CHAPTER 6
O
ne of the most challenging subjects to talk about when we consider race and racism is that most people think they are fair. Good people, they reason, do not wish to be unfair to Black or Brown people. In their opinion, their parents and teachers taught them not to be prejudiced, and although they sometimes hear racist phrases in the hallway or in movies or see racist actions on the news, they know that they are personally not racist. They have never used the N-word—at least not in a hurtful way, they think—and they have friends who are from Black and Brown families. In this chapter, we explore what the term bias means and how bias affects everyone. Sometimes bias helps us and sometimes it hurts us, but it influences us all.
The Meaning of Bias Many people think that the word bias is about prejudice. When we say that someone is biased against a Black or Brown person, for example, we are saying they are making a judgment about that person based on the color of his or her skin. But that doesn’t really get to the complete meaning of bias. In fact, bias is any conclusion we draw that depends inappropriately on some information and excludes other, more relevant information. If your school calculates your final grade with extra weight given to a final exam, then that calculation is biased toward the final. If the school weights calculation more heavily toward homework and class participation, then the grade is biased toward those factors. Bias, in other words, is not an accusation against you or anyone else—it’s just a fact. It’s like gravity—bias is always out there, so it’s best if we understand it. 53
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Talking About Bias: How Can I Be Biased When I’m Not a Racist?
