To deal with implicit bias, we must accept that it exists

Okay, let’s talk about something that truly impacts policy. It impacts the way we manage, supervise and even regulate relationships. It permeates in political, government, private, public, is everywhere. I’m talking about implicit bias. Now I’m going somewhere with this don’t tune out. Before you hear all of the explanation. The reality is being implicitly bias is not evil. It is human. As a matter of fact, every human being that develops to a particular social reality will, in fact, develop implicit bias. Let me put it to you another way. Instead of utilizing the terminology, implicit bias, let’s call it preference, do you have a preference? That means you have a bias? Okay? Do you have a preference? And you’re not quite sure why you have that preference? Why you either like or don’t like a particular thing? That’s called implicit. Okay? You are not aware of where it came from talking about the reason for your preference. Implicit bias works exactly the same. You see, our subconscious mind analyzes 11 million thoughts a day. But our conscious mind can analyze roughly 40,000. What does that mean? That means that our entire day, we are engaged in a mental exercise of implicit bias, everybody. Now, how does it connect to policy? Well, policies are created by people, all people have implicit bias? What about law enforcement or law enforcement, they engage communities and many times they engage these communities with either hyper aware bias, meaning they are aware of their own bias, or they are not. You see, both are very dangerous. Why would we want to eliminate programs that actually would start addressing the issue of the underlying prejudice, that leads to bad behavior from government employees, police officers in particular, you see, implicit bias was never something that should have become a political issue, because it is not. I have implicit bias, you have implicit bias, when these biases start to adversely impact the societal construct around us, that’s when the biases need to be checked. Because the reality is, if you do not check the implicit bias that you do have, that implicit bias will end up checking you. And by extension, it will adversely impact the society your community deserves better. My community deserves better. I’m not saying you need to agree with me in everything that I believe. I’m just saying, we should all agree that being prejudice, that being bias against a particular individual, because of our own preferences, is not a good way to run a company is not a good way to run a government and frankly, is not a good way to live. So let’s deal with it upfront, rather than creating policies to make it illegal to teach diversity, inclusion and equity. Let’s talk about it from a common sense standpoint. Do you think you have implicit bias? Let me save you the trouble? The answer is yes, you do have implicit bias. You have implicit bias just as easily as you have the ability to be angry, or to be happy, to be sad or to experience joy. You see, these things are not debatable. These are facts about the human journey. So let’s treat it as a true human experience that basically everyone experiences on some level and deal with it from that