Bias - Conscious or Unconscious?

    As we’ve seen in the last year or so, blatant examples of racism have filled news headlines. But many other examples of discrimination and hate crimes have occurred in the same time span and are only receiving attention now. What about these types of discrimination that are just as hurtful, derogatory, and even dangerous? These thoughts led me to look into issues around conscious and unconscious bias, which delves into how more subtle forms of racism, sexism, and LGBTQ discrimination are propagated even in the most professional environments.

So what is unconscious bias?

It is the bias that shows up in a person's behavior that they themselves are totally unaware of. It is higher in frequency and sometimes built into the way we think, so much so, that we don’t even realize it’s discrimination!

    Bias can be conscious or unconscious. Interestingly enough, conscious forms of bias tend to be seen less in modern day life. For example, sixty or so years ago, anyone could make wildly sexist, racist, or homophobic remarks and get away with it. However, today society condemns such remarks, and in general, people are just more educated and aware. While conscious bias is typically shaped by someone's appearance, unconscious bias is shaped by much more:

Source: www.nelacademny.nhs.uk

    And geography isn’t a factor; don’t think it’s an issue in the liberal Bay Area, the “Left Coast”? Or that it doesn’t apply to you? Stereotypes can run rampant no matter where you are, and is the reason why we come to associate certain traits with certain types of people. These can range from “all Asians are smart and get straight A’s” to "only white males can be scientists." These stereotypes function as “cognitive shortcuts” for people, being used to assess a person based on their traits (such as age, race, gender, etc). This can discourage children from participating in fields that promote only certain values (i.e girls may be discouraged from becoming engineers because it is a male dominated field.)

    Even in the modern corporate world, there are still severe imbalances in pay and hiring practices based on race and sex. Men or women who are deemed more “attractive” are more likely to get a job interview, but if a woman is too attractive they may be seen as untrustworthy. Overweight employees experience discrimination, and overweight women especially are evaluated more negatively. Black people in leadership roles who act assertively may be seen as too aggressive, and Asians may be seen as having outstanding technical skills but poor leadership skills. The list goes on.

Source: www.linkedin.com

This topic is very close to me, and I am interested in what other people of different backgrounds think. As a high schooler, this is an area in which I believe my generation has the opportunity to carry forward the progress made by civil rights icons such as Martin Luther King Jr, Maya Angelou, Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Even in the corporate world, CEOs are making conscious efforts to address bias-related issues through DE&I (Diversity Equality and Inclusion) initiatives.

"Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible."

- Maya Angelou

That being said, I am conducting the following survey so I can understand (and hopefully make others understand) how other people with different backgrounds think about and deal with issues of race, discrimination, and unconscious bias. This will the first a series of blogs on this topic, with each one focusing on a different aspect of unconscious bias.

This is the link:

https://forms.gle/NMksYNsAJSDbX2hy7

I can't wait to hear what you all have to say!

- Sid