[Music]
how y’all doing good
oh I’m also well thank you for asking so
I’m having breakfast with my kids and
these are my kids right
what has who has two thumbs and is the
luckiest guy in the world right so so
we’re having breakfast and I’m feeding
them this delicious puffed corn and high
fructose corn syrup glazed cereal and
you can judge me if you want but my kids
love me so so we’re eating this cereal
and if you know anything about kids
cereal on the back of the cereal box
there’s something to keep you engaged
right because the company wants you to
keep the Box read the Box eat the cereal
read the Box eat the cereal stay engaged
so you just eat the cereal forever right
and then you have to buy more all right
so they want you to stay engaged with a
Serie so we’re eating this cereal and we
look at the back of the box there’s so
much fun on the back of this box
honestly there is right so on the back
of this box we see these cartoon serial
characters who are having the most fun
ever I mean they are skating they are
swimming they are swinging their even
flying holding on to an umbrella I mean
they’re having a great time every
character in the scene is having a
really good time except for one
character there’s one character on this
box who is different from all the rest
right is wearing denim has headphones on
listening to music and has his hat
tilted a little bit to the side right if
you can’t really see it well here let me
just blow it up for you so right this
character is the only character on the
back of this box
who’s brown right so I have to immediate
I’m an educator so I have to immediately
go into teacher mode and try to explain
to my kids why this image is problematic
all right I have to explain him sling to
them that somebody mean put this on the
back of the box right and it wasn’t very
nice you know maybe I’m making too big a
deal out of this but what is this
communicating to my children about the
role that they play
or should play in society we’re
surrounded by stereotypes right we see
them in the news and movies on TV
they’re on the internet they’re in video
games and yes they’re even on the backs
of cereal boxes and those stereotypes
have a way of infiltrating our brains
and infecting us right so that in our
society we tend to view black as bad and
white as good we tend to see people of
color as violent we tend to see women in
liberal arts careers but not math and
science we tend to form negative
associations with people who are
overweight people who are of Nan dump do
not non dominant religions and people
who are of a different sexuality or
gender type than our heterosexual
cisgender norm and what’s even worse is
that these stereotypes have a way of
making us act differently if you are a
part of a group about which there’s a
negative stereotype it affects how you
think and how you behave this is even
more profound in situations where the
negative stereotype is intelligence
based especially if you are put in a
situation where you risk confirming that
negative stereotype this is something
called stereotype threat so stereotype
threat is the fear of confirming a
negative stereotype when you are
confronted with a negative stereotype
about your group and you are put at risk
of confirming that stereotype then it
actually affects your ability to engage
in the task that’s in front of you so
let me give you an example so take this
negative stereotype women are bad at
math so a study looks at women who are
good at math like women who are really
good at math like women who are going to
graduate school in math good at math
right okay and give them a challenging
math test but just before the test you
say to them oh by the way this test has
been shown to reveal differences between
men and women
and what happens those women actually
perform worse on that test than they’re
capable of performing they don’t achieve
their full potential on that test let’s
look at another negative stereotype
blacks are not as intelligent as whites
in one of the most interesting studies
on this topic researchers had college
aged men engaged in one of the most kind
of intellectually challenging tasks you
can think of miniature golf all right
you know putt-putt right with the
windmill and the clown’s mouth right and
so they have them engaged in this
18-hole miniature golf course but just
before they start golfing they tell the
group this is a test of strategic
decision-making right so you can kind of
see that’s triggering an intelligence
stereotype right intelligence matters
now to the outcome of this experience
that I’m about to have and what happens
the black men golfed worsts and they
were capable of golfing interestingly in
a twist on this study another group was
told that this is a test of natural
athletic ability right so white men we
don’t want to leave you out right you
guys also have negative stereotypes
right and and so in that case you can
predict what happened
the white men golfed worse what’s
happening there what’s happening in
those situations well if you think of
your brain like a computer with limited
operating space all right if you fill up
some of that space with noise with fuzz
right with other operations and there’s
not as much space left to engage in
whatever processes you want to engage it
and this is what’s happening in the
brain when you’re confronted with
stereotype threat it creates anxiety
what researchers call excessive
cognitive load and it interferes with
your ability to access memory your
ability to perform at your peak capacity
and it’s been shown to depress academic
performance in fact it’s been shown to
affect students in elementary school all
the way through graduate school in
various studies but I’ll suggest to you
that this matters beyond just education
and it matters anywhere where
intelligence is at it
to anywhere where you feel like you’re a
minority anywhere where you’re not
represented among the high achievers in
your particular environment so this
should matter to every teacher to every
student to every politician every
policymaker to every employer every
employee and of course to every parent
and every child why should it matter
because we can actually do something
about it so there are many interventions
