starting the conversation · implicit bias and how they affect attitudes, understanding, and...
TRANSCRIPT
Starting the
Conversation
UNDERSTANDING IMPLICIT BIAS
MARCH 20, 2018
PASTOR EDWARD L. PALMER SR., CDT
“Pastor Palmer’s Implicit Bias training was, hands
down, the most effective and informative racial
training I’ve attended. His information was founded
in research and his stories both funny and shocking. I
left the training more aware of my own bias and motivated to change myself and my community.
Pastor Palmer is a gifted messenger with a crucial
message.”
Judge Deanna Wise Henschel, Circuit Judge, Family
Court Division
“Pastor Palmer is helping lead the change in the
Commonwealth, by bringing attention to Racial Bias
in our criminal justice system. While utilizing factual
data to emphasize the need for change, he focuses
on helping those in leadership positions as well as citizens throughout Kentucky realize and understand
how they too must play an active role in assuring that
racial bias is eliminated.”
Chief Clayton Sumner, Hopkinsville City Police
Department
Session objectives
Participants will understand what is meant by
implicit bias and how they affect attitudes,
understanding, and decisions.
Participants will be introduced to skills that will aid
them in neutralizing the impact of bias upon
decision making.
Participants will learn skills for addressing individual
bias.
Participants will learn how to apply a racial lens to
the agency’s policies and practices to address
and remove the potential for bias.
Learning community
behaviors 1. Be fully present
2. Be self-responsible for changing
3. Be open-minded
4. Don’t be afraid to ask why
5. Understand and respect the process
6. Be soft on people and hard on the barriers to understanding
7. Be productive
8. Be solution oriented
9. Honor confidentiality
10. Your participating in activities and discussions is not mandatory but appreciated
This is not about:
Placing blame
Accusing anyone of being a racist
Hatred
Public debate
Finding a quick fix
This is about:
Letting research drive the conversation
Individual perspective taking
Local driven solutions
Being intentional in system change
Focused system reform
Policy
Practice
Programs (with measurable outcomes)
U.S. Youth Demographics 2016
Youth in the U.S. ranging in ages 0-17
White 51%
Black 14%
American Indian & Alaskan Native 1%
Asian 5%
Hispanic or Latino 25%
Bi-racial 4%
Kids count data center
Commitments drop from
2003-2013
During this ten year period commitments to juvenile facilities fell by 47%.
Every state in the U.S. experienced a drop in commitment rates.
In 19 states, commitments dropped by more than half.
The racial disparities endemic to the JJS did not improve over the same ten year period.
The racial gap between black and white youth in secure commitment increased by 15%.
THE SENTENCING PROJECT APRIL 1, 2016 JOSHUA ROVNER
2003-2013
During this ten year period:
White youth were 56% of the youth
population, and their commitment rates
fell from 39% to 32%.
Black youth were 16% of the youth
population, and their commitment rates
grew from 38% to 40%.
THE SENTENCING PROJECT APRIL 1, 2016 JOSHUA ROVNER
According to researchers
involved in the Sentencing
Project, “the growth in
commitment disparities begins
with the growth in arrest
disparities”.
THE SENTENCING PROJECT APRIL 1, 2016 JOSHUA ROVNER
The intersection of child welfare and juvenile
justice
Childhood trauma and maltreatment
increases the chances of Juvenile Justice
involvement by 55%.
Childhood trauma increase the chances of
delinquency by 47% to 55% for any arrest.
A history of maltreatment increases the
likelihood that a youth will commit a violent
offense by 96%.
TAKEN FROM KIDS COUNT REPORT (2015)
Involvement in the child welfare system due to
abuse and neglect increase the chance that a
youth will enter the JJS at a younger age and
remain for longer periods of time.
Tough on crime policies can result in young
people being given developmentally
inappropriate sanctions, placing those with
dependency, neglect, and abuse histories at
greater disadvantage.
