I want to make an argument to you I want
to make a case to you and the argument
that I want to make is that the way that
we currently think about talk about and
act on issues of racial bias and other
lines of difference in this country is
woefully inadequate and it’s incomplete
the way we think about talk about and
act on issues of racial bias and other
lines of difference in this country is
woefully inadequate and it’s incomplete
and in making this case I want to build
on the very robust and compelling
evidence that has been coming out of the
science community for the past ten plus
years 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
normally we say when Oprah is talking
about it and Malcolm is writing about it
everybody knows about it which isn’t
always the case so a bias is a
preference for or a prejudice against a
person or a group of people there are
three characteristics that make a bias
implicit characteristic number one
implicit biases operate at the
subconscious level outside of conscious
awareness we don’t know that we have
them and they can’t 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 do
I have a bias against men against women
against black people against white
people against immigrants and expect to
accurately answer that question because
the nature of an implicit
vices such that we don’t know that we
have them characteristic number two
implicit by C’s oftentimes run contrary
contrary to our conscious stated beliefs
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
that you are deeply committed to
nurturing and building up young people
and yet be the same school administrator
who leads your school and high rates of
suspensions and expulsions of young
people and both of those things would be
true consciously you’re deeply committed
to building young people up
unconsciously you’re doing harm in the
process
the science of them quizzes by says that
you can be a law enforcement officer
deeply committed to the mantra that
appears on the side of police vehicles
that says what protect and serve and yet
be the same law enforcement officer who
leads your precinct or your district and
high rates of stops and frisks of young
men of color and both of those things
would be true consciously you’re deeply
committed to the principles of
protecting and serving
unconsciously your behavior is
inconsistent with that the third
characteristic that makes a bias
implicit is that implicit biases are
triggered through rapid and automatic
meant to associations that we make
between people ideas and objects and
attitudes and stereotypes that we hold
about those people ideas and objects and
so case in point I want to do a quick
exercise around the power of meant to
associations so in a minute I’m gonna
flash a few words on the screen and what
I want to ask you to do is I want you to
quickly reflect on and/or call out the
associations that you make with those
words or that you believe the
aughter society makes with those words
and so this requires a little bit of
call-and-response so government
corporate suburbs subsidized housing so
the science of implicit bias would say
that those associations that you just
made those aren’t mere verbal
associations those aren’t mere mentor
associations the science says that there
are attitudes and behaviors that we
attach to those associations so imagine
if as part of my introduction I came out
here and I said my name is Dasha I want
to talk with you about something
innovative and I’m here representing
local government I used to work in
corporate America I was born and raised
and subsidized housing but I now live in
the suburbs of Alexandria Virginia
the science would suggests that for many
of you for those who said that your your
automatic mental association with
government is corrupt or your automatic
meant to association with corporate is
greed you would receive me through that
filter oftentimes at the unconscious
level and it would color for you every
single word that comes out of my mouth
so that’s how implicit bias works these
rapid and automatic mental associations
that shape and mold behavior every
single day oftentimes in ways that we’re
not even aware of oftentimes in ways
that do harm to others so there are
three reasons three reasons why focusing
on implicit bias at this particular
moment in time isn’t
important and why I believe that a focus
on implicit bias to help move this
country forward so number one an
implicit bias focus gives us a much more
expansive diagnosis of the challenges
that we face in this country with
respect to 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
being experienced and transmitted in
this country with respect to racial bias
and other lines of difference we know
that a significant amount of that harm
stems from implicit forms of bias in
addition to explicit forms of bias yet
the majority of the tools that we use
surged rest bias are designed to address
explicit forms not the implicit so in
essence what we have in this country is
a mismatch a disconnect between how we
diagnose challenges around difference in
how we treat them an implicit bias
approach gives us a much more expansive
diagnosis and a much more expansive
toolbox and my belief is that if we get
the diagnosis right we will get the
treatment right if we continue to get
the diagnosis wrong we will get the
treatment number two implicit bias is
both predictive and it’s preventive
