Want to build a city that works for everyone? Start by looking inside.

We all want our communities to be safe landing places for all types of people. We know that diverse and inclusive communities attract new business and young talent. They’re hotspots of innovation. They’re more stable overall, as inclusion helps fuel growth initiatives in poor and disenfranchised areas of the community. And when all groups feel included, they are more likely to buy into improvement efforts and have a sense of ownership for helping them succeed.

So, what is holding us back from creating such communities? In many cases, it’s our biases.

Dr. Cedric Alexander, speaking at TEDx Yale.

Recently, Dr. Cedric Alexander, a former police administrator, a clinical psychologist, and an African-American man, spoke on the subject of biases and how they shape our lives. He created a compelling training video to help companies and organizations understand bias and how it impacts outcomes. My team recently went through the training and was blown away by what they learned about themselves. He also created a toolkit so each participant could do some deep work and get to the bottom of why they did some of the things they did. We all came out with a totally different perspective. I highly recommend this exercise for everyone. The first step on every journey is understanding.

Dr. Alexander also spoke at our CivicCon speaker series. (CivicCon brings together some of the nation’s top thinkers and experts to educate people on issues they need to know to lay the groundwork for positive change.) This time he spoke about police reform and social justice. When Dr. Alexander spoke at CivicCon, more than 15,000 people tuned into his presentation!

Clearly there’s a lot of interest in this subject, and people want to get better. They want to know what right looks like.

A big part of Dr. Alexander’s message centers on the difference between explicit and implicit biases. Explicit biases are attitudes and beliefs we have about a person or group on a conscious level. When we express these biases or act on them, we do so with intent. Most of us understand the dangers of explicit biases and know we must stamp them out when we see them. But we’re not quite as aware of our implicit biases and the harm they cause.

We are all wired with biases that make us afraid of things we are not familiar with, people we are not familiar with, and places we go that we are not familiar with. We may not even realize we have these biases. They are unconscious and may stem from how we were raised. Yet these implicit biases impact our decisions: who (and what) we vote for, who we partner with, who we hire, who we socialize with, and more.

Implicit biases damage people, relationships, and organizations. Even when we want to do the right thing, we don’t always know what “right” looks like. It often keeps us from giving people a chance. Without awareness of implicit bias, we may come off in a way that is not intended to be harmful or hurtful, but it does happen. Perhaps you’ve heard people talk about micro-aggressions. These subtle insults or denigrating messages are an example of implicit bias.

When we can understand what bias looks like, we can start resisting it in ourselves and helping those around us to do so as well. Dr. Alexander lays out some common biases:

• Affinity Bias: Refers to unconscious preference for people who share qualities with you or someone you like. It occurs because your brain sees them as familiar and relatable, and we all want to be around people we can relate to.

• Attribution Bias: Refers to how you perceive actions leading to success and failure. Attributing our own accomplishments to our skill and personality, and our failures to external factors—to hindrances that we believe are beyond our control. When someone else does something successfully, we’re more likely to consider them lucky or benefited by someone else, and more likely to attribute their errors to poor capabilities or personal qualities.

• Beauty Bias: When you unconsciously notice people’s appearance and associate it with their personality.

• Conformity Bias: Happens when your views are swayed too much by those of other people. It occurs because we all seek acceptance from others.

• Confirmation Bias: Refers to how people primarily search for bits of evidence that back up their opinions, rather than looking at the whole picture.

• Gender Bias: Simply a preference for one gender over the other. It often stems from our deep-seated beliefs about gender roles and stereotypes.

• Halo Effect: Occurs when focus is on one particularly great feature about a person. Viewing everything about the person in a positive “halo” light, which makes them seem like they’re more perfect than they are.

• Horns Effect: (the opposite of the halo effect) Occurs when focus is on one particularly negative feature about a person, which clouds your view of their other qualities.

A Few Countermeasures for Breaking Down Biases

Image via Unsplash.

Becoming aware of the biases is the first step. Once you start to notice them, you realize how prevalent they are. The second step is figuring out how to break them down. It’s about immersing yourself in different groups and cultures and really getting to know other people. While the following actions may seem small, if you do them consistently, you will start to see your biases break down:

1. Do a deep dive. Think of a time when you were biased and how it impacted the outcome of the situation. Get focused on it and hold yourself accountable.

2. Make connections with people who do not look like you.

3. Deliberately engage in a group or activity outside your norm.

4. Resist stereotypical thinking.

5. Seek counsel from people who are diverse or who may not necessarily think like you.

6. Slow down. Be mindful that biases may be at play; slow down, pause, and reflect. This gives you a chance to determine what you really know and keep you from acting on unconscious, implicit bias.

7. Be mindful of the content you consume and where, from whom, and how you receive your information (i.e., TV, news, social media, radio, etc.).

8. Call out unconscious bias when you see it. This feels uncomfortable at first, but it gets easier. In many cases, people do not realize how they were being received.

9. And above all: Continue training and discussion.

Creating more inclusive communities begins with the individual. We have a human responsibility to bring hidden biases out of the shadows so we can overcome them.

“When you want to change a community, you begin by changing your own behaviors.”

First, we change ourselves. When we do, others will see we’ve had a personal revival. I am reminded of a National Public Radio interview I heard in which Dallas Pastor Todd Wagner was talking about racial reconciliation. He said we wish for some big, sweeping revival to happen. But revival doesn’t happen “out there.” It happens in individuals. When you want to change a community, you begin by changing your own behaviors. This starts with recognizing and working on your bias.

Then, and only then, will we be able to influence others. Then, and only then, can we start bringing change to the groups and organizations we belong to. If everyone made the commitment to have a personal revival, we could stamp out discrimination organically, from the ground up. This is how we create a stronger, kinder, better world…one person at a time.

If you or your community would like to learn more about how to stop bias, please contact Nicole Webb Bodie at nwebb@studeri.org for more information about the training video from Dr. Alexander.  

Cover image of Memphis, Tennessee by Joshua J. Cotten on Unsplash

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