that work I only will talk to you today
about one and the one thing that will
affect stereotype and and can really
have the result of knocking it out is
something called growth mindset growth
mindset views the brain as elastic as
capable of growth as capable of learning
and mastering new things rather than as
fixed and as having some ability to do
some things and some ability to do other
things a growth mindset instead of
saying that I’m not good at this a
growth mindset says I can learn how to
do this right instead of saying that I
screwed up on this exam a growth mindset
says I can learn from my mistakes and
improve instead of saying I’m a failure
a growth mindset says with the right
guidance with the right kind of effort I
can do anything I can master anything so
it’s incredibly important for us to
cultivate a growth mindset in those
around us it has been shown to improve
the academic performance for those who
are subject to stereotype threat and
I’ll suggest to you this we should be
thinking about this at work in the
schoolhouse in all of our social work
and learning spaces because it can make
a difference but what’s really equally
important is for us to cultivate this
mindset in ourselves so that we’re no
longer looking at a child and saying oh
honey maybe this isn’t your thing we’re
no longer
listening to voices that say I can’t do
this or I’m not capable but instead we
believe that they can how can we expect
them by the way to believe that they are
capable of greatness if we don’t believe
that they’re capable of greatness so we
have to cultivate this mindset in
ourselves and if we do that if we
cultivate it in ourselves if we
cultivate it in our children and our
co-workers and our employees in our
students then perhaps they can achieve
their full potential because it’s hard
sometimes being in the minority it’s
hard sometimes feeling like I’m the only
black person in the room and whatever I
say reflects not only on me but on my
whole race it’s hard being a woman who
is in a science career and being
underrepresented and knowing that every
mistake you make is magnified
it’s hard being poor and competing with
those who have had greater advantages
than you and feeling like everything I
do is going to be scrutinized that
they’re just there waiting for me to
make that mistake so they can say yep
there it is that clouds the brain of it
interferes with our performance so I
work on this with my students all the
time I work on it with my colleagues but
most importantly I work on it with my
children and with my children I try to
teach them that every time they have a
struggle it’s an opportunity to learn
that every time they face difficulty
that there’s an opportunity for them to
improve that there’s something in front
of them that feels like it’s a barrier
then they can persevere and they can
work through it
and they can succeed my kids are woke in
fact now they’re you know they’re in the
cereal aisle protesting you know
so I guess now instead of instead of
having them look at the back of this box
I probably just give them a meal thank
you very much [Applause]
how y’all doing good
oh I’m also well thank you for asking so
I’m having breakfast with my kids and
these are my kids right
what has who has two thumbs and is the
luckiest guy in the world right so so
we’re having breakfast and I’m feeding
them this delicious puffed corn and high
fructose corn syrup glazed cereal and
you can judge me if you want but my kids
love me so so we’re eating this cereal
and if you know anything about kids
cereal on the back of the cereal box
there’s something to keep you engaged
right because the company wants you to
keep the Box read the Box eat the cereal
read the Box eat the cereal stay engaged
so you just eat the cereal forever right
and then you have to buy more all right
so they want you to stay engaged with a
Serie so we’re eating this cereal and we
look at the back of the box there’s so
much fun on the back of this box
honestly there is right so on the back
of this box we see these cartoon serial
characters who are having the most fun
ever I mean they are skating they are
swimming they are swinging their even
flying holding on to an umbrella I mean
they’re having a great time every
character in the scene is having a
really good time except for one
character there’s one character on this
box who is different from all the rest
right is wearing denim has headphones on
listening to music and has his hat
tilted a little bit to the side right if
you can’t really see it well here let me
just blow it up for you so right this
character is the only character on the
back of this box
who’s brown right so I have to immediate
I’m an educator so I have to immediately
go into teacher mode and try to explain
to my kids why this image is problematic
all right I have to explain him sling to
them that somebody mean put this on the
back of the box right and it wasn’t very
nice you know maybe I’m making too big a
deal out of this but what is this
communicating to my children about the
role that they play
or should play in society we’re
surrounded by stereotypes right we see
them in the news and movies on TV
they’re on the internet they’re in video
games and yes they’re even on the backs
of cereal boxes and those stereotypes
have a way of infiltrating our brains
and infecting us right so that in our
society we tend to view black as bad and
white as good we tend to see people of
color as violent we tend to see women in
liberal arts careers but not math and
science we tend to form negative
associations with people who are
overweight people who are of Nan dump do
not non dominant religions and people
who are of a different sexuality or
gender type than our heterosexual
cisgender norm and what’s even worse is
that these stereotypes have a way of
making us act differently if you are a
part of a group about which there’s a
negative stereotype it affects how you
think and how you behave this is even
more profound in situations where the
negative stereotype is intelligence
based especially if you are put in a
situation where you risk confirming that
negative stereotype this is something
called stereotype threat so stereotype
threat is the fear of confirming a
negative stereotype when you are
