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Bias By Any Other Name is Still Bias:
Bias By Any Other Name is Still Bias:
Consciously Seeking Unconscious Bias
BY NATALIE ROONEY
Is it possible to figure out consciously something that we’re doing unconsciously? That might sound like a trick question, but the answer is yes, according to Nita Mosby Tyler, Ph.D. You might recognize Dr. Mosby Tyler from her presentation at COCPA’s 2018 Leadership Summit, her Tedx Mile High presentation, or most recently as one of the contributors to Denver’s 9NEWS Voices of Change series. Here, she shares her thoughts on bias, how we can uncover our own biases, and why it’s all so important.
WHAT IS BIAS?
Whether we want to admit it or not, we all have biases, and they affect us in myriad ways. Whether it’s stereotypes about race, gender, religion, etc., as humans we hold certain beliefs about people who are different from us. Even people who think they hold a neutral view have some sort of unconscious bias.
Our biases, which can stem from media exposure, our upbringing, or societal factors, are unavoidable. And, while these biases are not indicative of a person’s morality, they can still be harmful to those around us. Implicit bias (also called unconscious bias) refers to attitudes and beliefs that occur outside of our conscious awareness and control. An implicit bias may run counter to a person’s conscious beliefs without the individual even realizing it. For example, it is possible to express an explicit liking of a certain social group or approval of a certain action, while simultaneously being biased against that group or action on an unconscious level. Implicit biases and explicit biases might be different for the same person. Explicit biases are biases we are aware of on a conscious level - for example, feeling threatened by another group and delivering hate speech as a result.
THE TRICK TO MITIGATING BIAS
We talk about implicit or unconscious bias without ever talking about explicit or conscious bias, says Dr. Nita Mosby Tyler. “I think there’s something wrong with that. We want people to mitigate what they’re doing unconsciously, when the fact of the matter is, if it’s unconscious, you don’t know you’re doing it.” Mosby Tyler offers this trick to mitigating bias: Name your conscious bias to find the direct correlation to what might be unconscious. Mosby Tyler has worked to identify her own unconscious biases. “I had to ask myself what prejudices or stereotypes I have about other people or other systems,” she says. Through the process, she had to acknowledge she had a prejudice about people who she assumed didn’t want to learn from her. “I can spot them a mile away. So, what might I be doing unconsciously against someone I’ve identified like that? I don’t even attempt to engage. I ignore them. I don’t make eye contact.” That’s what Mosby Tyler shares with everyone about how to mitigate bias quickly. “The key is you have to admit it,” she says.
THE FEAR BEHIND OUR BIAS
Underneath every one of our biases is fear. • State Basis Fear: You’re afraid because of something that has happened to you before. • Trait Basis Fear: You’re afraid because of a perceived danger, a gut feeling, or something that happened to someone else. We’re operating with both of these fears in play at all times. And, 85 percent of the time, we operate from the trait basis. “We’re afraid of something we have no experience in, but we still have a fear,” Mosby Tyler explains. “People need to explore these fears,” she adds. “Can you imagine if we got our fear in check? It would be so much easier to tackle bias.”
Mosby Tyler shares a personal story to demonstrate fear. She and her husband, a pastor, frequently dine out. They started to notice that if they were seated at a restaurant and a white woman was seated nearby, with her purse hanging on the back of her chair, the woman would slowly move her purse away from them. Mosby Tyler and her husband began counting how many times this phenomenon occurred. White women moved their purses 240 times over the course of two years. “I don’t think all of these women are racists,” Mosby Tyler says. “I also don’t think that all of them have been robbed by a pastor and his wife. The bias is around blackness and safety, criminality, and theft, but it unconsciously makes them move their purses without looking up or batting an eye. That’s how unconscious bias plays out.” Mosby Tyler points out that we don’t even have to look at science and statistics to see how the tentacles of unconscious bias and fear combine to create harmful, hurtful behaviors. “It chips away at a part of me that someone thinks I would steal her purse,” she says. “It creates pain, but there’s no real way to tackle it. It’s not my way to confront someone. My healing comes by telling the story.”
DIVERSITY FATIGUE & IMPOSTER SYNDROME
The concepts of diversity fatigue and imposter syndrome play important roles in discussions and actions surrounding bias and racial injustice. Diversity fatigue is associated with the amount of energy, time, and resources it takes to solve complex problems around diversity, equity, and inclusion, which makes it harder to stay committed to initiatives for the long term. “We have to teach that there is this thing called diversity fatigue and then name what our own diversity fatigue is rooted in because we all have a story,” Mosby Tyler explains. “I grew up in the south. I have been talking about diversity since I was four. That’s why I’m tired.” It’s important to consider:
Where is your diversity fatigue coming from? What’s your story?
What triggers it?
Once your fatigue is triggered, how does your body react?
Underneath every one of our biases is FEAR.
