or the legal system, I wonder if the assessment or evaluation is able to see what is hidden in plain sight.
The conversation lasted more than an hour. At the end of our discussion, he said he would write his report, submit it, and send me a copy.
I am not sure whether he thought I was angry or misinterpreting the assessment, whether he felt sorry for bringing it up, or whether he thought I should or shouldn't be offered a denominational minister's license. But I do know it felt good to challenge the statement and question its authority.
Later, shortly after we said our goodbyes, my mind ran in circles; I wondered how an assessor could see freedom, intelligence, and self-awareness as problematic, while the assessed saw them as an obligation and a strategic necessity.
Then I wondered how authority lives in all of our minds. Labels, assumptions, stereotypes, living in fear, unresolved trauma, unforgiveness, jealousy, and the like often mean living by another person's authority. Whose authority, and how does that work? Better yet, how do I change that?
***
Stay tuned for “By Whose Authority Part Two: What Rules Us from Within?"
Continue the Journey:
Don’t Be Just Another Brick in the Wall: Dirrick L. Williams invites readers to examine those influences, question what they have accepted as truth, and become more intentional about who they choose to become.
Learn more about the book, Beyond the Wall, upcoming programs, articles, and other resources at: www.dirrickwilliams.com
About the Author
Dirrick L. Williams is an author, speaker, minister, and trainer whose work explores personal awareness, relationship, responsibility, identity, and intentional growth. Through his books, speaking, training, and Beyond the Wall body of work, he challenges people to examine what has shaped them and participate more intentionally in who they are becoming.
© 2026 Dirrick L. Williams • October 14, 2026
References:
Robert L. Williams, The BITCH-100: A Culture-Specific Test (1972): https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED070799
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