predictive in the sense that a person
can go to the website for project
implicit take any one of the online
implicit association test and receive a
test result that can serve as a
predictor of discriminatory behavior
it’s preventive in a sense that there
are emerging and promising strategies
coming out of the science community that
suggests with internal motivation and
habitual practice we can do things to
reduce our vulnerability to act on our
biases and I believe that that is what
the country needs right now we need a
prevention approach
around issues of bias and difference
versus an emergency-room response right
now we have an emergency-room response
we wait for stuff to happen then we rush
to the emergency room
we need a prevention approach an
implicit bias gives us that lastly in
number three implicit bias where an
implicit bias approach helps to reduce
the shame and the shaming that’s
associated with talking about and
addressing issues of bias often
researcher brené Brown 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
am a mistake this is who I am
I’m a horrible human being there’s
nothing I can do about it I’m gonna
always be this way and what I want to
submit to you is that my belief is that
one of the biggest challenges that we
have in this country and how we address
issues of bias is that we engage in self
shaming and if we’re honest sometimes we
intentionally and unintentionally shame
others and my belief is that as long as
we continue to do that human beings
would never feel the motivation that
they need to do the self change work or
the broader societal change work that we
need to do an implicit bias approach
addresses this because it makes the
central question not are you racist or
not racist
are you sexist or not sexist an implicit
bias approach makes the central question
how do we get our actions and behaviors
how do we align our actions and
behaviors with our consciously held
egalitarian beliefs released for those
people who do hold egalitarian beliefs
and my belief is that many people do so
that
why this work is important at this
particular moment in time and in closing
I want to leave you with a quick idea
the late child psychologist Urie
bronfenbrenner once said that every
child needs at least one adult in his or
her life who is irrationally crazy about
him or her raise your hand if you’ve had
that at any point in your life and so
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 being in their life who is
irrationally crazy about him or her and
the only way that we’re gonna have that
is if we do the internal change work
that we need to do to make the external
change work possible thank you very much
[Applause]
to make a case to you and the argument
that I want to make is that the way that
we currently think about talk about and
act on issues of racial bias and other
lines of difference in this country is
woefully inadequate and it’s incomplete
the way we think about talk about and
act on issues of racial bias and other
lines of difference in this country is
woefully inadequate and it’s incomplete
and in making this case I want to build
on the very robust and compelling
evidence that has been coming out of the
science community for the past ten plus
years 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
normally we say when Oprah is talking
about it and Malcolm is writing about it
everybody knows about it which isn’t
always the case so a bias is a
preference for or a prejudice against a
person or a group of people there are
three characteristics that make a bias
implicit characteristic number one
implicit biases operate at the
subconscious level outside of conscious
awareness we don’t know that we have
them and they can’t 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 do
I have a bias against men against women
against black people against white
people against immigrants and expect to
accurately answer that question because
the nature of an implicit
vices such that we don’t know that we
have them characteristic number two
implicit by C’s oftentimes run contrary
contrary to our conscious stated beliefs
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
that you are deeply committed to
nurturing and building up young people
and yet be the same school administrator
who leads your school and high rates of
suspensions and expulsions of young
people and both of those things would be
true consciously you’re deeply committed
to building young people up
unconsciously you’re doing harm in the
process
the science of them quizzes by says that
you can be a law enforcement officer
deeply committed to the mantra that
appears on the side of police vehicles
that says what protect and serve and yet
be the same law enforcement officer who
leads your precinct or your district and
high rates of stops and frisks of young
men of color and both of those things
would be true consciously you’re deeply
committed to the principles of
protecting and serving
unconsciously your behavior is
inconsistent with that the third
characteristic that makes a bias
implicit is that implicit biases are
triggered through rapid and automatic
meant to associations that we make
between people ideas and objects and
attitudes and stereotypes that we hold
about those people ideas and objects and
so case in point I want to do a quick
exercise around the power of meant to
associations so in a minute I’m gonna