“Someone is looking at you and making a judgment on your body language,” Mosby Tyler says. An example is police officers who have diversity fatigue. They see the same thing over and over; they get triggered; and their bodies react. And then we spin a narrative on what that means. “We need to be conscious of our visceral reactions, which are on the rise in today’s environment,” Mosby Tyler says. Another increasing issue is imposter syndrome, which is that negative voice inside our heads that tells us we’re not good enough, smart enough, or credible enough to do something in the moment. “The white community will say, ‘I’m not the expert, so I shouldn’t say anything,’” Mosby Tyler says. “So now, with these two risk factors – diversity fatigue and imposter syndrome – people feel paralyzed about what they can and should do. We don’t need that. We need everyone mobilized and speaking from their vantage point.”
DEEP, REFLECTIVE WORK
Admitting our own biases is deep reflective work. It’s private. It’s not really comfortable to share it with others because some of it might be racist or homophobic, and that’s incredibly difficult to admit. “Work like this requires a commitment to tell yourself the truth and face it,” Mosby Tyler says. “Admitting your prejudices is some of the deepest reflective work you can do.” Using her own biases as an example, Mosby Tyler says, “How on earth would I share when I think someone doesn’t even want to learn? That’s stereotyping, but I had to admit I pigeonholed people when they gave any sort of sign, and my implicit bias kicked in. I didn’t want to have anything to do with them, and that’s a problem. How many teachers do we have like that who stop teaching? How many doctors, or people in any other field, who might have the same bias I have? This process calls for commitment to tell yourself the truth. It’s a challenge.”
DO NO HARM
The best way to uncover biases is to back into the process. When you decide you want to do this work, start with your unconscious bias – whatever that may be – and first make a commitment that you never want to do anything or react in a way that would harm someone. Next, tell yourself the truth so you can get to that commitment. “You are committing to exploring anything you might be doing unconsciously that might be hurting people,” Mosby Tyler explains. CONTINUED ON PAGE 18
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 17
There are many other examples of how biases cause harm. Mosby Tyler pulls from another painful memory: In first grade, her teacher put all the Black children into the lowest reading group without ever testing their reading skills. “That created so much harm in my life,” she says. “That’s where the teacher thought Black kids belonged. Now you’re in a performance system, and you have to fight and prove your way out of it.” In the 1940s, researchers conducted what became known as “the doll tests” to study the psychological effects of segregation on African-American children. Four dolls, identical except for color, were used to test children’s racial perceptions. The children, ages three to seven, were asked to identify both the race of the dolls and which color doll they preferred. A majority of the children preferred the white dolls and assigned positive characteristics like smart, nice, good, and beautiful to them. The children used words like dumb, mean, bad, and ugly to describe the black dolls.
“Even at a young age, these Black children had a bias toward whiteness,” Mosby Tyler says. “Think about how far back your bias can go and how it might look when you age. What does a three-year old
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CHIPPING AWAY AT THE PROCESS
Creating change is where imposter syndrome really plays a role. People use the word ‘dismantle,’ and that feels too big,” Mosby Tyler says. “I can’t dismantle this Titanic.” Instead, Mosby Tyler suggests thinking about chipping away – each person doing his or her part in bite-sized pieces. “Me times you times the next person – that’s how we get a system dismantled,” she says. “We’re chipping away at systems that don’t work for all of us. That’s how I stay sane and focused on the little part I can do. We have to get in the business of asking ourselves ‘What can I do?’” An important point is this isn’t the time for white people to ask their Black friends what they should be doing to help. “That’s painful,” Mosby Tyler says. “You have to do the work, see where inequity exists, and figure out how you can help chip away, no matter how big or small. That’s your work. Look at ways to chip away at inequity, make a way for someone to have a place at a table that they didn’t have before, whatever that is. No one should be absent of things to do because there’s so much to do.”
A WORLD WHERE EVERYBODY WINS
Why do we all need to care about bias? Because we all potentially have something lurking in our brains that could cause us to make decisions that aren’t thought through or are subjective. How might our biases affect how we interact (or not), hire (or not), and promote (or not) in the workplace? How do our biases affect our friendships, relationships, and hold us back from great things? How do our biases hurt others without our even knowing? That’s why we all need to care. Once we realize and recognize our own biases, we can begin to actively challenge them. Mosby Tyler would love it if everyone could see themselves in the same boat while understanding there are different lived experiences happening in the boat. “We’ve got to get everyone thinking ‘we’re in this together,’” she encourages. “I’m not sure it’s completely the case yet. I’m not sure white people want to be in the boat with us because that means facing oppression,” she explains. “But we have to envision being in the boat together so we can lift it. That is the work: Getting people to understand we are, in fact, in this together, and then to really believe it. I want white people and Black people and young people and all of the diversity that is so beautiful to be side-by-side, so we all win. I don’t want people of color to win at white people’s expense. I want everybody to win. I want to see that before I die.”
Learn more about Nita Mosby Tyler, Ph.D., her book, White People Really Love Salad: What My Childhood Taught Me About Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, and her work at The Equity Project LLC by visiting theequityprojectllc.com. Her TedX Talk is now featured on the Ted Platform at www.ted.com/talks/nita_
