Unintended Natural Bias

Improved Essays
Unintended Natural Bias is the Root to Discrimination

Discrimination is a problem that plagues this country. Unintended natural biases are a social issue stemming from the ignorance of society that can develop into blatant racism. Everyday, we can see results of unintended bias. Whether it 's making sure the car is locked as an black man walks past it, or walking around the long way to avoid walking past a homeless person. Studies have came out which implicate that employers show bias in the hiring process as well. There is much that society can do to solve this issue, such as working together to further human knowledge.

Many people discriminate without even knowing it. I 'm sure everyone has seen someone clinch for their purse
…show more content…
An employer sits down to inspect a stack of resumes on her desk. She looks at the names; Paul, Emily, Lamar. According to Marianna Bertrand, an associate professor at the University of Chicago, the employer is more likely to pick a more white sounding name. Researchers created identical resumes, some with white names, some with black names, and sent them into employers. The white sounding names received up to 50 percent more calls back. This problem adds to the high unemployment rate for African Americans. Is there a reason to why employers do this? Employers may never know about their bias, or some would even say, discrimination. None the less, research proves that our bias is controlling everyday actions.

Bias can start form from many factors such as, education, location, and generation. However, it seems the most influential cause of bias is society. Even young children are told not to talk about skin color, or someone 's race, because it is offensive. This instills unasked questions in the child 's mind. Many of the education videos played in the schools I attended had racist remarks in them. While these videos are supposed to show a culture in time, they also expose us to racism at an
…show more content…
In an ABC news program, “What would you do?” they showed examples of blatant racism. The man behind the counter, who is an actor, is talking to a Muslim woman. He says, “We don 't serve your kind here!” and “You’re not an American” refusing to serve her. While some people stood up for the Muslim woman, many agreed with the actor. Unfortunately, this type of blatant racism is seen all across the country.. These thoughts and behaviours can developed based on who is around you, making said person’s bias worse.

If anyone is unsure if they have bias, they can take an Implicit Association Test. These tests, which can be taken online from https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/takeatest.html, can help people find if they have an unknown bias. There are many different types of bias tests that can be taken to show if a person has a preference to a race, an age group or many others.

The best way to fight unintended natural bias is through education. People can choose if we want to see each other differently or not. If society can learn that all humans are essentially the same, it can change discrimination as a whole. That is the best way to fight unintended bias. Knowing that it exists in everyday life, and furthering our knowledge about it. As John Roberts said, “The way to stop discrimination on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race.” It is up to us to stop

Related Documents

  • Improved Essays

    Biases are present in our everyday lives and they are everywhere. It was very easy to think of a situation in which I witnessed bias attitudes and saw how these attitudes had an effect on people’s lives (or animal lives). I am going to use the example of breed discrimination against the Pit Bull Terrier. Just about any situation involving the Pit Bull Terrier has been full of biases and assumptions. I have had Pit Bulls as pets my whole life; therefore, I am no stranger to these biases.…

    • 672 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Unconscious Bias Everyone has their biases whether it is about race, gender, class, education, or disability. This is how we view the people around us whether we notice it or not. My Experience Yassmin Abdel-Magied (2014), says that the surprised feeling one would get when they find out that a female muslim is a race car engineer is the product of unconscious bias. I am discouraged to say that when Yassmin was dressed in her head scarf and other Muslim attire, I too was surprised when she announced that she was a race car engineer and that she trained as a boxer for five years.…

    • 297 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In “What Does my Headscarf Mean to You,” Yassmin Abdel-Magied is speaking about unconscious biases. Which is when we, as humans, make assumptions about people based on their gender, skin color, appearance, and even age. Yassmin Abdel-Magied expresses that making these assumptions does not make us less of a person, it is natural. However, it does make one realize how ethnocentric we actually are. Although, when it begins to affect your occupation or career or even one’s existence in society, is when it starts becoming problematic.…

    • 481 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Essay On Implicit Bias

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages

    No matter what, everyone has an implicit bias. In our everyday lives, we make decisions based off of the biases that we have. Associations that are made between age, race, ethnicity, and more develop through the course of a lifetime. People are taught and learn to act a certain way around different groups. Starting as a young child people are primed to think a certain way about a social group.…

    • 604 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Examples Of Hidden Biases

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Hidden Biases Presidents I chose to do the implicit-association test over the section called Presidents. In this section you are given two Presidents which is Donald Trump and whoever else they choose. Franklin Roosevelt was the President that they chose to put against Donald Trump for my test. They make you do multiple task of you associating good, bad, Donald Trump and for mine, Franklin Roosevelt.…

