Equity & Social Justice Advisory Group Resources: Assessing your Bias
Introduction
We all have implicit biases. These unconscious prejudices may affect how we hire, how we promote people, whose voice we give weight to, purchasing decisions we make, and many other aspects of our work and personal lives. Below are tools to help you understand implicit biases and the ways they can manifest themselves. Also included are tools to identify your own biases so that you can begin to work on combating them.
Evaluate your Implicit Bias
- Project Implicit at HarvardHere you will have the opportunity to assess your conscious and unconscious preferences for over 90 different topics ranging from pets to political issues, ethnic groups to sports teams, and entertainers to styles of music. At the same time, you will be assisting psychological research on thoughts and feelings.
Sessions require 10-15 minutes to complete. Each time you begin a session you will be randomly assigned to a topic. Try one or do them all! At the end of the session, you will get some information about the study and a summary of your results.
Microagressions and Privilege
- Don’t Touch My Hair or But You Don’t Seem Gay!: Microaggressions in the Library WorkplaceThis presentation broadly focuses on microaggressions, implicit bias, and communication strategies to address these statements.
- Microaggressions in Librarianship"A space for those working in libraries, archives and information fields to share their experiences with microaggressions."
- Minimizing and addressing implicit bias in the workplaceLibrarians and information professionals cannot hide from bias: a prejudice for or against something, someone, or a group. As human beings, we all have biases. However, implicit biases are ones that affect us in an unconscious manner. Awareness of our implicit biases, and how they can affect our colleagues and work environment, is critical to promoting an inclusive work environment. Part one of this two-part article series will focus on implicit bias: what is implicit bias, how these biases affect the work environment, and best practices for reducing these biases within recruitment, hiring, and retention in the library workplace.
- Minimizing and addressing microaggressions in the workplace: Be proactive, part 2Our nation’s history plays a huge role in the way we perceive underrepresented groups. From slavery to segregation, to the inequality in compensation for women and people of color, to the refusal to wed same sex couples, discrimination and opposition has plagued the United States for decades. Since the Civil Rights Movement, discrimination towards underrepresented groups has shifted from overt acts to subtle and semiconscious manifestations called microaggressions. These manifestations reside in well-intentioned individuals who are often unaware of their biased beliefs, attitudes, and actions. They can lead to inequities within our relationships and affect our work productivity.
- Racial Equity Tools: Implicit BiasThis webpage gives an introduction to implicit bias, and then a list of other key websites and other resources.
- Your Privilege Is Showing | Lillian Medville | TEDxBeaconStreet (video)Whether we acknowledge it or not, race, sex, gender, class, and privilege are all part of our daily lives no matter who we are, what we look like, or where we’re from. But too often we don't talk about these issues for fear of saying the wrong thing, or that the conversations will be difficult, bitter, and even painful. Does it have to be that way? Artist and activist Lillian Medville has designed a surprising—and surprisingly effective—alternative.