The first step to ending racism is acknowledging that most of us harbor “implicit bias,” whether we realize it or not
By Tim Donovan / AlterNet
As Americans, we like to think of ourselves as a forgiving people. We’ve enshrined the assumption of innocence in our legal code; we take pride in giving second chances to those who misstep. And when it comes to questions of bias, we follow a similar script. In American life, no one is presumed racist without cause.
People generally become racists in our minds by engaging in actions or deeds we’ve deemed as such (paging Steve Scalise). But what if that perception is inherently wrong? What if Americans — of all races, but especially white Americans — don’t deserve the benefit of our doubt?
It’s an admittedly uncomfortable question, as it puts all of us — me as I write this, you reading it, our friends, our relatives, our colleagues — under a type of scrutiny to which we’re unaccustomed. But a growing body of research suggests that this idea holds merit: Implicit racial bias undergirds our culture’s relationship with race, even as explicit displays are increasingly uncommon. [Read more…]