Its time that we step up IACP October 26, 2019 1 There are many - - PDF document

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It’s time that we step up

IACP October 26, 2019 Interlocking lessons

• There are many types of bias that matter
• We must look courageously at racial bias,

since we tend to avoid honest grappling with it

• We must also look beyond racial bias
• The lessons from racial bias can help us see

dynamics around other biases more clearly – and vice versa.

Conversations about bias

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Our Predicament

• In the 1960s, we defined being racially bias as moral capital crime.
• We equated: widespread animus by whites, systemic disadvantage

against POCs, and subtle bias by everyone

• We now have a better understanding about unconscious bias.
• Racism – being extremely tricky, has developed denial mechanisms to

keep itself invisible

The Challenge

• How do we step up as advocates for more compassion when the

people’s deficits of compassion is hidden to them?

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Who’s in the Room? Audience polling allows us to know who came to a meeting Press the button for signifying your choice(s) If you make a mistake, press again For the first question, point device at the computer The first question is a warm‐up question.

Do you have any tattoos?

• 1. NO! You do not put bumper stickers on a Bentley.
• 2. No, but I have considered it.
• 3. Yes, but only those close to me can see it.
• 4. Yes, and its visible to most folks.
• 5. Have you seen my sleeve?

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How many times have you traveled around the sun?

• 1. 35 or fewer
• 2. 36 to 60
• 3. 61 or better

How many IACP annual meetings have you attended?

• 1. My first one!
• 2. 2 – 5
• 3. 6 – 12
• 4. 13 or more

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Which what gender do you identify?

• 1. Female
• 2. Male
• 3. Non‐gender conforming/non‐binary

Which of these best describes you?

• 1. LGBTQ+
• 2. Non‐LGBTQ+

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Which of these best describes your ethnic identity?

• 1. Person of color
• 2. White person

Where do you live most of the time?

• 1. Eastern US
• 2. Southern US
• 3. Midwest US
• 4. Western US
• 5. Canada
• 6. Other Western Hemisphere
• 7. Non‐western hemisphere
• 8. Citizen of galaxy; earthling is part of my disguise

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Which of these best describes your political ideology most of the time?

• 1. Hard left
• 2. Left
• 3. Left leaning
• 4. Right leaning
• 5. Right
• 6. Hard right
• 7. Left on some issues, right on some issues.

I have a bias against folks on the opposite side

• f the liberal/conservative divide
• 1. Strongly agree
• 2. Agree
• 3. Slightly agree
• 4. Slightly disagree
• 5. Disagee
• 6. Strongly disagree

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The next two questions are included because at least one board member wanted this asked

• Furthermore, it will be interesting to know the answer

How many cases do you do per year that reflect, generally speaking, collaborative practice?

• 1. 3 if I am lucky
• 2. 4 – 7
• 3. 8 – 15
• 4. 16 to 30
• 5. More than 30

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Which collaborative model is most prevalent in your community?

• 1. 1 coach model
• 2. 2 coach model
• 3. Flexible model, based on client needs
• 4. Attorney only

The next question is a factual question based

• n polling data

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What portion of White americans think that racism against white people is just as important of a national problem as racism against whites?

• 1. 15
• 2. 25
• 3. 35
• 4. 45
• 5. 55
• 6. 65
• 7. 75

The Ally Skeptic Continuum

Ally Accomplice Activist Skeptic Resistor Resenter

The Ally‐ Skeptic Continuum

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Unconscious Bias

• Misunderstanding about this is the biggest impediment to racial

progress

• Understanding UB helps subvert the idea that racism is about

conscious racial animus

• Being a little fluent about this and talking about it to racism skeptics is

a key capacity for allies trying to make a difference

Priming and unconscious bias

• To be most persuasive about bias, you need to be able to discuss
• Two examples of priming studies not related to groups
• Two examples of priming studies related to unconscious bias
• Your results of the Implicit Association Test (www.projectimplicit.com)
• YOUR OWN EXAMPLE of moment when your behavior

was influenced by bias.

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How to scaffold your points about unconscious bias

• 1. I learned some information that taught me that our brains can be primed

in ways that influence us and we are not aware of it.

• 2. I then learned that this can happen in ways that affect how people treat

each other – including mistreating their own group.

• 3. I realized that sometimes, like all people, my thoughts have been

affected by people’s identity in ways that I am not proud of. You?

• 4. Knowing this makes me think anew when people claim they are victims
• f racism, and when they claim to be untouched by it.

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PR PROJECT IM IMPLIC ICIT IT: Implicit Association Test (www.projectimplicit.com)

About 35% of blacks preferred whites on the IAT About 70% of whites preferred whites on the IAT

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Black children are seen as older – by both citizens and police

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Experiments showing racial bias

Doctors Painkillers for broken femur Decisions about heart procedures Teachers Descriptions of problematic behavior Job brokers white applicants with incarceration do better than blacks without

Books that might help

• Thinking Fast and Slow – Daniel Kaneman
• Blind Spot – Benaji and Greenwald
• The Invisible Influence – Jonah Berger
• Biased – Jennifer Eberhardt

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Best practices for Debiasing

• Regularly think about the potential of your own bias
• Look at bias as something that every human with a brain is subject to
• Normalize talking about it within teams
• Re‐examine how procedures might build bias in inadvertently

Critical Point for those wanting to step up

• The core challenges are to:
• separate bias from animus
• separate bias from conscious intention
• Own up to the way that bias affects/has affected you
• Don’t bring too much judgement to others whose bias you see – show

compassion

• Note: this view of behavior invites the person to a more complex perspective.

