Make It Make Sense: Unconscious Bias
Let's start with a warm-up by using our favourite sitcom husband from Parks and Recreation.
Consider how Ben Wyatt is, by all signs, a feminist. Ben understands the concept of sexism; he knows it is wrong, and he knows he has unearned privilege as a man and works to challenge himself to know better and do better.
Yet even Ben could do or say something that was sexist AF.
Now, because Ben regularly practices dismantling his unconscious and conscious patriarchal beliefs and works to strengthen his understanding of gender equity, he is less likely to say something sexist, but there is still a chance he could.
As a straight, white, cis-man, with a university education, Ben has a lot of privilege, and he knows that.
Ben works to understand how he can use his privilege to show up in solidarity - not only for his wife, Leslie Knope, whom he knows and loves but for all women and gender-diverse folks.
He practices his anti-sexism work by voting in solidarity; speaking up (even in settings where women aren't there) and pointing out sexism; protesting for reproduction rights; and constantly challenging and unlearning traditional gender norms.
While Ben's journey hasn't been perfect, he is committed to this work over time and is open to hearing feedback, which helps him get better and better at checking his known/ unknown biases to ensure he doesn't accidentally act on
them and cause harm.
Now, consider how prominent sexism is in our world, even now, after all this progress to rectify past wrongs.
All women* have, knowingly or unknowingly, experienced sexism.
Most women can easily think of a scenario where a man who says he believes in gender equality has either knowingly/unknowingly done something sexist.
Women also come across men (bosses, guys at bars, friends of friends, men wearing "future is female shirts," men who condemn Andrew Tate, men who seemingly unsubscribe from toxic masculinity) who seem like they aren't sexist, but then they say something sexist...
...and, tbh, then it doesn't really matter what his intent was because the impact of his actions was still sexist.
*women & gender diverse folks.
Sexism is unacceptable, and we know most of us truly believe that, and yet...
Most women understand that sexism isn't over just because women can vote, or have jobs because we know that sexism persists in personal, community and system levels.
Which tracks, considering we know how rooted in patriarchal* values our society was and is, which makes us all complicit in sexism.
Now, people who more regularly practice dismantling their unconscious and conscious patriarchal beliefs and strengthen their understanding of gender equity are less likely to be sexist but that doesn't mean they never will,
Other values deeply embedded in our society? Ableism, Classism, Homophobia, Transphobia, and, you guessed it, Racism.
We all have work to do to be anti-sexist
Most women would agree that all men, regardless of whether they openly identify as a feminist or not, need to work on dismantling their deeply rooted patriarchal beliefs.
Most women who haven't checked their own unconscious and conscious patriarchal biases are often guilty of being sexist to other women, and even to themselves via internalized misogyny.
Which is why we all need to do the work.
Do you know if you went to the last couple slides of this post, and replaced...
… it would still be accurate
Now, consider how prominent racism is in our world, even now, after all this progress to rectify past wrongs.
All BIPOC have, knowingly or unknowingly, experience racism.
Most BIPOC can easily think of a scenario where white people who say they believe in racial equality have either knowingly/unknowingly done something racist.
BIPOC also come across white people (bosses, people at bars, friends of friends, white people wearing "Black Lives Matter," shirts, white people who condemn the KKK, white people who seemingly unsubscribe from white supremacy) who seem like they aren't racist, but then they say something racist...
...and, tbh, then it doesn't really matter what their intent was because the impact of their actions was still racist.
Racism is unacceptable, and we know most of us truly believe that, and yet...
Most BIPOC understand that racism isn't over just because BIPOC can vote, or have jobs because we know that racism persists in personal, community and system levels.
Which tracks, considering we know how rooted in white supremacy values our society was and is, which makes us all complicit in racism.
Now, people who more regularly practice dismantling their unconscious and conscious racist beliefs and strengthen
their understanding of anti-racism are less likely to be racist but that doesn't mean they never will.
We all have work to do to be anti-racist
Most BIPOC would agree that all white people, regardless of whether they openly identify as "not racist", need to work on dismantling their deeply rooted white supremacy beliefs.
Most BIPOC who haven't checked their own unconscious and conscious racist biases are often guilty of being racist to other BIPOC, and even to themselves via internalized racism.
Which is why we all need to commit to doing the work, and become less worried about being called sexist or racist, and more concerned about ensuring our unknown biases, which are a product of society, don't enable us to cause harm because they went unchecked.
