YKK Speech

I still remember walking into first-hour chemistry for my first Academy class ever. I was trembling, sweaty, nervous. I tried to look at everybody at the same time while saying hi. It sounded something like this. But there are times when I wonder what everyone else was thinking. Maybe people identified me as stereotypically Asian - possibly an awkward, shy nerd, at least someone who takes the tiniest change to that grade point average way too seriously. Would my face affect how people interacted with me? Human brains are wired to evaluate, and when they know nothing other than physical appearances and a single scene, they’ll still form an initial impression. But initial impressions trigger biases, which then mar the integrity of important decisions that require impartiality - like academic careers, job interviews, or auditions. Bias denies equality. Bias wastes the talent of certain groups, renders it unable to make the world a better place. Bias denies equality. It’s like a ninja planting explosives, ever-present but hidden in the mind. However, we can shine a light into our subconscious and defuse these bombs before they damage. Implicit bias creates an unjust, unsafe environment that judges people based on appearance with widespread consequences that can be mitigated through awareness. So we’ll first look at what this bias is, how it affects everyone, and how to combat their presence.

Most people stiffen at the mention of “bias” - a word often tagged with negative connotations like racism. Implicit bias, according to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, is the “relatively unconscious and relatively automatic features of prejudiced judgment and social behavior, [especially]... towards members of socially stigmatized groups.” (Brownstein). These biases are the ones we need to be careful of, especially in any sort of competitive environment in which people are chosen or selected. Another important word is stereotype. The stereotype about stereotypes is also negative, but it is simply a process through which the brain processes information into patterns. Bias is a result of these stereotypes. I’m not saying that we are all terrible people who are all secretly misogynist and racist, but that bias is a lesson that society teaches us whether we want to learn it or not. It’s also wrong, unfair, and unjust.

Yet if they’re bad, where do these false presumptions come from? As the book Outliers puts it, “it matters where you’re from, not just in terms of where you grew up or where your parents grew up, but in terms of where your great-grandparents and great-great grandparents and even where your great-great-great grandparents grew up” (Gladwell). Groups of people have similar characteristics because of their shared cultural heritage. This inheritance of lifestyle is as elemental and imperceptible in their effects on our character, as our brains are to our body. Changing an accent isn’t easy, nor do people consider why they say “bless you!” in response to a sneeze - social etiquette and behavior are different from place to place, even in the smallest ways. It’s actually important to ask someone’s age in certain Asian countries, so you can address them with the appropriate degree of respect. Discussing one’s weight in Ecuador is completely normal. Although very under-appreciated, our cultural legacies define our lives - they are the glasses through which we perceive the world, and different cultures provide different prescriptions. After noticing some similar characteristics in some people with a similar outward appearance, the conclusion is applied to everyone with that same outward appearance and is perpetuated by media. Stereotypes are simply cultural legacies misunderstood.

These premature judgments, however comfortable they can be (and sometimes, even how funny they can be) doesn’t mean they’re okay. The effects of these biases are varied. Oftentimes, the circumstances of your birth are imagined to affect personality, intelligence, and much more - if not consciously then subconsciously - but it’s rather the belief in this idea than any actual biology that creates this effect. One experiment done by the Boston Symphony Orchestra involved blind auditions - putting all musicians behind a screen, shoeless (so the clicking of heels wouldn’t give ladies away). Previously, the female portion of big orchestras like this amounted to about 5 percent. But with the blind auditions, women had a 50 percent larger chance to pass preliminary rounds and three times the likelihood of being accepted. It was gender bias that made judges think that men performed better than women (Abdel-Magied).

Stereotype threat (as described by Steele and Aronson) is the “threat of being viewed through the lens of a negative stereotype or the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype” (Steele). A series of studies by Aronson et al displays exactly how stereotypes and the fear of their accompanying biases affect students in the classroom. Stereotype threat is experienced daily (albeit subconsciously) by academically gifted black students who don’t want to validate the stereotype surrounding blacks of lower intelligence. On tests, this leads to a tendency to overthink and second guess answers that result in a poorer score - a vicious cycle of insecurity. In turn, this stress leads to persistent score depressions - and for these students, this is a constant subtraction in the equation of their life that a societal bias has inflicted upon them.

