Bias: Understanding and Exploration

In our current culture of the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as current protests confronting police brutality and racial equity, we are all called to address systematic and long-held issues regarding race. Where do you begin to answer this call to action? You can attend protests, write to your representatives, post on social media or all three, but what I would encourage above all else is to educate yourself about yourself. 

If you have ever said, “I don’t see color,” or “All lives matter,” or, “We’ve come a long way,” please continue to read this blog. This blog isn’t about shame or blame. It isn’t to make anyone feel bad about what they have said or done. I am writing to encourage you all to take a deep look within. It’s one of the hardest tasks, but necessary. 

James Baldwin, American author and activist, said, “Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” We must uncover and address our individual biases, judgements, and beliefs in order to create change. If we look at any problem from a concentric circle model, we begin with the closest circle - you, the individual. No problem can be solved if it is not first seen and addressed by the individual. Once we are aware of our own behaviors, we can choose to modify our behavior and reach toward the outer circles, being our immediate family, friends, community, and then finally a more globalized reach. 

One place to start this internal search is to understand our biases. Bias is not a bad thing. It is a hard-wired function of our brain allowing for shortcuts and the filtering of information. We are subject to so much information everyday and our brain is an amazing machine. Based on previously learned information, our brain categorizes. It is an automatic, intuitive, and effortless process.

The issue with bias is when we are unaware of our bias, don’t know how the bias was formed, or we don’t question our automatic responses. We are creatures of habit and resist the unfamiliar so we tend not to question ourselves or situations we choose. But this is the task at hand. We must become more conscious of our thinking and what has influenced our thoughts. As referenced before, bias is formed on previously learned information. Media, marketing, family culture, life experiences, and religion are just a few of the spheres that influence and form our bias. In order to truly address race relations in this country we must start with recognizing our individual auto-pilot responses and practice changing those thoughts. 

To further explore and uncover your bias, conscious and unconscious, you can check out the Implicit Association Tests (IAT) offered by Project Implicit. Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and research group with collaborative scientists from Harvard, University of Virginia, and the University of Washington. By taking various IATs you can explore your bias based on race, gender, disability, and age to name a few.    

https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html

Be the change you want to see in the world by looking within.