Unconscious Bias.

When we hear a story of a shop owner who discriminates against a certain kind of people say against blacks or people living with disabilities, it is easy to call him out as biased. We would say he is a racist or disrespectful to people living with disabilities. That is because he comes all out to say " for whites only" or " No wheelchairs allowed.

Many of us do not know that we have an unconscious bias thumbprinted and hidden away at the back of minds . We are unaware of them and do not know they exist.

Unconscious biased are as a result of our childhood ,passed down to us by parents,experiences, cultures and even the media. We learned them unconsciously. We use them unconsciously also.

They impact us without our knowledge and impact us more than our conscious biases. They help us process things faster, we are accustomed to them and so it is easier and safer to arrive at conclusions with them. They are our shortcuts. Our filters.

It is wise to take the implicit or unconscious biase test. It will help us highlight those hidden biases.

When we expose them, then we can begin to work on them.

My daughter once told me that whenever a kid farts in her classroom, everyone turns to look at a boy who to them is the culprit.

I asked her why her classmates would do that, she said she does not know.

I later found out that the boy is both quiet and considered as ugly. To this children, being quiet and ugly means being bad. Most likely the kids if asked if that is true, might deny it. But their actions show otherwise.

While working on my initiative " finding Abilities in Disabilities", one of the 15 girls living with disabilities had completed her secondary education. I unconsciously thought she was better than the others because of that. I thought she would learn faster than the others. We gave her more attention at times.

My bad. She did not complete the training. She started playing truancy and eventually dropped out. The best amongst them had never been in a formal school. She was the earliest to classes and submitted assignments first.

As change makers, bias and stereotyping would affect the quality of our work. People know when you truly care for them. It's not what you give them that makes much difference but how you give them.

Taking a bias test will help greatly.

Bias flaws our work, so it is needful to unlearn them, remove our filters of prejudices and See people for who they really are. Humans.