Am I being guilty of unconscious bias?

[Normalguy22]

I see this a phase a lot in the media lately.

recently at my work we had a event for black history month. They basically said only black people can work in a certain public facing area on a set day. All white faces were excluded to another area.

They made a big fuss about it around diversity and celebrating black culture etc. Balloons, cake,flags etc etc

Now to me this seems to just reinforces stereotypes and division, surely it we shouldn’t highlight a group people by race, gender etc. I love working with all types of cultures and genders and believe we should all just stop talking about “differences” and get along.

Am I being guilty of unconscious bias or worse racism by seeing these events and racist and causing division?

CheeryUser
That’s ridiculous! Separating colleagues by the day based on race. Have they thought this all the way through?!

There is a black police officers organisation ...

@SerendipityJane one would imagine that was set up by BPOs.

one would imagine that was set up by BPOs.

So separating by race is sometimes OK then ? Surely that in and of itself is then racist ?

It's a cruel twist of genetics - almost enough to make you wonder if it was planned by some intelligent being - that the most trivial genes in the human genome are the ones which affect the most obvious traits. It's hard not to feel like it['s all a cosmic test for this species.

If it is, we are failing miserably.

@SerendipityJane it's completely fine for a group of people to organise to do something themselves yes.

I think having it imposed on you, due to your "race" is highly questionable. And in this context sounds in appropriate.

But then we don't know how it happened.

Totally agree @Hencewy

So officers forming a "white police officers association" is fine ?

I think the point is they already have one! @SerendipityJane

@SerendipityJane why do you feel the need to be so disingenuous I wonder?

One persons disingenuous is another persons cut and thrust of debate, surely ?

The topics of culture and race are entirely human constructs. Trying to rationalise them is therefore impossible. The best you can do is achieve some sort of loose temporary consensus that doesn't threaten the existence of the species.

If they wanted one why not? There are womens networks, men's MH networks, carers networks, disability networks- do people get aggrieved by those? It's different to have a group that's presumably voluntary to join which discuss issues and offer support to a group of people than shows of whatever happened at OPs workplace.

I guess if the company really wanted to make a point they could send all the white folks home without pay for the day.

As has been pointed out it's not unconscious bias on this occasion, just naivety and disregarding of other's experiences.

Having said that most people do hold unconscious biases, including minorities. For example I am a woman but I most likely hold unconscious biases which are sexist against women because I've been born and raised in our society which is sexist towards women. So I have to actively notice and check myself which means being aware of those biases in the first place.

If you actually want to educate yourself you can look into it and take the Harvard tests- you might be surprised by the results. implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/selectatouchtest.html

Your comments that "all this stuff is so confusing" and "everyone should just get along" are extremely naive at best, and these remarks come from an incredibly privileged and cocooned existence. This disregards the whole history and reality of racism and the experiences of Black people and puts your own need for comfort first.

Look up White Fragility and educate yourself OP.

Having said that most people do hold unconscious biases, including minorities.

All species - h. Sapiens included - devote quite a bit of resources into the concept of "us" and "them". Starting with birds that have accents and dogs that smell. Presumably it takes an equal amount of resources to counter that ?

I doubt being told to educate yourself really ever achieves anything apart from entrenching views.

It's a gravy train for educators ....

I just don’t get it. The fact is that the majority of people in the UK are white, and the non-white population is a minority. If I were in a group or at an event where only minorities were allowed to join, I would actually feel more excluded from society—the real world. I don't mean events like sports event. That's different.

Have you done the black and white task on that link you have said? It leads you to a task where first you have to click on whether someone is “ black “ or “white” according to a picture ( with no option for “don’t know” ),takes you through a series of tasks that you have to classify certain words as good or bad ( again, no option to click on a neutral option, i personally think anger and sadness are both positive and negative emotions but if I click on “ good” I am told this is wrong) and you end up having to click on something that says bad people = bad and white people = good and it won’t let you proceed and gives you an X unless you click on that you agree that bad = black? How does this show how biased someone is unless someone is out and out holding extreme views? I really don’t understand how this shows implicit or unconscious bias?

This, 100%.

But what if you felt discriminated or excluded from things because of your minority status? Is it not possible that you might welcome being able to share your experiences with other people that might feel the same and truly understand the struggles you face?

Is it really that different to the purpose of a mums and toddler club, or going to a church, or joining an online community relating to a hobby/interest/disability/health issue? It's so people can share similar experiences and relate to/support one another.

I also think you're misunderstanding the issue about majority vs. minority. It is a fact that white people are the majority in the UK, and there's not a problem with that in itself. The issue comes when, taking into account their % makeup of the overall population, minority groups are then underrepresented in some areas (e.g. positions of power, higher earning brackets) and overrepresented in other areas (e.g. low income brackets, adverse outcomes from maternal healthcare). We need to use these statistics to help us see why some groups of society don't seem to be thriving at the same rate as the majority groups and then see what we can do to change that.

I guess it had an impact on you, so in that regard, I guess it was successful. I'm not sure if you've got the right takeaway from it though.

If it made you think "this isn't nice, I need to look more closely at examples of this happening in society and call things out", then great, but you seem to have come away thinking "this isn't nice, I like it the other way better, where I'm not the one feeling excluded."

Unhelpful. Women, of every ethnicity, are routinely discriminated against in this country in terms of pay, opportunity, healthcare etc compared to men. It’s not about just you.

I think this is the problem with these initiatives tbh. Why would you assume all black people have experiences of apartheid and slavery to demonstrate to other races? Or even give a shit? Because ‘they’ are supposed to or something? I just think after sitting with the notion for a while, I don’t see how anyone assuming things about a racial grouping isn’t some sort of bias. I just want to take people how I find them and not read books by covers. I know if all women were to be the face of the business for a day, and the men put in the back office, I’d feel like bosses couldn’t see my merit, only my tokenism for whatever kudos they are hoping to get clapped for. No thanks, this worker bee likes to not be noticed for race, sex, nationality, political leanings, or eye colour, just quality output. I think OP is trying very hard to be a good and fair person and am not surprised she’s a bit confused.

@IWouldRatherBeOnHoliday toddler group and going to the church.. it's nothing to do with discrimination. The event is organised by employee in an organisation and the eligibility to join the event mentioned in the post, is certain colour of skin. I don't think this kind of event is allowed to be held in the company I'm working for.

"Am I being guilty of unconscious bias or worse racism by seeing these events and racist and causing division?"

Yes.

I think this kind of thing is actually really nasty. If the aim is to help white people understand how it feels to be othered, firstly why make assumptions about what they do or don’t understand? If you are a working class person or a gypsy or an Eastern European or a Jewish person, you might be ‘white’ but you will already understand what it is to be othered.

Tbh it looks like patronising woke-washing.

I agree with this, and it saved me finding that image myself!