The concept of implicit bias has become a polarizing issue in America. Implicit bias is defined by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) as “a form of bias that occurs automatically and unintentionally, that nevertheless affects judgments, decisions, and behaviors.” As a result, it can have an impact on everything from the workplace to government and law enforcement. States like Michigan have required bias training for some workers, as has the Dept. of Homeland Security. However, some cities are pushing back and even banning implicit bias mandates.
Straight Arrow News contributor Rashad Richey says dismissing implicit bias is a mistake. He says we must accept that implicit bias exists in all of us if we’re going to deal with the problem.
The reality is being implicitly biased 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? Well 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.
