When Implicit Bias Becomes Explicit | Megan Fuciarelli | TEDxLivoniaCCLibrary

last week in Melbourne Australia a character of Serena Williams was featured with embellished facial features and an aggressive stance many people saw that as Jim Crow racism while others or the artists specifically mark Knight saw nothing wrong with what he showed millions of dollars were moved from FEMA to ice removal operations just before florence hit political headlines from our current politicians those who have been elected and those who are or will be appointed can be found such as it was just locker room talk or that accusation doesn't really matter because the attempt at assault did not actually go anywhere the black lives matter movement was made popular and was brought on because of an increased presence and exposure of the police brutality that was occurring and continues to occur all of these are examples of media headlines that perpetuate by us and encourage society to look differently at groups of people none of these are new but we've seen a sharp increase in blatantly discriminatory comments and that is where the title of the talk becomes evident when implicit bias becomes explicit all of us in this room are biased now I know I might have hit a nerve of some of you for saying that but it is true every single one of us hold bias within ourselves that is human and natural I've been doing the work for over 20 years I still hold bias everyone in this room holds that bias it's simple fact and human nature to have that that bias that implicit bias that you hold though is not harmful unless you allow it to change the way you treat people or how you speak to people because that is when implicit bias becomes explicit and discriminatory my passion in life and my focus is working with people to help them understand their bias embrace their so that they can ultimately overcome that before it becomes discriminatory and also so that they can become more productive and ultimately profitable individuals our bias stems from experiences our livelihoods have all been what they are and you are who you are right now sitting in these chairs and listening to this because of experiences that you've had whether it's your upbringing whether it is the media that you choose to surround yourself with whether it is your friends and colleagues that you choose to surround yourself with you are who you are sitting in this chair today because of the experiences you've had and those experiences encourage you and allow you to have that bias or that internal frame in your head thinking about what you think about certain groups of people and certain individuals I use an analogy about baggage because we all carry different baggage all of us had a different experience this morning coming in some of us came in with Louis Vuitton some of us came in with a target knockoff and some of us might have came in with a little plastic knapsack from the grocery store up the street we all carry our own baggage as adults we can choose to unpack that baggage analyze the baggage and repack go out and buy a different outfit go out and figure out a new experience or reframe our mind because of the experiences we want to have as adults we have that luxury unfortunately our children don't have that luxury their baggage is often packed for them the first step in any of this bias work is to unpack your own baggage and recognize what you have in that bag what do you carry around with you everyday what do you put in that storage unit and leave and forget it's even there and what have you left behind or sold to someone else but you must analyze the baggage that you carry in order to overcome it and that first step is extremely difficult because you have to accept that you're biased bias is defined as prejudice in favor of or against one thing person or group of people implicit bias is our intern thinking's what do you feel what do you think who do you prefer to be around who do you associate with what do you like to get what do you like to order at the restaurant those are all preferences you might have a bias towards Coke versus Pepsi that's a bias if your first question walking into a restaurant is do you have Coke or Pepsi we have Pepsi ooh I'll take an iced tea that's a bias it doesn't mean that you're downing all the people that drink Coke you're not saying anything negative about people who drink coke that's where that bias is simply that a bias it can be seen as a preference and it's not necessarily negative it's when you act on implicit bias and say I can't believe you have Pepsi how dare you have Pepsi you all should go to heck this is horrible that's when you're acting on a bias and that's when it becomes negative or when you start to tell people that they're horrible people for drinking a certain product or acting a certain way when you're condemning others that's when it becomes explicit that's when it becomes discriminatory and that's when it becomes harmful our bias typically starts with microaggressions microaggressions are comments that are typically made by people who mean nothing but the best they're usually well-intentioned people and I often say that the most well intentioned people often do the most harm because they don't realize the harm that they're causing but some examples of microaggressions that I'm sure some people in here have used at some point but if you've ever looked at a pregnant woman and asked her if she was taking time off after the baby without asking the others who will be raising that child in that situation the same question you're showing sexist tendencies the time after birth was not given to recover the body that's part of it but the time after birth was given to bond with the child so if you're only asking the person who's carrying the child then you're saying that only the woman deserves that time if you automatically walk into a room with a phone that doesn't work and you ask the youngest person in the room help me without asking who has experience or who might be able to help you're showing a gist tendons you're assuming that because they're young they must be able to help with IT if you've ever been in a classroom or had a friend in a math class who is Asian and you automatically ask them for help with your math homework you're showing racist tendencies none of these are negative right I would love to be good at math I would love to be great at technology microaggressions don't always start as negative what makes them harmful is that you're grouping people by who they are in an identity group rather than who they are within themselves you're making assumptions on someone based on what they are what group they belong to and not who they are internally or what they bring to the table I'd like to share a personal story with you I have a biracial son and we were in his in the office in the doctor's office the pediatrician he was about two years old first two-year-old vaccinations and I was talking to another mother in the waiting room it was going pretty well good conversation probably about three or four minutes in she asked me when did you adopt him and I said oh no he's mine thinking he's just so cute she doesn't think I could make them right and she goes oh no I know he's yours now but when did you sign the papers I said oh no I birthed him and then she lowered her voice like it was a secret or scandalous and said but he's black you did that on purpose well let me tell you that I had to harness every single ounce of my Crucial Conversations training my bias trainings my equity inclusion trainings and Wow I should have won an M&E Emmy for how I responded to this one but I did and I simply told her that no he was mine his father and I were deeply in love and he's the best thing that ever happened to me by the end of the conversation she was in tears not because I came at her not