Bias is a touchy subject to write about.  It’s certainly not a new topic, but in this age of #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter and #(insert city of latest mass shooting here)Strong, the rhetoric around bias has grown to a fever pitch.  I’ve been thinking about the topic a lot lately, as well as talking back to the TV news while gesticulating wildly, so I think it’s time to tackle it here.  Interestingly, I also debated a while on how to title this essay since bias has become such a hot button in public discourse.  Hopefully, I have made you curious enough with this title to get you to read. Well, at least you’ve gotten this far.

There are a few key points that I want to make during this discussion so I might as well lay them out now:  1) Everyone has bias.  Everyone.  Anyone who says they don’t is disingenuous or doesn’t know themselves or probably both.  2) Expressions of bias need to be put into context, usually time period.  3) Recognizing bias in yourself or others is not nearly as important as what you then do with that knowledge. 4) Work on yourself before you judge others. (Gee, where have I heard that before?  Maybe half my essays?)

Let’s start by defining “bias”.  The dictionary defines “bias” thusly:  prejudice in favor of or against one thing, person, or group compared with another, usually in a way considered to be unfair.  I’m choosing to use the word “bias” because it is broad.  It includes all forms of “the other” when we are talking about people–racism, misogyny, anti-semitism, homophobia or just anyone who is different from who you are.  It also includes judgement on behavior, usually dictated by dominant behaviors or norms in society, such as around gun ownership or the role of religion in your life.  Bias is impossible to avoid in our globally connected, media-drenched world.  Not too long ago, the majority of people never came across anyone different from their “tribe”.  We are hardwired to not trust people different from us.  But that is a topic I am going to delve into next time.  Today, I want to talk more about recognizing and dealing with bias.

I grew up in Atlanta in the 1960’s.  Wow, that sounds like a long time ago!  And to you and me, it was—because we tend to think of time in the context of our own life span.  But it wasn’t really, when you think of time in the context of human history.  While societal norms can change very rapidly in that longer context, they always seem to change very slowly during your own lifetime.  This phenomenon makes it seem like a given norm has “always been this way” and thus is immutable and cannot change. 

I was a small child in the deep South, born before the Civil Rights Act was passed.  I could not HELP but be surrounded by racist thinking and verbiage and actions because that was simply the standard in the deep South at that time.  (It is still an issue now, of course.  Less so than when I was a child, but still much room for improvement.)  I am not being accusatory.  I did not grow up in a virulently racist family.  I am making an observation, though, about the pervasive influence of the society around me.  I certainly absorbed some of that thinking.  There was no way to avoid it.  But explanation is not excuse.  As I grew older and especially as I left the deep South to attend college, I had other influences and life experiences and I began to profoundly question my instinctive ways of responding to race. I worked to actively change them.  I am not the same person I was as a teenager growing up in Atlanta.  We all do that.  We say and do things when we are younger that are contextually common, but with time and experience we grow past those thoughts and behaviors.  Even politicians.

Another flash point is in the area of bias toward women.  I’ve got a little experience on the receiving end of bias here.  I think back to when I first entered the workforce as a PhD chemist.  I was a rarity and treated as such.  This was in 1988, not 1888!  It just wasn’t that long ago!  However, it was not uncommon when I was introduced to a new colleague or customer (typically a middle aged white man) for the response to be something along the lines of “Isn’t that great that you have a PhD!”  This was intended as a compliment and I took it as such but, good lord!  How condescending and marginalizing!  Those comments would never have been made to a male colleague.  However, as damaging as that comment was in the late 80’s, comments like that, if uttered today, can and should be condemned more forcefully than memories from 30+ years ago.

The way our society seems to react equally to biased comments from decades ago and biased behaviors conducted more recently has a really unfortunate consequence.  It causes the perpetrator to refuse to take ownership for his or her behavior.  Take Brett Kavanaugh.  While I am treading carefully here since I don’t want to equate criminal behavior with biased behavior, I would have felt a lot better about the guy if he had just owned his objectification of women when he was a rowdy teenager instead of pitching a denial fit like a toddler.  However, I understood why he didn’t own it.  Any sort of ownership of past bad behavior would have tanked his nomination, even if he had followed that statement of ownership with something like: “But I am not 19 anymore.  I have learned from that behavior and this is how I am a different man….” 

What on earth is wrong with people taking responsibility for past actions and then demonstrating how they have learned and grown from them?!  Who among us feels that they have not changed one iota from when they were 19?  I’m not the same person I was at 20, nor 30, nor 40.  I’m not the same person I was LAST WEEK!  Every day I evolve as a human as I learn and think and grow.  I implore you to be a little more selective in your condemning, both of yourself and those around you.  Something said today or an action committed today should carry much more weight.  Importantly, though, your next question after an admission of bias should be, “OK, what have you learned?”  I can’t stress this enough.  We are having the wrong conversation over and over again.  Emphasis needs to be on learning from earlier bias, not just on whether or not biased was expressed. We seem to have lost our ability to differentiate between those who truly need to be punished and those who are modeling how to learn and grow.  No wonder there is so much anger out there. 

While we love to beat people up for bias, we rarely apply the same yardstick to ourselves.  We seem to be much more forgiving of our own trespasses.  So maybe while we need to allow more grace to others, we need to be a little tougher on ourselves.  We are all the “other” somehow.  Find that difference in yourself and use it to raise awareness of when you are using your dominant position instinctively.  The goal here is self-reflection and growth.  Own what you’ve done in the past but then learn from it.  Give that same grace to others who have learned from their past.  And be very wary of those who have not.