TAKEN FROM KIDS COUNT REPORT (2015)
Nationally
More than 800,000 children are in foster care
each year and about 508,000 on any given
day.
Black children represent about 32% in foster
care, while only 15% of all children.
Source: www.childrensdefense.org/campaigns/cradle-to-prison-pipeline/
The Penn Graduate School of Education
published a research piece on the
Disproportionate Impact of K-12 School
Suspension and Expulsion of Black Students in
Southern States.
Nationally 1.2 million black students were
suspended from K-12 in a single academic
year.
55% of those suspensions occurred in 13
Southern states (Kentucky was one of the 13).
On average, blacks were 24% of the students
in the 3,022 districts analyzed.
In 132 southern school districts, blacks were
disproportionately suspended at rates five
times or higher than their representation in the
student population.
In 84 districts, blacks were 100% of the students
suspended from public schools.
In Mississippi alone blacks were 74% of
suspensions from public schools.
In Kentucky blacks were 11% of the student
population, but they account for 26% of
suspensions and 13% of expulsions.
Research suggest that disproportionality in how
school discipline is carried out is a contributing
factor in the achievement gap.
Research also bares out a connection
between the suspension and expulsion of
black children to their ultimate involvement in
the juvenile justice system.
WHAT HINDERS THIS
CONVERSATION?
Avoidance
Motion without Movement
Politeness
Denial
Distractions
Defensiveness
The Blame Game
What is Implicit Bias?
Attitudes or stereotypes that affect our
understanding, actions, and decisions in an
unconscious manner.
They are activated involuntarily and without
an individual’s awareness or intentional
control.
Stereotypes: over generalizations that
connect group membership to specific
characteristics
Prejudice: belief that a stereotype or over
generalization is true
Discrimination: behavior in line with the
stereotype or prejudice; differential
treatment based on perceived group
membership
Stereotypes Behavior Stereotype
Prejudice
Discrimination
IMPLICIT BIAS Stereotype
Prejudice
Discrimination
Idea
Belief
Behavior
Idea
Behavior
They reside deep in the subconscious.
The implicit associations we harbor in our
subconscious cause us to have feelings and
attitudes about other people based on
characteristics such as race, ethnicity, age,
and appearance.
These associations develop over the course
of a lifetime beginning at a very early age
through exposure to direct and indirect
messages.
In addition to early life experiences, the
media and news programming are often-
cited origins of implicit associations.
Implicit Bias, are mental short cuts to judging
a person or to categorizing people.
These mental shortcuts create within us blind
spots that prevent us from seeing vital pieces
of a youth’s life experiences.
We must understand that our life
experiences are the lens through which
we perceive others.
Who you are determines the way you
see everything; in fact you cannot
separate your identity from your
perspective.
What we see is determined more by
what is in us, then by what is around us.
When are we most likely
influenced by our implicit
biases?
Stressful situations
Hard decisions need to be made
Vague or questionable information
Distractions
Suggested Solutions
Stereotype replacement (won’t happen without
contact or conversation)
Most people live within a construct of high-levels of
residential, relational, and social segregation
Counter stereotypical imaging
Perspective taking (seeing through their eyes)
Increasing opportunity for contact
Bias and stereotypes, positive or negative, are
maintained through persistent lack of contact and
interaction with others beyond ones in own group
Individualize perspective (each one is unique)
Avoid using demographic info to define all the people
in an area
Getting beyond our biases requires that
we increase our awareness of others
experiences and perspectives
When my bias are made apparent to
me, they can only be overcome by
intentionality and counter bias
responses.
Micro Aggresions
Offensive comments or actions
Derogatory or negative slights
They are brief.
They are commonplace.
They are verbal, behavioral, or
environmental.
They communicate hostile, derogatory
insults towards others.
Charged with same crime, Iowa paper shows
black suspects’ mug shots but whites get
yearbook pics
http://www.rawstory.com/2015/03/charged-with-same-crime-iowa-paper-shows-black-
suspects-mug-shots-but-whites-get-yearbook-pics/
The End
