Help us understand implicit bias. Reflect on the results of your participation in the survey. Name a time when you used your own implicit bias to navigate a situation.
Implicit bias is in many ways, the elephant in the room for our society.

We have come a long way in this country, towards embracing the diversity that makes us the beautiful melting pot that we are, and I don’t want to knock those strides that we’ve taken, but there is so much more growth that has to take place. Within each one of us, we hold certain thoughts that we may be completely unaware of. You may feel as though you do not harbor any prejudice, and that you are a mindful person who regards all humans as equals, but when it comes down to it, the reality is that we are shaped by many factors that we don’t even understand and, at times are completely oblivious to. We are shaped by those we grow up with, the conversations we hear from those close to us, the media we choose to take in, the place we live and infinite other occurrences and parts of our existence.

Implicit bias is the stuff that we unknowingly feel/think that impacts our lives, and those of others in a myriad of ways. It is the part of the automatic processing that our brain does so fluidly, the blanks that are filled in by our brain without us putting in any effort, or even realizing there are blanks being filled, and until we realize that each of us holds these biases, our growth will be stalled, personally and as a nation. I noticed on my implicit bias results I was “slightly faster at sorting ‘White people’ with ‘Bad’ and ‘Black People’ with good, and I think that I do often have this perspective, because of my feelings regarding what ‘White people’ have done throughout history, however, this is still a bias. It made it clear to me that I still pass judgement without knowing the content of a person’s character, and that is something that I want to consciously work on. I would love to feel neutral, with no bias, but alas, there is so much work to do before I get there.

I have allowed my implicit bias to inform the way I respond in situations in that I will often presume that white men in positions of power have ill intent. I had the privilege of serving on city council for four years, and I believe that I allowed this bias to impact the way that I spoke and handled a number of encounters with other councilors, and city officials during that time. I wonder how things might have worked out differently if I had not brought my bias to the table and if I would have been able to accomplish more during that time.

In Wherever I Go, Abia is nervous about finding a forever home. How does this idea differ or match up with your own ideas about refugees and asylum seekers? What do the students in your classroom think about Abia’s nervousness about finding a forever home? Can they relate it to any of their own experiences?

I am embarrassed to say that I didn’t ever consider that refugees or asylum seekers may be nervous about their forever home. Even typing this I can see how shallow my perception was, because until I really reflected on it, I thought it would be feelings of sheer relief to come to a forever home in a “safe” place. I am aware now of how ridiculously one dimensional this perception is! Things are so much more complex than that, and I know what its like to move to a new state, and how difficult I found that, it is shameful that I didn’t consider those very same difficulties, and ones far greater, that would color the feelings and experience of asylum seekers.

Once we finished the story, my students immediately reflected that they would be nervous too, they would be afraid to leave the home they knew. When I asked my students if any of them could relate this their experience, one of my students related this to going to a new dance class. She said that she knew that it was going to be fun, but she had to leave her friends at her previous dance lessons, and she was scared that she wouldn’t make any friends in her new dance class. She told us that she did in fact have several friends that she has made there since, but that she didn’t even want to go in on the first day because she was so anxious. I had asked if anyone in the class had ever moved or changed schools, which no one had, but I think they could understand that it would be a difficult thing to leave everything you know behind to go somewhere new, with so many unknowns.