Here is the full transcript of Dushaw Hockett’s talk titled “We All Have Implicit Biases. So What Can We Do About It?” at TEDxMidAtlanticSalon conference.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
I want to make an argument to you; I want to make a case to you. And the argument that I want to make is that the way that we currently think about, talk about, and act on issues of racial bias and other lines of difference in this country is woefully inadequate and it’s incomplete.
And in making this case, I want to build on the very robust and compelling evidence that has been coming out of the science community for the past 10 plus years that suggests that if we want to move to a radically different place, a radically better place on issues of race and difference in this country, we have to pay attention to something called implicit bias.
Understanding Implicit Bias
So, what is implicit bias? Oprah Winfrey has talked about it. Malcolm Gladwell has written about it. Normally, we say when Oprah is talking about it and Malcolm is writing about it, everybody knows about it, which isn’t always the case. So, a bias is a preference for or a prejudice against a person or a group of people. There are three characteristics that make a bias implicit.
Characteristic number one, implicit biases operate at the subconscious level, outside of conscious awareness. We don’t know that we have them, and they can’t be accessed through introspection. In other words, the science of implicit bias says that none of us can sit here in this room right now, scratch our heads, and wonder out loud, “Do I have a bias against men, against women, against black people, against white people, against immigrants?” and expect to accurately answer that question, because the nature of an implicit bias is such that we don’t know that we have them.
Characteristic number two, implicit biases oftentimes run contrary, contrary to our conscious stated beliefs about who we are as human beings and what our values are. In other words, the science of implicit bias says that you can be a school administrator and say that you are deeply committed to nurturing and building up young people, and yet be the same school administrator who leads your school in high rates of suspensions and expulsions of young people. And both of those things would be true.
Consciously, you’re deeply committed to building young people up. Unconsciously, you’re doing harm in the process. The science of implicit bias says that you can be a law enforcement officer deeply committed to the mantra that appears on the side of police vehicles that says, “Protect and serve.” And yet be the same law enforcement officer who leads your precinct or your district in high rates of stops and frisks of young men of color. And both of those things would be true. Consciously, you’re deeply committed to the principles of protecting and serving. Unconsciously, your behavior is inconsistent with that.
The third characteristic that makes the bias implicit is that implicit biases are triggered through rapid and automatic mental associations that we make between people, ideas, and objects and the attitudes and stereotypes that we hold about those people, ideas, and objects. And so, case in point, I want to do a quick exercise around the power of mental associations. So, in a minute, I’m going to flash a few words on the screen. And what I want to ask you to do is I want you to quickly reflect on and/or call out the associations that you make with those words or that you believe the broader society makes with those words.
The Impact of Implicit Bias
And so, this requires a little bit of call and response. So, government. Corporate. Suburbs. Subsidized housing. So, the science of implicit bias would say that those associations that you just made, those aren’t mere verbal associations. Those aren’t mere mental associations. The science says that there are attitudes and behaviors that we attach to those associations.
So, imagine if, as part of my introduction, I came out here and I said, “My name is Dushaw, I want to talk with you about something innovative. And I’m here representing local government. I used to work in corporate America. I was born and raised in subsidized housing, but I now live in the suburbs of Alexandria, Virginia.”
The science would suggest that for many of you, for those who said that your automatic mental association with government is corrupt or your automatic mental association with corporate is greed, you would receive me through that filter. Oftentimes at the unconscious level. And it would color for you every single word that comes out of my mouth. So, that’s how implicit bias works. These rapid and automatic mental associations that shape and mold behavior every single day. Oftentimes in ways that we’re not even aware of. Oftentimes in ways that do harm to others.
So, there are three reasons, three reasons why focusing on implicit bias at this particular moment in time is important and why I believe that a focus on implicit bias can help move this country forward.