because I was negative or atrocious in any way but because I helped her recognize her bias see she didn't think that anything she said was negative she was thinking well in my head the only thing that I would think of is that it must not have been by choice or that's not really what happens because that's what she was exposed to that was her exposure that was her bias that was what was running through her head over and over by the end of the conversation she was in tears and I have to admit I might've dropped one right and it was simply because we had the opportunity to talk and overcome the biases she had to recognize and understand that she had that bias so that she could overcome it and she promised me at the end of it that she would do her best not to make that same mistake again and that she appreciated me taking the time to talk to her about it rather than getting angry and walking away but that implicit bias went from a microaggression of when did you adopt him to a blatant discriminatory comment back to a oh wow I've understood what I've said and I'm sorry for hurting you that's what we need to do to be able to have those conversations so that we can move past because we all make mistakes we all have first impressions we all have bias thoughts that is human but we have to be able to communicate with each other so that we can overcome those throughout our process once you've actually realized that you are biased that is when you can overcome so that you can feel speak differently in the whole situation I benefit from being born into a white suburban family yep I said the word benefit that is a privilege that I have I own my white privilege I didn't earn it but I have privileges that come along with that I'm not followed while I'm shopping I'm not pulled over while I'm driving unless of course I'm doing my Danika trick because I do really like to drive fast but even if I am pulled over I'm usually let go with a warning being white does not define me it doesn't define who I am but it is often the first thing that people notice about me I've been doing equity and inclusion trainings for quite a while I will tell you the first thing I get is a white woman doing this work what but as soon as I start talking and I start to recognize and also appreciate not only the biases that I hold but the privileges that I hold and I help people in the room recognize I'm not here to tell anyone that they're wrong I'm here to tell you that it's human and natural on your bias that's when the credibility comes up and that's when I'm able to make an impact and that's how every single person can make an impact is by recognizing the bias so that they can own it and then overcome it because you cannot overcome or get over anything that you don't recognize in the first place there's lots of examples of privilege there's white privilege there's male privilege there's Christian privilege there's heterosexual privilege the list goes on not only does everyone in this room hold bias but everyone in this room holds a privilege of some sort I encourage all of you to identify not only your bias but also what privilege you hold spark that conversation because once you recognize you can overcome now I'm sure that there's some of you and your own internal thinking's your own implicit bias right now you're probably talking to me and you're saying one of a couple things and one of those things you might be saying is this isn't today's reality we've become so much more diverse why do we have to keep talking about it okay you're right we've become much more diverse but we've also become much more polarized all you have to do is look at the media headlines to see that we have become more polarized because people have become empowered to not only speak their minds which again speaking their minds is not the problem if you're speak Lee speaking simply about you but when you condemn others that is when it becomes a problem social media has allowed this negativity to be spread quicker and to larger demographics or you might be thinking bias is not normal and I am NOT biased gosh darn it I get that a lot guess what hate me if you want you're biased every single room every single person every single person out there is biased everyone holds a breath preference every single one of you your first thought when you look at someone is your bias when you chose where to sit today you chose to sit right next to someone or to have a spot open you chose whether you want to sit in the front or in the back that is your preference your bias is ooh looking at the pictures of different people oh he looks interesting or who she looks weird or because I'm the only girl or he looks really young I wonder what he's going to talk about right we all have them every single person in here is biased hate me if you want it's okay I'd rather be loved and hated that is somewhere in the middle or you might be thinking I'm glad I'm not biased I treat everyone the same oh geez oops you should not treat everyone the same we are all unique individuals none of us should be treated the same because none of us are the exact same person we all have different needs and wants in this world we all have different ways we learn different ways we respond we are all unique equal and equitable are not the same we don't need to treat everyone equally because that's treating everyone the same we need to treat everyone equitably which means we give them access to the ability to be successful and prosperous we don't give everyone the same thing because we don't all need the same thing I'm gonna give all of you in here a Diet Pepsi there are some people in here or go throw that Diet Pepsi at me I would be one of them that would say I don't want it either equal is not equitable and I know it sounds trivial to bring it back to things like soda or the color of car you drive but it's that right there if you can embrace that then you can I understand and embrace how this can move forward into much larger things and the last thing that some of you might be thinking is my religion doesn't allow me to accept certain lifestyles there I'm not here to change your core values or beliefs you can hold on to your core values and your core beliefs but that does not mean that you have the opportunity or you should be able to condemn anyone else for theirs own your core values and beliefs on what you feel that doesn't mean that you have to tell others that they're wrong because they don't fit in to your core values we've all heard the same if you don't have anything nice to say don't say anything at all we've all heard that but somehow down the line because people in power feel empowered to say what they want to say we feel like all of us have the ability to say what we want to say and yes free speech I get it but if you're condemning people in the process of that free speech you're no longer allowing it to be a free society for everyone else who's just trying to live their life now again the purpose of the talk today is to get you all mad at me I want you all to think how dare she call me biased I'm not biased she doesn't even know me yep I want you to own the fact that you are biased I am biased we are all biased we should not work to eradicate that bias rather we need to work to identify it so that we can overcome it we have to embrace the fact that we're all biased we have to identify what our biases are and then we have to work to overcome thank you so much and remember that in order to unite society we must first understand ourselves [Applause]

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 19,944

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, Social Science, Behavior, Communication, Ideas, Identity, Race, Social Interaction, Society, Tolerance

Id: ww6k3nFe800

Length: 17min 20sec (1040 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 18 2018