We all have implicit biases. So what can we do about it? | Dushaw Hockett | TEDxMidAtlanticSalon

I want to make an argument to you, I want to make a case to you and the argument I want to make is that the way we currently think about talking and acting on issues of racial bias and other lines of difference in this country is woefully inadequate and incomplete the way we We think, talk and act on issues of racial bias and other lines of difference in this country is woefully inadequate and incomplete, and in making this case I want to rely on very strong and compelling evidence. that has been coming out of the scientific community for the last ten years and that suggests that if we want to move to a radically different place, a radically better place on issues of race and difference in this country, we

have

to pay attention to something called

implicit

. bias, so

what

is

implicit

bias?

Oprah Winfrey has talked about it. Malcolm Gladwell has written about it. We usually say that when Oprah talks about it and Malcolm writes about it, everyone knows about it, which isn't always the case, so a bias is a preference. for or against a person or a group of people there are three characteristics that make a prejudice implicit characteristic number one implicit prejudices operate at a subconscious level outside of consciousness, we do not know that we

have

them and they cannot be accessed through introspection, in other words, the science of implicit bias says that none of us can sit here in this room right now, scratch our heads and wonder out loud if I have a bias against men, against women, against blacks, against whites, against immigrants, and hope to answer that question precisely because the nature of implicit vices such that we don't know we have them, characteristic number two implicit in C, often runs counter to our conscious beliefs. statements about who we are as human beings and

what

our values ​​are.

In other words, the science of implicit bias says that you can be a school administrator and say you are deeply committed to raising and developing young people and yet be the same school administrator who runs your school and the high rates. of suspensions and expulsions of young people. people and both would be true consciously you are deeply committed to empowering young people unconsciously you are doing harm in the process the science of them questions says you can be a police officer deeply committed to the mantra that appears on the side of police vehicles that says what to protect and serve and yet be the same police officer who runs his precinct or his precinct and the high stop and frisk rates of young men of color and both would be knowingly true.

You are deeply committed to the principles of unconsciously protecting and serving. Your behavior is inconsistent with that. The third characteristic that makes a bias implicit is that implicit

biases

are triggered through rapid, automatic associations we make between people, ideas, objects, and attitudes. stereotypes we have about those people, ideas and objects, for example, I want to do a quick exercise on the power of associations, so in a minute I'll show some words on the screen and what I want to ask. What you need to do is I want you to quickly reflect and/or mention the associations that you make with those words or what you think society makes with those words, so this requires a little bit of call and response to get the government the corporate suburbs to subsidize housing, so the science of implicit bias would say that those associations that you just made are not mere verbal associations, they are not mere mentoring associations, the science says that there are attitudes and behaviors that we attach to those associations, so go figure.

If as part of my presentation I came here and said my name is Dasha, I want to talk to you about something innovative and I am here representing the local government. I used to work in American companies. I was born and raised and received subsidized housing, but I now live in the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia, science would suggest that for many of you, those who said that your automatic mental association with the government is corrupt or that your automatic mental association with corporations is greed, many times I would be received through that filter. On an unconscious level and I would color every word that comes out of my mouth, this is how implicit bias works, these quick, automatic mental associations that shape and mold behavior every day, often in ways we don't even realize.

We are conscious. often in ways that harm others, so there are three reasons why focusing on implicit bias at this particular moment is not important and why I believe focusing on implicit bias will help move this country forward in a number one way. . The implicit bias approach gives us a much broader diagnosis of the challenges we face in this country regarding difference. What do I mean? We know from the work of esteemed scholars Mazarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald that a significant amount of the harm that is being experienced and transmitted in this country regarding racial prejudice and other lines of difference, we know that a significant amount of that harm comes from ways implicit forms of bias in addition to explicit forms of bias, but most of the tools we use to combat rest bias are designed to address the explicit forms, not the implicit ones, so, in essence, what we have in this country is a mismatch, a disconnect between how we diagnose challenges around the difference in how we treat them, an implicit bias approach gives us a much broader diagnosis and toolbox. and my belief is that if we make the right diagnosis, we will get the right treatment, if we continue to make the wrong diagnosis, we will get treatment number two.

Implicit bias is predictive and preventive in the sense that a person can go to the website for the implicit draft, take any of the online implicit association tests and receive a test result that can serve as a predictor of discriminatory behavior. It is preventive in the sense that there are emerging and promising strategies that come from the scientific community that suggests with internal motivation and habitual practice we can do things to reduce our vulnerability to act on our prejudices and I think that is what the country needs in this moment. moment. We need a prevention approach around issues of bias and difference versus an emergency room response right now. an emergency room response we expect things to happen and then rush to the emergency room we need a prevention approach an implicit bias gives us that lastly on number three implicit bias where an implicit bias approach helps reduce the shame and shame that is associated When talking about and addressing issues of bias, researcher Brené Brown often draws an interesting distinction between guilt and shame.

She says guilt says I made a mistake and I can do something about it. Shame says I'm a mistake. This is what I am. I am a horrible human being, there is nothing I can do about it. I will always be that way and what I want to convey to you is that I think one of the biggest challenges we have in this country and how we address issues of bias. It's that we embarrass ourselves and if we're honest we sometimes embarrass others intentionally or unintentionally and my belief is that as long as we continue to do that human beings will never feel the motivation they need to do the work of personal change or the work of social change. broader that we need to make an implicit bias approach addresses this because it makes the central question not whether you are racist or non-racist, whether you are sexist or non-sexist an implicit bias approach makes the central question how do we get our actions and behaviors how we align our actions and behaviors with our conscious egalitarian beliefs published for those people who have egalitarian beliefs and my belief is that many people do, which is why this work is important at this particular time and in closing I want to give you a quick idea, the The late child psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner once said that every child needs at least one adult in their life who is irrationally crazy about him or her, raise your hand if you've had that at some point in your life. life and you know what it feels like, my belief is that not only does every child need that, but every human being needs at least one of the human beings in their life who is irrationally crazy about him or her and the only way in which we can live.

What we will have is if we do the internal change work that we need to do to make external change possible. Thank you so much.