Number one, an implicit bias focus gives us a much more expansive diagnosis of the challenges that we face in this country with respect to difference. What do I mean? We know from the work of esteemed scholars Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald that a significant amount of the harm being experienced and transmitted in this country with respect to racial bias and other lines of difference, we know that a significant amount of that harm stems from implicit forms of bias in addition to explicit forms of bias. Yet, the majority of the tools that we use to address bias are designed to address explicit forms, not the implicit.
So, in essence, what we have in this country is a mismatch, a disconnect between how we diagnose challenges around difference and how we treat them. An implicit bias approach gives us a much more expansive diagnosis and a much more expansive toolbox. And my belief is that if we get the diagnosis right, we will get the treatment right. If we continue to get the diagnosis wrong, we will get the treatment wrong.
The Importance of Addressing Implicit Bias
Number two, implicit bias is both predictive and it’s preventive. It’s predictive in the sense that a person can go to the website for Project Implicit, take any one of the online implicit association tests, and receive a test result that can serve as a predictor of discriminatory behavior. It’s preventive in the sense that there are emerging and promising strategies coming out of the science community that suggest with internal motivation and habitual practice, we can do things to reduce our vulnerability to act on our biases.
And I believe that that is what the country needs right now. We need a prevention approach around issues of bias and difference versus an emergency room response. Right now, we have an emergency room response. We wait for stuff to happen, then we rush to the emergency room. We need a prevention approach, and implicit bias gives us that.
Lastly, and number three, implicit bias or an implicit bias approach helps to reduce the shame and the shaming that’s associated with talking about and addressing issues of bias. Author and researcher Brene Brown draws an interesting distinction between guilt and shame. She says, “Guilt says I made a mistake, and I can do something about it. Shame says I am a mistake. This is who I am. I’m a horrible human being. There’s nothing I can do about it. I’m going to always be this way.”
And what I want to submit to you is that my belief is that one of the biggest challenges that we have in this country in how we address issues of bias is that we engage in self-shaming and, if we’re honest, sometimes we intentionally and unintentionally shame others. And my belief is that as long as we continue to do that, human beings would never feel the motivation that they need to do the self-change work or the broader societal change work that we need to do.
An implicit bias approach addresses this because it makes the central question not “Are you racist or not racist? Are you sexist or not sexist?” An implicit bias approach makes the central question, “How do we get our actions and behaviors, how do we align our actions and behaviors with our consciously held egalitarian beliefs?” Or, at least for those people who do hold egalitarian beliefs. My belief is that many people do. So, that’s why this work is important at this particular moment in time.
Conclusion
And in closing, I want to leave you with a quick idea. The late child psychologist Urie Bronfenbrenner once said that, “Every child needs at least one adult in his or her life who is irrationally crazy about him or her.” Raise your hand if you’ve had that at any point in your life. So, you know what it feels like.
My belief is that not only does every child need that, every human being needs at least one other human being in their life who is irrationally crazy about him or her. And the only way that we’re going to have that is if we do the internal change work that we need to do to make the external change work possible. Thank you very much.
SUMMARY OF THIS TALK:
Dushaw Hockett’s enlightening talk, “We All Have Implicit Biases. So What Can We Do About It?”, delves into the pervasive nature of implicit biases that operate subconsciously and affect our perceptions and actions towards people from different races and backgrounds. He emphasizes that these biases often contradict our consciously held beliefs, highlighting a disconnect between our intentions and actions.
Hockett builds his argument on robust scientific evidence, illustrating the necessity of recognizing and addressing these biases to foster a more equitable society. He introduces the concept of implicit bias, underscoring its prevalence despite widespread recognition by influential figures like Oprah Winfrey and Malcolm Gladwell. Through engaging exercises, Hockett demonstrates how automatic associations shape our behaviors in subtle, yet impactful ways.
He advocates for a preventive approach to addressing biases, leveraging strategies from the science community to align our behaviors with our egalitarian beliefs. Ultimately, Hockett’s talk is a compelling call to action for introspection and change, aiming to reduce the harm caused by unchecked biases in society.