    • 236 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Decent Essays

    Discrimination still exists in the worldwide society today. Although multiple examples of racism and discrimination to minority's go on in our society today, the world has come a long way to get simple equality. Leaders upon leaders have fought and led thousands of people to bring fairness between different social groups or categories. But still bigotry and prejudice exists today.…

    • 226 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Superior Essays

    A large amount of controversy can be found in the world of law enforcement and their actions in diverse communities. Many people assume police officers act differently depending on who they are working with. Over the past few years especially, numerous cases have been brought to the public’s attention and this is now more of an issue than ever before. It will continue to be a problem as more minorities live in the United States and as law enforcement will always uphold a large societal role. The question here becomes “Are police community relations different between minorities and non-minorities?”…

    • 2601 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Institutional discrimination – “Beliefs and practices that are embedded in the law, in social and economic systems, and in governmental or organizational policy cause harm to members of certain groups” (Garthwait, 2014, p.127). Unintentional discrimination – “Which is usually understood as behavior rooted in denial of one’s own racism or stereotypical thinking. In this case, denial of our own biases gets in the way of an honest self-assessment and may keep us from seeing our own limitations” (Garthwait, 2014, p.127).…

    • 1430 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In America today, people suffer from institutional discrimination which is a form of discrimination against a group of people. In our society, the three most common types of discrimination are religious discrimination, ethnic discrimination, and racial discrimination. The difference between interpersonal and institutional discrimination is that interpersonal discrimination refers to intolerant interactions between individuals, while institutional discrimination refers to inequity between a society and a mistreated group of people. Unfortunately, in the last ten years bigotry still exists because fearful and unjust people still put others down because of their differences. The underlying cause of this is that people are insecure about themselves…

    • 1161 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Societies view on prejudice has become a major role in news outlets. Everyday there are new videos on Facebook and other social media discussing the ongoing discrimination called ‘black lives matter’. Americans are continuously surrounded by racist remarks like the following: blondes have more fun, temper like a ginger, illegal as a Mexican, smart as an Asian, or trailer trash. Most racist remarks are hurtful to others, but even a preconception such as ‘all Asians are smart’ can be hurtful towards others; if everyone assumes that Asians are all geniuses, how will that make the boy or girl who struggles through school feel? When did the majority of the population let their words become hurtful to others?…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    In a New York Times article titled “Take Some of the Pressure Off Black Employees”, Devon Carbado, professor of law at the University of California, Los Angeles, mentions how “Black applicants ‘whiten’ their resumes by, for example, going by their first initials or omitting references to alma matters and membership in racially specific organizations” (Carbado). The fact that individuals are going by an initial instead of their full names is simply ridiculous. Individuals are being forced to change who they are in order to get a job. It’s not their fault that they have these names. It’s not like they chose to be named these names.…

    • 1018 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Stereotypes, prejudice, and discrimination has been a core topic in social psychological research in an attempt to understand the origins of biases and impact on groups and individuals (Dagner & Dalege, 2013). The terms prejudice, discrimination, and stereotype, are often used mutually in daily dialogue. Stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination are biases that contribute to the creation of social inequality in the society (Fiske, 2008). Most often people are biased against other individuals outside of their social connection, displaying stereotypical behaviors, showing prejudice and discrimination. Formerly, individuals are more explicit with their biases, however during the 20th century, it has become less socially acceptable to exhibit bias, prejudice, and…

    • 702 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    To begin, I want to say I find this course insightful. Through the weeks, I have come to accept that everyone has unconscious bias, but also, that it is not something to be ashamed of, if anything, it is something to learn from. Before this class, I was not sure how to articulate my experiences on cultural differences. Also, I did not have a good grasp on culture and how it affects us all differently. I have learned to recognize that I have my own ethnocentrism, that it is okay to feel proud of my own culture in the sense that, maybe there are other ways to do things, but I like my way better because that is the way I am accustomed to.…

    • 807 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    However, naturally everyone has their own biases and anyone who tells you they do not have any is not being truthful. There is importance in become aware of the things you have biases about so that you can actively work on changing them and not letting them be a part of your thought process when meeting someone new of a different race or…

    • 1639 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    We sometimes cannot control our reaction of our prejudices because we do not even realize that we have them. It is hard to aware how or when we biased others. The biases or prejudice is selected on race, culture, backgrounds, religion, ability, gender, sexual orientation or other identity factors. We all need to recognize and understand stereotypes and biases. Educators can implement teaching tolerance in their classroom to teach and guide children develop the skills to speak up for themselves and others against biased.…

    • 739 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays