Am I being guilty of unconscious bias?

The fact that people think there is a "black people" is in itself deeply wrong.

What do "white people" want ?

• Celebrating Black History month is a great thing to do

• Putting black people and white people in different spaces at work as part of it is daft and I would find it offensive. It is bizarre that HR/your company went for something like this...

I am disabled, if my workplace told me that they would suddenly put me front of house for a day to show how disability-friendly they are I would feel used and that it was a gimmick to tick a diversity box, instead I expect them to support disabled employees all year long!

Funny that people never trot out this line when Jewish people say something is anti-Semitic.

I don’t agree with it anyway. If it’s just not arguing with a black person who feels something is racist maybe that’s one thing. If it’s ‘all company policy has to cater to employees’ subjective opinions of what is racist’, to me that’s irrational and no different from ‘a woman is anyone who says they are a woman’.

Isn’t this what the widely used term “lived experience” is?

Also, I am mixed race myself. Does that now allow me to hold my opinion of ‘unconscious bias’ being a load of crap?

Grow up

What they did is probably illegal. You are not allowed to segregate people by race!

Black faces being a minority is inevitable because black people are 3.7% of the UK population. It's reality, not racism.

Hi I'm mixed race. The whole keep every black face in one section for the day smacks of company wanting photo opportunities tbh!

The difference a lot of white people can't understand is there's so much pain in history that makes it hard to move past to all be hand in hand singing songs round a campfire, people will always be different.

This!

Grow up.

I do support and agree with Black History Month. It is educational and surely that is always a good thing?

Racism is still a huge problem and I have witnessed firsthand hostile comments and slights being made to an older woman of colour (in my own family). I look quite different so people tend to assume that we aren’t ‘together’ - then they are completely astonished when I call them out.

I also think that diversity of the photos used in marketing materials etc can make a positive difference, but it doesn’t ring true if the rest of the organisation doesn’t actually reflect that diversity. See the National Trust brochure for a prime example of this!

I have seen this sort of thing in say the airline industry whereby they highlight that a particular flight is totally staffed by black people (or women)

But these are all people doing those jobs who are rotated into one flight (by accident or design) who all do those jobs. Not just putting someone into the pilots chair for the day.

I'd not really spot it as a thing in my local bank unless it was specifically pointed out.

Channel 4 did a day of black faces recently-presenters and actors in shows (I think holly oaks etc did special episodes) and all the adverts. But again you probably wouldn't have actually spotted anything different unless you read some pr in advance (or wondered why Phil and Kirsty had changed)

OP try thinking about as a way of balancing out that there are celebrations of Irish people and culture on St Patrick's Day, English on St George's day etc...

Or compare it to how Pride events are important for visibility and wider social acceptance of LGBQTIA+ culture 🏳️‍🌈

And allow the celebrations and have fun!

I love this visual representation/ use it a lot! 😊

The moral being, never posit a different point of view to people who can't handle it. it's just unkind, as the only response they can make is that anyone who disagrees with them is an idiot.

I don’t think you understand ‘unconscious bias’ at all…
equality doesn’t exist, and until it does, events like this are needed
Personally, as someone who is white, I don’t think that it’s up to me to say what is and isn’t racist.

OP look at what happened when Evergreen College told all the white people to stay home, and one white man said 'no, this is my work place and I go to work on days I work so I'm coming to work'. Absolutely batshittery. Utter crazy woke nuttery. Benjamin Boyce documented the whole thing.

"All this stuff".

You're talking about people's lived experiences.

I think you need to examine your whole approach tbh.

Bias, unconscious or otherwise, is everywhere, and relates to everyone.
Try going somewhere with a person who's younger or more attractive than you and you'll see it. Is it worse to be biased on racial grounds? I don't think so.s

It's a way of making people who are behaving in a different way due to someone's ethnicity or race think about what they are doing.

From the point of view of the person being treated differently it doesn't matter whether it was due to racism or unconscious bias.

I don’t like the term unconscious bias. It’s a way of calling people racist who aren’t racist.

I both agree and disagree with you here. I wouldn’t say “very few” - there is a large Caribbean population here and it’s very much part of our history. However it’s equally a part of British history and therefore should be covered as such outside of any black “celebrations”. Like you say, not something we need to be reminded about constantly as if that’s the only thing we’re known for. When our trauma is the only thing discussed or given attention to during BHM, it’s insulting.