Unconscious Bias and Discrimination

 

I attended a really interesting session about unconscious bias this week. It really got me thinking about the way I view the world and how a lot of our perceptions come down to availability of information. 

We did an activity where we were asked to picture someone in a specific job role. Most people had the same image even though none of us know someone who works in that role.

It has come from what we have seen in the media. Films, TV programs etc. It's so interesting the impact the world has on us when we don't even realise it. 

There are so many assumptions, prejudices and stereotypes that we are all aware of that seem to have just been accepted. Jokes are made about them, conversations are steered in a specific direction because of something that people "think" is true information. 

One term that was mentioned in this session that I'd not heard before was benevolent discrimination. It was explained to us as the person saying it not realising it is discrimination because of an unspoken hierarchy of what is acceptable or normal. 

Society has changed so much over time that what was once masculine is now feminine such as the colour pink. We have so many items labelled as "for girls" or "for boys" but who made the decision of what was for who? 

Certain occupations are gendered on way or another. With it being this way that continues the cycle because it is seen as a job for that gender specifically so people who don't identify as that are often ridiculed for doing it. This means that it continues to be one gender who dominate that space. A couple of examples that jump to mind are that nurses are generally women and men are doctors so when men are seen in a hospital setting there is an assumption, they are doctors and if women are seen they are assumed to be nurses. Another is anything physical such as construction. It is male dominated so when women do that job they are seen as less capable and strong than their male counterparts. 

There are certain attributes that are seen as "normal" and the default. An example given in this session was about race. In society white is seen as the default and anyone who does not fall into that is grouped together as BAME. How can so many different backgrounds, race and ethnicities come under one title when they all have their own differences and experiences.

We discussed how you can be complicit in something by not responding to it or calling it out but that the difficulty that can arise from this is that you never actually realised what had been said or picked up on the undertone of a joke somebody had made and that can be perceived by other people that you agree when this may not be the case.

Discrimination comes in a lot of different forms about many aspects of someone’s identity and this can be impacted further when intersectionality plays a part. I will link a fantastic ted talk explaining intersectionality much better than I can but the basics of it are that people who experience discrimination can experience it for a combination of their identities as opposed to just one aspect. For example, a black woman and a white woman will experience situations differently even though they have the fact that they are women in common they will still be treated differently to one another.

We discussed the importance of the narrative you are given from the world. If you only ever watch TV shows made by white people showing different situations, how will you know what people from that culture think? How can you understand something if you have not heard it from the people who are experiencing it?

I was fortunate to attend a session last week about Dementia, a local University are creating a module regarding this topic, and they have worked closely with people living with Dementia to establish what they feel should be included. One of the people involved spoke at this event and talked about feeling that they are being listened to. That they are being treated as the human that they are not just the person who has Dementia.

It should be the same for any aspect of our identity. How can we discuss what should happen for a particular community or social group if we have not spoken to them and found out what they think? I can make assumptions of what people need based on my own experiences of working with people, but it is not the same as being in someone’s family or their shoes. What do they feel is missing and what do they want to see provided that isn’t already?

I was brought up in a way that accepts people that are different from me, and I am extremely grateful for that because I cannot imagine feeling the hate that some people do for people. I have not spent enough time learning about other people though and that is something I feel that I need to do more of. I saw something the other day on social media about how in Norway they have a library scheme where you check out a person and sit with them to learn their life story. I think this is an incredible idea because who better to tell the story of how something was than someone who was there?

https://youtu.be/akOe5-UsQ2o - Video on intersectionality.