In another study by the Australian National University in 2009, the ethnicity associated with a name mattered when applying for entry level jobs. Chinese names had to apply 61% more than Anglo-Saxon names in order to get the same number of interviews (Leigh). Some might say, “Well, aren’t you stereotyping people with a blanket statement like that? Not everyone is stereotyped.” But even if you’re a white middle-class dude, then there are cultural norms about your identity - suppressing emotion, aggressiveness. Even academically, when white students skilled at math faced with a demanding math test were told that Asians generally scored better than whites, their performance was inferior to a control group who didn’t hear about the difference in scores (Steele). These students were put under stereotype threat - they knew they were expected to have comparatively inferior scores than Asians and they wanted to make sure it didn’t happen. Obviously, stereotyping and bias lead to invisible strains on human capacity and achievement. Like Jedidah Isler said in her TED talk: “We cannot get to the best possible outcomes for the totality of humanity without precisely this collaboration, this bringing together of the liminal, the differently lived, distinctly experienced and disparately impacted” (Isler). Diversity brings achievement, but stereotyping stunts it. Stereotyping shames people and expects unrealistic things because of happenstance - whether we’re male or female, whether we’re Hispanic or Caucasian. We crush individuality - and isn’t America supposed to be a country of individuality?

But revitalizing and renewing diversity can’t be done just by clapping the backs of colleges who have special acceptance policies regarding minorities. Each and every one of us needs to confront and combat them - firstly, by acknowledging our flawed thinking, secondly, by expanding it through new observations, and thirdly, through mentoring. Because it’s subconscious, implicit bias is hard to identify - although tests like the IAT developed by Harvard help reveal your subconscious. The second step is to compensate for them. We have to acquaint ourselves with new experiences and people you’d normally not talk to in order to broaden horizons and perspectives. A study by Arne May from the University of Hamburg ("Juggling 'Can Boost Brain Power'") highlights the link between novel experiences and increased brain growth in thought, language, and consciousness. Talk to the person sitting next to you on the bus, in class. People who seem to fit a negative stereotype won’t fulfill it because social stereotypes are essentially untrue. After all, “everyone is unique.”

Another way to minimize the effect that implicit bias has in multiple situations is through mentoring. As Bonnie Marcus of Forbes reports, “All of the Top 25 Influential Women acknowledged the importance of mentors for their career success” (Marcus). Many of you guys are EAP mentors. A lot of the minority mentees might not need the help academically - but like me, there were a lot of kids who simply didn’t know what goes on in high school: clubs, competitions, teams, e-school, and other ways to advance themselves. You can get them involved and doing things beyond what they thought they could do. Like Yassmin Abdel-Magied says, “The idea of finding someone different to mentor, someone who doesn’t come from the same background as you, whatever that background is, is about opening doors for people who couldn’t even get to the hallway” (Abdel-Magied).

In the end, we are not just opening doors and lighting lights for those who are pushed back the most by implicit bias, but also for ourselves. Everyone has their own ninjas that hold not only others back but themselves. Biases are subconscious social phenomena that judge people not for who they are but what they look like, a tendency that not only alienates people but renders them unable to better the world they live in. When we see what biases really are and what they stem from, how they affect everyone, and methods like mentoring and awareness that are used to mitigate it, the world can become a better place - starting now. For a problem that has been around since the beginning of time, there is no better place to start.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Steele, Claude M. “Thin Ice: “Stereotype Threat” and Black College Students.” Atlantic Aug. 1999: 44-54. The Atlantic Online. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Brownstein, Michael. "Implicit Bias." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Stanford University, 26 Feb. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Steele, Claude M. "Thin Ice: "Stereotype Threat" Black College Students." Atlantic Aug. 1999: 44-54. The Atlantic Online. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

Abdel-Magied, Yassmin. "What Does My Headscarf Mean to You?" TEDxSouthBank. South Bank. Dec. 2014. TED. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. (14:01)

Goffman, Alice. "How We're Priming Some Kids for College - and Others for Prison." TED2015. Vancouver, Canada. Mar. 2015. TED. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. (16:04)

Noguchi, Yuki, and Pete Sinclair. "How Startups Are Using Tech To Try And Fight Workplace Bias." Interview by Robert Siegel. National Public Radio. National Public Radio, 8 Sept. 2015. Web. 13 Dec. 2015. (4:48)

Isler, Jedidah. "The Untapped Genius That Could Change Science for the Better." TED Fellows Retreat 2015. Aug. 2015. TED. Web. 13 Dec. 2015.

"Juggling 'Can Boost Brain Power'" BBC News. BBC, 22 Jan. 2004. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

"Criminal Justice Fact Sheet." NAACP. NAACP, n.d. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Leigh, Andrew. "Discrimination Study." Web log post. Andrew Leigh's Archived Blog 2004-2010. Wordpress, 17 June 2009. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Marcus, Bonnie. "Advice from Top Women Leaders About Finding a Mentor." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 6 Jan. 2014. Web. 14 Dec. 2015.

Gladwell, Malcolm. Outliers: The Story of Success. New York City: Little, Brown, 2008. Print.