Bias and other human conditions
Many of us watched the presidential debate this past week. We saw and heard the candidates speaking. We have reason to believe it was them, not AI-generated (artificial intelligence) images.
I would be willing to bet that people came away having heard different things. We heard what we expected filtered by our bias toward one candidate and/or against the other.
Bias, what we believe based on our past experiences and beliefs, plays out in many ways in our lives, sometimes with tragic consequences.
We’ve seen stories about this on the news. For example, a guy stopped along his jogging route to sneak a peek at a new house under construction. I have done the same in my neighborhood. However, in this story, neighbors saw a black guy entering the house and assumed he was up to no good. They jumped in their truck, weapons in hand, and chased the guy down. The confrontation ended with the curious jogger being shot and killed.
A teenage boy took a shortcut through a neighborhood on his way home from the store. A neighborhood watchman became suspicious of the black child in a hooded sweatshirt, confronted the child, and shot and killed him.
How does bias affect our lives in other ways? If we are called to do our civic duty and serve on a jury, do we take a look at the defendant and start making judgments before we’ve even heard the case? Of course, we do. It is human nature to see things and people and make judgments about them. It comes built-in as part of our survival, even when the situation at hand does not threaten our survival. Once the trial starts, do we hear the evidence with an open mind? We promise to do so as a member of a jury. Do we realize we are doing it and remind ourselves to try to filter out our bias to come to a fair conclusion based only on the evidence?
In the debate, we heard a candidate for the highest office in the land spread a rumor he had already been told was false. He accused legal Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio of being “illegal aliens” eating people’s pets, their cats and dogs. These false rumors resulted in bomb threats at schools and government buildings and the cancellation of treasured community events.
Bias is an ongoing battle for me as I interact with strangers, directly and indirectly. When someone passes me on the freeway, and then cuts in front of me to take the exit, do I respond in the privacy of my car with rude thoughts and bad words, or do I give them grace in my heart, knowing they may have been caught off-guard with the exit? Will my thoughts change anything?
Bias and our responses easily become a habit, and ingrained habits are difficult to break. They generate verbal and non-verbal responses to the world around us, and the stress that negativity puts on our bodies can be unhealthy for us as well as the person our feelings are directed towards. Being angry with others has been compared to drinking poison and hoping the other person gets sick.
Do we need to make judgments? Yes, of course we do. Do we want others to give us the benefit of the doubt when making judgments about us? Yes, of course we do. Then, the code of conduct is to do unto others as we would have done unto us.
I am a member of the Delano United Diversity Task Force, formed in 2017 after a racist incident drove a family out of our town. If you are interested in helping make Delano a more welcoming community for all who want to live, work, play, and pray here, contact the Delano United Diversity Task Force by email at delanouniteddiversity@gmail.com.