They may not like that. It’s OK to admit that the complexity is a headache

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Dysfunctions in our conversation about racial bias – that we must subvert

Racist/non‐racist binary

• You can do a racist thing and not be a “racist”
• You can be a “racist” and still be a generally good person
• We started talking about racist actions, and not racist people?

The collusion of silence We refuse to concede that there has been progress Lack of compassion for “racists” – (whom does your boycott help?) Hypercriticality to other allies

Since IACP is a group based on compassion…..

IACP might be uniquely positioned to show other white folks a better way forward Can IACP help disrupt the many dysfunctions within the white ally community We must dig deeper into our compassion toolkit

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Maybe anonymous polling may help us step up a little

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• 1. I can’t think of a time
• 2. Once or twice
• 3. A few
• 4. Several
• 5. A lot of examples

How many examples can you think of where you noticed yourself having thoughts that reflected you having thoughts that reflected unconscious bias – even if you only had them very briefly?

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• 1. I can’t think of a time
• 2. Once or twice
• 3. A few times
• 4. I do this now and then
• 5. I do this with some frequency

How many times have you talked to someone you think of as an anti‐ racism ally about a situation where you experienced biased thoughts?

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• 1. I can’t think of a time
• 2. Once or twice
• 3. A few times
• 4. I do this now and then
• 5. I do this with some frequency

How many times have you talked to a racism skeptic about a situation where you experienced biased thoughts?

How many times have you admitted to being subject to bias against a group in the context of a collaborative team meeting?

• 1. Never
• 2. Once or twice
• 3. A few times
• 4. Several times
• 5. Many times

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A model of stepping up?

• Develop the ability to tell your own unconscious bias story
• In the context of family work, there are risks and benefits of

discussing biases with clients. Still, an aspiring superhero might start practicing by telling other allies

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Some options for changing the culture of collaborative work around bias

• Talking about bias is something that happens in every training
• Talking about bias is considered a best practice in practice groups
• Reflecting on bias is promoted as a best practice within debriefs
• You can bring up the issue of bias in collaborative settings

Stepping up means fixing problems within the anti‐racism movement

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If we step up our game, we need to consider:

• Prophetic voice v. coaching voice
• Need to learn code switching
• Is there too much calling out and performative wokeness – it keeps

people from admitting to their own shortcomings

• We need to hold ourselves accountable on some new dimensions
• How many skeptics did you effectively engage since we last met?

We must own up to the empathy gaps in the anti‐racism movement

• We are motivated by our knowledge that some folks don’t have equal

empathy for people of color

• It turns out that in order to increase people’s empathy to others, we must

show empathy to them.

• We are often very poor at this – even if these are people we are already

connected to.

• We violate folks dignity all of the time

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• It is somewhat understandable that we want to fight people.
• Mobilizing fighting spirit is emerging. It makes us feel alive.
• Arguably, turning people into other that we must oppose is a main

driver of human progress

• But when it comes to persuasion, we must tap into a different energy
• Is this a purity problem?
• Is this a perfectionism problem?
• Is this an aspect white supremacy?
• Whatever it is, it is not helping

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The undiscussables in white public opinion

• Perceptions of black laziness – 23%
• Blacks prone toward violence – 33%
• Perceptions of black intellectual inferiority 22%
• Less evolved – 38%
• White grievance – many whites become more conservative when reminded
• f demographic changes

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White Grievance

• Having a majority white nation in 2050 would “weaken

American customs and values”

• Blacks – 18%
• Hispanics – 25%
• Whites – 46%

The feelings that whites are losing ground to POCs is strongly predictive of support from President Trump.

Which of these undiscussables have you found yourself thinking now and then? (choose 1 or 2)

1.

The coming demographic shift sometimes bugs me a little

2.

Maybe some POC groups really are intellectually inferior

3.

I wonder whether some POCs are more prone to violence/criminality

4.

Blacks/POCs are less industrious than other groups

5.

The loudness/energy level of some POC groups makes me feel uncomfortable sometimes.

6.

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As we grow in our superhero role, we can think about taking on the deeper undiscussables

• Are your undiscussable thoughts a key to your superpower?
• A key to your superpower will be deepening your compassion for

racism skeptics ‐ this is what civil rights warriors had to do

The next questions explore the diversity in how folks here do the work

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In what portion of your collaborative debriefs have surfaced the issue of bias?

• 1. Less than 25%
• 2. 25% to 50%
• 3. 51% to 75%
• 4. 76% to 100%

Whose biases tend to be most unrecognized with respect to how much they effect the collaborative setting?

• 1. Bias in the minds of clients
• 2. Bias in the minds of legal professionals
• 3. Bias in the minds of mental health professions
• 4. Bias in the minds of financial professionals
• 5. Someone else’s bias
• 6. I don’t think bias plays a notable role in these settings

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What percentage of times has the issue of bias been brought up in case debriefs?

• 1. Less than 20%
• 2. 21% ‐ 40%
• 3. 41% ‐ 60%
• 4. 61% ‐ 80%
• 5. 81% or more

Lessons on Effectiveness

• Allyconversationtoolkit.com
• Whiteallytoolkit.com

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There is a legacy of stepping up to build on

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It is time for all of us to step up

Contact info: www.thedialoguecompany.com @thedialogueguy (twitter and Instagram) @whiteallytoolkit (facebook)

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