Hi Ben!
Howdy!
so unconscious bias is a concept well documented in psychological studies
which is basically that people associate negative things with people of color
and positive things with whites
so if that is true how does it given the baptistery how does white privilege not exist?
(Shapiro) ok so you're a asking about unconscious bias
I apologize because it's kind of echoey but yeah the question was
if there is unconscious bias?
just repeating to make sure I get it right
if there is unconscious bias how is it that white privilege not exist?
(woman) the question is given that
there is unconscious bias how does white population...
(Shapiro) so okay so number one
when i speak about white privelage
I'm speaking specifically about behavior
okay there's been no studies
and really I looked at these studies
the connection between what they call implicit bias
this is their their favorite phrase now
implicit bias unconscious bias and biased behavior
has yet to be proven at any level that is even remotely necessary
to be used in for example a courtroom which is why it's never been used in a courtroom
it is also true that there is no way
there really isn't there's been no proven way
to alleviate what they call unconscious bias
which means that we're ghost hunting
so what I would suggest is that if there is unconscious bias
and I'll acknowledge the possibility or the reality of unconscious bias
if there is
then I need you to...
I don't care about what's in people's heads so much is what they do
so if you point me to an a racist behavior...
don't worry I'll let you respond...
if you point me to a racist behavior I'm happy to stand alongside you and protest it
what I can't do is protest about things in people's head that I don't know about
because I'm not a mind reader
(woman) okay so that's a really interesting response
into that I have two questions
firstly, what I've heard you say that this is something that you know
the way people think doesn't affect their behavior
so that's the first thing you've said
so I'm really curious if you can kind of give me another example
of a thought that somebody has which doesn't affect their behavior
like do people who support Trump not vote for him?
like I'm very curious about that
second thing that i want to ask is that
if it's something that it's hard to fix does it mean we shouldn't do anything about it?
cuz you said 'I don't know if we can change how people think'
that means we shouldn't try?
(Shapiro) First of all, not a great impression
but beyond that...
(Laughter)
my voice isn't that low but but beyond that
as far as the first question which
do people have thoughts that don't manifest in behavior
yes all the time
(woman) for instance
(Shapiro) for instance every thought that you have about walking up here
and strangling me right now
I mean I assume it I means that we we have thoughts all the time
that don't manifest in behavior and this is true every single day
we consider thoughts that cross our minds
on to the problem with unconscious bias
is the ideas you don't even know that you're having the thought
so how can you stop it if you don't even know that you're having it
but then we should be able to gauge the unconscious bias and its impact on behavior
that's why it's unconscious bias opposed to to conscious bias
the idea behind unconscious bias is that it's not even a ghost
it's a ghost of a ghost
because you don't even know you're having the thought
hope the whole idea behind diversity training is just is the idea
that you can retrain people to stop their chain of thoughts
in order so that it doesn't manifest in behavior
I don't think that every thought manifests in behavior
if it did then every time a man saw a good-looking woman walk down the street
a straight man saw a good-looking woman down the street we'd have a real mess on our hands
so in the second question the idea was a little too broad for me to respond to
which is
just because something is tough don't we have to face up to it?
yes we have to face up to tough things all the time
and one of the tough things i would suggest we face up to
is that you have a lot more control over your own behavior and the decisions you make
than the supposedly widespread unconscious bias of people you've never met
(Applause)
