When Does Implicit Bias Turn Into Discrimination?

I decided to wait till the dust had settled following #harryandmeghan 's interview on Oprah before sharing my firm view that understanding the power of #implicitbias is more relevant now than ever.

I spent a couple of weeks reading and listening to a LOT of opinions following the interview. There were a couple of things that struck me: the pain we all felt as a proud nation to hear some of the claims made in the interview but also the protective instinct to defend 'the people not in the room', in this case unnamed members of the royal family. The other observation however was that there was not ONE person of colour that actually doubted or challenged the audacity of Meghan and Harry's claims. Not one. Because for a person of colour, stories like that, and to be honest ones far more pointed, can re recounted easily. The same can be said for people that have lived challenging experiences and had perhaps reached a point where they felt that life held no hope. This is all pretty serious stuff. 

On the other hand I've seen comments from people who don't want to see this kind of post on LinkedIn 'because it doesn't belong here' implying that at 8.59 as we walk into the office we become a completely different person, as if our personal values and beliefs don't transcend into our work values. And that our personal experiences are kept in a box and don't affect our overall well being. Implicit bias is a process in which we use learned stereotypes to make decisions — we do it all the time. However, the problem arises when it is left unchecked because it can lead to discrimination without us necessarily realising it. And because we don’t stop being who we are or holding our beliefs when at our desk vs at home, we can see how unchecked implicit bias on a large scale can lead to institutional racism/sexism/ageism etc. I remember having a conversation with a friend of mine a few years back and she was telling me that whilst her parents were not at all racist, she wasn't allowed to marry a black man. Here’s the problem: based on a collection of stereotypes, her parents made a decision about every black man in the world, without exception, but this still wasn’t viewed by the individuals in question as racist.

Fundamentally I believe we all have good intentions but with those good intentions we need to be ready to listen to other people's experiences and not trash or 'gaslight' them. We don't need to pit one gender against the other or one race against the other and we don't need to exclude to include. We can't progress to be the nation and community we want to be if we don't understand where we are. And we can't do that without listening. So let's not be afraid to #openuptheconversation