flash a few words on the screen and what
I want to ask you to do is I want you to
quickly reflect on and/or call out the
associations that you make with those
words or that you believe the
aughter society makes with those words
and so this requires a little bit of
call-and-response so government
corporate suburbs subsidized housing so
the science of implicit bias would say
that those associations that you just
made those aren’t mere verbal
associations those aren’t mere mentor
associations the science says that there
are attitudes and behaviors that we
attach to those associations so imagine
if as part of my introduction I came out
here and I said my name is Dasha I want
to talk with you about something
innovative and I’m here representing
local government I used to work in
corporate America I was born and raised
and subsidized housing but I now live in
the suburbs of Alexandria Virginia
the science would suggests that for many
of you for those who said that your your
automatic mental association with
government is corrupt or your automatic
meant to association with corporate is
greed you would receive me through that
filter oftentimes at the unconscious
level and it would color for you every
single word that comes out of my mouth
so that’s how implicit bias works these
rapid and automatic mental associations
that shape and mold behavior every
single day oftentimes in ways that we’re
not even aware of oftentimes in ways
that do harm to others so there are
three reasons three reasons why focusing
on implicit bias at this particular
moment in time isn’t
important and why I believe that a focus
on implicit bias to help move this
country forward so number one an
implicit bias focus gives us a much more
expansive diagnosis of the challenges
that we face in this country with
respect to 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
being experienced and transmitted in
this country with respect to racial bias
and other lines of difference we know
that a significant amount of that harm
stems from implicit forms of bias in
addition to explicit forms of bias yet
the majority of the tools that we use
surged rest bias are designed to address
explicit forms not the implicit so in
essence what we have in this country is
a mismatch a disconnect between how we
diagnose challenges around difference in
how we treat them an implicit bias
approach gives us a much more expansive
diagnosis and a much more expansive
toolbox and my belief is that if we get
the diagnosis right we will get the
treatment right if we continue to get
the diagnosis wrong we will get the
treatment number two implicit bias is
both predictive and it’s preventive
predictive in the sense that a person
can go to the website for project
implicit take any one of the online
implicit association test and receive a
test result that can serve as a
predictor of discriminatory behavior
it’s preventive in a sense that there
are emerging and promising strategies
coming out of the science community that
suggests with internal motivation and
habitual practice we can do things to
reduce our vulnerability to act on our
biases and I believe that that is what
the country needs right now we need a
prevention approach
around issues of bias and difference
versus an emergency-room response right
now we have an emergency-room response
we wait for stuff to happen then we rush
to the emergency room
we need a prevention approach an
implicit bias gives us that lastly in
number three implicit bias where an
implicit bias approach helps to reduce
the shame and the shaming that’s
associated with talking about and
addressing issues of bias often
researcher brené Brown 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
am a mistake this is who I am
I’m a horrible human being there’s
nothing I can do about it I’m gonna
always be this way and what I want to
submit to you is that my belief is that
one of the biggest challenges that we
have in this country and how we address
issues of bias is that we engage in self
shaming and if we’re honest sometimes we
intentionally and unintentionally shame
others and my belief is that as long as
we continue to do that human beings
would never feel the motivation that
they need to do the self change work or
the broader societal change work that we
need to do an implicit bias approach
addresses this because it makes the
central question not are you racist or
not racist
are you sexist or not sexist an implicit
bias approach makes the central question
how do we get our actions and behaviors
how do we align our actions and
behaviors with our consciously held
egalitarian beliefs released for those
people who do hold egalitarian beliefs
and my belief is that many people do so
that
why this work is important at this
particular moment in time and in closing
I want to leave you with a quick idea
the late child psychologist Urie
bronfenbrenner once said that every
child needs at least one adult in his or
her life who is irrationally crazy about
him or her raise your hand if you’ve had
that at any point in your life and so
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 being in their life who is
irrationally crazy about him or her and
the only way that we’re gonna have that
is if we do the internal change work
that we need to do to make the external
change work possible thank you very much
[Applause]
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