Racial and ethnic biases relate to our perceptions of ourselves or others. Everyone has biases. Not every bias is negative or hurtful. However, failing to recognize our biases can lead to unfortunate missteps at work and in our personal relationships.

Facing and exploring our biases can make us uncomfortable, but it helps increase our understanding of ourselves and others. Facing our biases helps us avoid clumping people together according to race, religion, national origin, or other labels. It helps us broaden our world by cultivating a heart that embraces diversity.

Below are some suggestions for discerning our own biases.

  1. Biases can produce a visceral response that prevents us from seeing deeper into the immediate situation. Try to become aware of such responses in yourself and to understand their origin. Work toward recognizing these conditioned responses when they occur and cultivate the ability to see beyond them into what actually is happening at that moment and in that situation.
  2. Pay attention to your reactions, feelings, and thoughts when you encounter a person from a particular racial or ethnic group. Ask yourself what you feel. Why do you feel that way? Do specific events or incidents come to mind?
  3. Take some quiet time to reflect on your life and assemble a list of reflective questions such as: Looking back over my life, starting with early childhood, what can I remember about becoming aware of racial and ethnic prejudice? To what extent has my awareness of prejudice in society come from family members? From friends? From playmates? From societal norms? From a work environment? Have I ever observed racial discrimination in church? How strongly has the presence of pervasive racial and ethnic bias influenced me? Has my formal education shaped my attitudes toward ethnic and racial groups in any way? To what extent has possible racial prejudice within me resulted from specific personal experiences or public incidents? How have I responded to racial jokes? Has racial language in stories, games, songs, movies, or theater affected the development of my feelings toward any other group?  How has my life experience influenced my feelings and treatment of people in these other groups? In what ways have these factors accumulated over time and affected my comfort level with members of different races and ethnic groups and the manner in which I interact with them?
  4. Consider your current life situation and to what extent you interact with people of different ethnic and racial backgrounds. Ask yourself to what extent do I have neighbors, friends, and colleagues from another group with whom I relate on a continuing basis as equals? Do I see value in racial and ethnic diversity? Have I evolved, am I evolving in my feelings toward these other groups, and if so, in what ways?
  5. The following link provides a concise summary about stereotypes, prejudices, and associated terminology and offers a self-administered test to help identify possible biases.[1] https://www.learningforjustice.org/professional-development/test-yourself-for-hidden-bias

There are some things within us that are so far beneath the surface of our movement and our functioning that we are unmindful not only of their presence but also of the quality of their influence in our decisions, our judgment, and our behavior. In the quietness we will their exposure before God, that they may be lifted to the center of our focus, that we may know what they are and seek to deal with them in keeping with our health and our inmost wisdom.

                                                                 Howard Thurman, For the Inward Journey, pp. 5, 6

[1]The Implicit Association Tests (IAT) have been developed by psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington. The noted web link provides more information on stereotypes, prejudices, and biases and provides a number of self-administered test opportunities to observe potential biases toward different social groups.

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