Blindsided: Uncovering and Interrupting Bias

Implicit biases are powerful things. In fact, implicit attitudes about race can be more powerful than explicit attitudes about race.

Why?

Because unconscious racial attitudes are less egalitarian than what we explicitly think about race.

Because what we consciously say out loud—”I love working in a diverse organization!”—so often masks what unconsciously drives our everyday actions.

Because biases are so deeply ingrained in our brains that unlearning them takes active practice. As we’ve said elsewhere, knowing is not actually half the battle. Real change takes practice, and a lot of it.

At the Raleigh Chamber of Commerce’s 2021 virtual DEI conference called “Speak Up, Take Action,” the Equity Collaborative’s Graig Meyer had the opportunity to record a short presentation about bias.

In the video below, you’ll see that Graig digs deeper into the question of how biases actually work inside our brains. What’s more, he dissects what it takes to actually interrupt negative biases. Interrupting negative biases is such an important step toward eliminating opportunity gaps and feelings of marginalization—things that end up withholding positive growth from individuals and entire organizations alike.

(Tip of the hat to Destin Sandler’s “Smarter Every Day” video used in this presentation. What’s your backwards bike about bias going to be?)