confronted with a negative stereotype
about your group and you are put at risk
of confirming that stereotype then it
actually affects your ability to engage
in the task that’s in front of you so
let me give you an example so take this
negative stereotype women are bad at
math so a study looks at women who are
good at math like women who are really
good at math like women who are going to
graduate school in math good at math
right okay and give them a challenging
math test but just before the test you
say to them oh by the way this test has
been shown to reveal differences between
men and women
and what happens those women actually
perform worse on that test than they’re
capable of performing they don’t achieve
their full potential on that test let’s
look at another negative stereotype
blacks are not as intelligent as whites
in one of the most interesting studies
on this topic researchers had college
aged men engaged in one of the most kind
of intellectually challenging tasks you
can think of miniature golf all right
you know putt-putt right with the
windmill and the clown’s mouth right and
so they have them engaged in this
18-hole miniature golf course but just
before they start golfing they tell the
group this is a test of strategic
decision-making right so you can kind of
see that’s triggering an intelligence
stereotype right intelligence matters
now to the outcome of this experience
that I’m about to have and what happens
the black men golfed worsts and they
were capable of golfing interestingly in
a twist on this study another group was
told that this is a test of natural
athletic ability right so white men we
don’t want to leave you out right you
guys also have negative stereotypes
right and and so in that case you can
predict what happened
the white men golfed worse what’s
happening there what’s happening in
those situations well if you think of
your brain like a computer with limited
operating space all right if you fill up
some of that space with noise with fuzz
right with other operations and there’s
not as much space left to engage in
whatever processes you want to engage it
and this is what’s happening in the
brain when you’re confronted with
stereotype threat it creates anxiety
what researchers call excessive
cognitive load and it interferes with
your ability to access memory your
ability to perform at your peak capacity
and it’s been shown to depress academic
performance in fact it’s been shown to
affect students in elementary school all
the way through graduate school in
various studies but I’ll suggest to you
that this matters beyond just education
and it matters anywhere where
intelligence is at it
to anywhere where you feel like you’re a
minority anywhere where you’re not
represented among the high achievers in
your particular environment so this
should matter to every teacher to every
student to every politician every
policymaker to every employer every
employee and of course to every parent
and every child why should it matter
because we can actually do something
about it so there are many interventions
that work I only will talk to you today
about one and the one thing that will
affect stereotype and and can really
have the result of knocking it out is
something called growth mindset growth
mindset views the brain as elastic as
capable of growth as capable of learning
and mastering new things rather than as
fixed and as having some ability to do
some things and some ability to do other
things a growth mindset instead of
saying that I’m not good at this a
growth mindset says I can learn how to
do this right instead of saying that I
screwed up on this exam a growth mindset
says I can learn from my mistakes and
improve instead of saying I’m a failure
a growth mindset says with the right
guidance with the right kind of effort I
can do anything I can master anything so
it’s incredibly important for us to
cultivate a growth mindset in those
around us it has been shown to improve
the academic performance for those who
are subject to stereotype threat and
I’ll suggest to you this we should be
thinking about this at work in the
schoolhouse in all of our social work
and learning spaces because it can make
a difference but what’s really equally
important is for us to cultivate this
mindset in ourselves so that we’re no
longer looking at a child and saying oh
honey maybe this isn’t your thing we’re
no longer
listening to voices that say I can’t do
this or I’m not capable but instead we
believe that they can how can we expect
them by the way to believe that they are
capable of greatness if we don’t believe
that they’re capable of greatness so we
have to cultivate this mindset in
ourselves and if we do that if we
cultivate it in ourselves if we
cultivate it in our children and our
co-workers and our employees in our
students then perhaps they can achieve
their full potential because it’s hard
sometimes being in the minority it’s
hard sometimes feeling like I’m the only
black person in the room and whatever I
say reflects not only on me but on my
whole race it’s hard being a woman who
is in a science career and being
underrepresented and knowing that every
mistake you make is magnified
it’s hard being poor and competing with
those who have had greater advantages
than you and feeling like everything I
do is going to be scrutinized that
they’re just there waiting for me to
make that mistake so they can say yep
there it is that clouds the brain of it
interferes with our performance so I
work on this with my students all the
time I work on it with my colleagues but
most importantly I work on it with my
children and with my children I try to
teach them that every time they have a
struggle it’s an opportunity to learn
that every time they face difficulty
that there’s an opportunity for them to
improve that there’s something in front
of them that feels like it’s a barrier
then they can persevere and they can
work through it
and they can succeed my kids are woke in
fact now they’re you know they’re in the
cereal aisle protesting you know
so I guess now instead of instead of
having them look at the back of this box
I probably just give them a meal thank
you very much [Applause]
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