Exploring unconscious bias

- So the work that we have been doing on unconscious bias, sometimes people call it implicit bias or cognitive biases, is really helping us to understand what we need to do if we want to create more inclusive environments, which is to actually get out of our self-denial about the fact that our brain is doing stuff and reaching conclusions without telling us. So like I was in a market one night, late at night, and there was another woman in the elevator going down to the grocery market and it was a black woman and she had on scrubs and she was pretty small, much shorter than I am, and I saw her and my first feeling was I love nurses. And I wanted to say that, right? 'Cause a lot of times we say the wrong things and they are supposed to be compliments, right, so? But something in me, because I do this work all the time, I was like, stop it, don't say anything, don't say anything. And then I was like what could you say? If you want to say something nice to this person who you don't know who she is, but you think you know who she is and so I said, um, what hospital do you work for? And she told me. And then I said, um, so what's got you here so late? And she goes, oh, I was delivering babies, you know, as a doctor, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, oh, so happy I didn't say I love nurses, right, because my intent is positive, but my impact could be extremely negative, not because there's anything wrong with being a nurse, but because this woman is a doctor and she's tired of people looking at her undoubtedly and deciding she could only be one thing. That she couldn't possibly be a doctor, and that's something we call descriptive bias, and descriptive bias is this idea that our brain, and the way our brain works is that it's got so much stimuli to try to get through and make sense of that's it going, it's doing a shortcut thing. At least our fast brain. We have a slow brain that's much more methodical and thinks things through and pays attention to more data, but our fast brain, which we rely on much more frequently than we know, is just sorting very quickly and then coming to conclusions based on themes, patterns, schema. In other ways, it goes, what goes with what? And that night, my brain was like doctor goes with tall, white guy, right? And it's not, it's not a bad thing. It's just that we have been told over and over again over a long period of time that doctor looks this way. And so that's why we get confused, and that's why we say the wrong thing. It's also we have been taught from our brain that it's going to like do an ingroup and outgroup thing. So it's like like me and not like me. There's this old part of our brain, still very primitive, that's doing tribal stuff. And so if they're like me, I'm moving toward them, if they're not like me, I'm moving away from them, and all of that is operating without sending us a memo that this is what we're doing to shortcut our understanding of what's happening. And the problem is, not that it's a terrible thing. Like would I really kill this woman's night by calling her the wrong thing? Probably not, because she's probably used to it. This is something we call micro-inequities, or micro-aggressions is the small slights. These comments, the way that people behave with other folks, it can be really small, but the problem is, lots of people, different people, have said or done the same thing towards this particular individual. So there's this accumulative effect, and that effect creates like a burden and a sense of frustration, a sense that I cannot be seen for who I am. So if you march this over to the workplace, you can imagine, or in a school or in a community, anywhere where no matter who you are and what you've done, people can only see you in one way, in one category and then either you have to decide to correct them or you have to decide to smile. And grit your teeth. Ultimately this causes sort of a sense of exclusion, a frustration, it messes with people's productivity. A lot of times people leave because it's just happening too frequently. And so these micro-inequities are really important things for us to look at. They're a couple of them that I just want to sort of bring out, because people say this all the time. It's like US Asian-born people are constantly being complimented for their English. And they're like, oh, you're English is so good, and they're like, well, thank you. I grew up in Jersey, you know? (laughs) Or people will say the word qualified, but they only use it with minorities. We really need qualified minority candidates, and you're like, what else would be trying to do? Like, why do we need to say, why do we need to qualify qualified when it comes to minorities only? Or for a mother, you're doing a really great job. Or you can't be a good lawyer and a good mother at the same time. These are the small things that cut, and create this sense of exclusion.