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Module Objectives:

Understand how our racial socialization informs our conscious & unconscious behaviors and the way we view ourselves and others.

Reflection Prompts:

Reflecting on Addressing Racial Biases

Defining Narratives - What resources (activities, articles, books, historical/contemporary events, images, infographics, personal experiences, quotes, videos, websites, etc.) have you found most impactful in developing your dispositions, knowledge, awareness, skills—i.e., your consciousness—to address racial biases?

What key insights or lessons have you gained from these resources?

Visualizing Opportunities - What areas of opportunity do you envision yourself addressing racial biases personally?

What areas of opportunity do you envision yourself addressing racial biases with your communities of influence?

Cultivating Commitments - What consciousness development techniques and strategies can you cultivate personally to address racial biases?

What consciousness development techniques and strategies can you cultivate collectively with your communities of influence to address racial biases?

Reflection Resources:

Implicit Bias and Structural Inequity
The Cycles of Socialization and Liberation - Harro.pdf
Children Are Not Colorblind: How Young Children Learn Race
Racelighting: Three Common Strategies Racelighters Use
Personal Anti-Bias Self-Assessment
Guide To Confronting Implicit Bias
Participant Worksheets for Cycles of Socialization and Liberation.pdf
Core Principles Of Media Literacy Education

Suggested Viewing:

Inside the AC360 Doll Study (Study Shows How Children View Race, Part 1)

This clip shows part 1 of research conducted by CNN, showing how children in the United States view race. Time: 05:27

Study Shows How Children View Race Bias (Study Shows How Children View Race, Part 2)

This clip shows part 2 of research conducted by CNN, showing how children in the United States view race. Time: 05:18.

Starbucks Showed This Short Film to Its Employees To Teach Them About Racial Bias | NowThis

'Starbucks employees were shown this powerful short film about race as part of a learning session on bias.

The video was made by award-winning documentary filmmaker Stanley Nelson and featured accounts from people of color on how racial biases affect their everyday life. It also included Sherrilyn Ifill who is the president and director-counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense. “To be welcomed as a customer means that not only do I allow you in, but it means that I’m glad you’re here. I want to serve you. I want your business, and I don’t draw distinctions between you and other customers in terms of your value,” she explained. “But it’s time we talked about what it means to not be welcomed as an American citizen.”

The film aimed to highlight how differently Black people have to view and navigate public spaces than white people do. It is especially pertinent, in light of many openly racist acts that have happened in businesses recently, including an incident in Starbucks, in which two black men were arrested for asking to use the restroom without ordering.

Discrimination shouldn’t be tolerated, and it’s up to us to make sure that it becomes a stigmatized practice, rather than a regular facet of society.'

Defining Implicit Bias and Racial Anxiety

Alexis McGill Johnson details the definitions and connections between implicit bias and racial anxiety. She is the Co-Founder and Executive Director of Perception Institute, a national consortium of researchers, advocates, and cultural strategists turning cutting-edge mind science research on identity difference into solutions applicable to everyday individual and institutional interactions. She collaborates with social scientists on empirical research to identify the efficacy of interventions that reduce discrimination and create opportunity. She lectures and leads workshops for a wide range of public institutions and private corporations seeking to address the role of implicit bias, racial anxiety, and stereotype threat.

Overcoming Implicit Bias In Healthcare

Data show that bias can cause disparities in diagnosis, treatment and health outcomes, and choices made at end of life. Alexis McGill Johnson, Founder of the Perception Institute, and now President of Planned Parenthood, shares how strategies informed by neuroscience can help individuals and institutions recognize and release implicit and explicit bias. In this eye-opening talk about the impact of stereotypes on health, Alexis reminds us that the more we know each about other, the harder it is to judge, and the easier it is to feel like we belong

The Cost of Code-Switching | Chandra Arthur | TEDxOrlando

Taught from a young age to culturally code switch, Chandra Arthur discusses how learning default conformity in different settings now creates access and opportunity in her adult life as an underrepresented minority (URM) in tech. Chandra Arthur is the founder and CEO of Friendish, a fun, new app designed to help people easily make friends based on shared interests. Her commitment to assisting others in making lasting, quality friendships was born out of a personal need when she returned home from Germany after four years abroad and found it difficult to make new like-minded friends once back in the states. As a second-time startup founder, she brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the startup landscape.

Racelighting: An Overview

Dr. J. Luke Wood and Dr. Frank Harris II share a brief overview of racelighting - a pervasive form of gaslighting whereby People of Color question their own thoughts and actions due to systematically delivered racialized messages that make them second guess their own lived experiences [and realities] with racism” (Wood & Harris III, 2021, para. 4) Racial microaggressions are used as a means to racelight People of Color (a relationship further explicated in the next section). The most common messages reinforce assumptions that BIPOC are criminals, lesser than, and academically and/or cognitively inferior. When experiencing racelighting, People of Color may be led to second guess their experiences, feelings, capabilities, knowledge,
decision-making, recollections, and basic humanity. When racelit, People of Color begin questioning their own realities and whether they are indeed unintelligent, prone to maladaptive behaviors, of lesser worth, overly sensitive, or less capable than their peers. In addition, it should be noted that People of Color can also racelight one another. This is especially true when internalized messages about racism are accepted tacitly or even explicitly.

Verna Myers: How To Overcome Our Biases? Walk Boldly Toward Them

Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Verna Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how. Time: 17:53.

Dad with mixed-race family confronts own racial bias

Frank Somerville and his wife are the proud parents of two girls: One adopted and one not. Recently, the newscaster had to confront his own issues with racial bias and is using his job as a way to educate others on racism.

Suggested Reading:

Racism in American Popular Media: From Aunt Jemima to the Frito Bandito by Brian D. Behnken; Gregory D. Smithers

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Everyday Bias: Identifying and Navigating Unconscious Judgements in Our Daily Lives, Updated Edition by Howard J. Ross Screen Shot 2024-02-20 at 3.54.58 PM.png

Suggested Websites to Review:

Additional University Resources