Thanks for your thoughts and continued teaching about unconscious bias. As a white person, growing up in a white middle class area of my town, I am continually noticing and unpacking my unconscious bias around race and your work is one of the ways that I continue to try to bring this to my awareness. As a female I had unconscious bias even against myself as I was socialized to see women's roles as less than. It has been easier for me to move into awareness around gender bias because I have experienced the harm, whereas racial bias feel more insidious because of the privilege I have as a white person. Thanks again for your continued invitations to challenge these biases and the harm they create.
Thanks for your thoughtful perspective. Some of these talking heads would benefit from your mentorship. Every day, I am embroiled in an internal battle between how I was formed and fashioned in my family of origin and who Christ and I want me to be.
The analysis & question are very helpful & impactful. I confess my “us vs them,” binary, total sum, & arrogant thinking without questioning:
my ease & access to resources explained as meritocracy (not white privilege, racism)
the U.S. flag at pulpits in churches
white-centered Biblical interpretations & translations--who's on the committees
God is pro-America & pro-Israel, white Christian nationalism & Christian Zionism;
*Book of Esther: overlooking my/our oppression of people; women treated as sexual objects (skipping Queen Vashti's speaking up & focus on Esther’s); supporting God's chosen people's genocide against oppressors, (views similar to Mike Cosper's article in Christianity Today) (I learn from responders: Andrew DeCort & Ben Norquist.
my white savior practices vs. addressing systemic racism & oppression (ie: short-term missions trips--benefitting visitors more than the hosts) (Dr. Soong Chan Rah wrote that if a white missionary isn’t mentored by a person of color, then there is a continuation of colonization (“The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity”)
my family’s missionary film for U.S. churches/donors started with Christopher Columbus landing on that Caribbean island (doctrine of discovery)
my family’s Yankee, northern pride of being "not-southern, not-racist." The fam's photo album included a "cute' pic of my kissing a boy (with more melanin,) while living on the mission field. Years later, my religious grandmother was shocked that I would date a Black man; she asserted that I should never marry a Black man.
my differentiating between people in poverty based on work ethic rather than seeing our ongoing marginalization, racism, redlining, displacement, mass incarceration, & racial wealth gap since the race-based chattel slavery
my differentiating terms & support for programs by socioeconomic status (SES), ie: welfare, food stamps versus financial aid, mortgages ("welfare queen" trope) (Matthew Desmond’s “Poverty, by America”)
I share more in my racial autobiography; I intend to self-examine with more regularity, community, & accountability.
This question still grips me! I think the comments about Angel Reese connect with another bias I recently recognized. Who gets to speak/rage over what? white rules, whites rule "vs race card"
"Jackie Robinson Part II," PBS. (angry black man trope); Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's quotes about permission for Black folks to feel anger (essence of humanity to feel anger), Harry Belafonte (singer), "It's ok to be angry. Dr. King said so often, 'Anger is a righteous emotion.' It's almost necessary to your being." (27:30)
Howard Bryant (writer) "Who wouldn't be angry? And what we would prefer to do in America is to always focus on the person who is angry and not focus on the situation that created it." (27:45) **Displace the focus, blame the victim, & continue oppressing**
"America & Kaepernick" (2022), even Colin Kaepernick's adoptive mother publicly admonished Colin for not standing during the national anthem
DeRay McKesson, (civil rights activist) "One of the ways dominant culture works is that it has to silence critique." "Part of what white supremacy does is that it wants to challenge the idea that you even have the power as a Black person to make a choice for yourself. *So the reason why there was this fixation on the fact that he (Colin Kaepernick) kneeled was like, 'how dare this black man do something that we did not give him permission to do?"* ("Protest to me, is the work of hope.")
Colin Kaepernick, "Racialized oppression and dehumanization are woven into the very fabric of our nation. But I remind you, it is love that is at the root of our resistance."
Having read and listened to both you and Emmanuel Acho during recent years on my listening and learning journey, I appreciate your thoughtful perspective. as well as your citing Banaji and Greenwald’s research: “Because many biases are not ones of which we are even aware, the act of becoming aware of them is a key first step …The goal is to make the unconscious, conscious. To make the implicit, explicit.” Your shepherding the rest of us who will listen and strive to share is hopeful and for that: gratitude!
Thank you so much for this! The cruelty towards Angel Reese is heartbreaking, as is the idea that she should just "suck it up." And thank you for your comments about unconscious bias - I was very aware of that after the championship game. It must have been hard for South Carolina, a team that has been undefeated all season, to feel like everyone was rooting for Iowa. I say that as someone who was rooting for Iowa, but I have all the respect in the world for Dawn Staley and the South Carolina team. I am afraid that there will be a backlash for them.
Well-meaning people start the biggest fires IMO. Glad you called it out. Acknowledging and working on our own biases is key to understanding and navigating differences and relationships. I recall being shaken when I became aware of mine. So I try to remember when I encounter those who “live unaware” especially in my family and close friendship circles.
Thanks for your thoughts and continued teaching about unconscious bias. As a white person, growing up in a white middle class area of my town, I am continually noticing and unpacking my unconscious bias around race and your work is one of the ways that I continue to try to bring this to my awareness. As a female I had unconscious bias even against myself as I was socialized to see women's roles as less than. It has been easier for me to move into awareness around gender bias because I have experienced the harm, whereas racial bias feel more insidious because of the privilege I have as a white person. Thanks again for your continued invitations to challenge these biases and the harm they create.
Thanks for your thoughtful perspective. Some of these talking heads would benefit from your mentorship. Every day, I am embroiled in an internal battle between how I was formed and fashioned in my family of origin and who Christ and I want me to be.
The analysis & question are very helpful & impactful. I confess my “us vs them,” binary, total sum, & arrogant thinking without questioning:
my ease & access to resources explained as meritocracy (not white privilege, racism)
the U.S. flag at pulpits in churches
white-centered Biblical interpretations & translations--who's on the committees
God is pro-America & pro-Israel, white Christian nationalism & Christian Zionism;
*Book of Esther: overlooking my/our oppression of people; women treated as sexual objects (skipping Queen Vashti's speaking up & focus on Esther’s); supporting God's chosen people's genocide against oppressors, (views similar to Mike Cosper's article in Christianity Today) (I learn from responders: Andrew DeCort & Ben Norquist.
my white savior practices vs. addressing systemic racism & oppression (ie: short-term missions trips--benefitting visitors more than the hosts) (Dr. Soong Chan Rah wrote that if a white missionary isn’t mentored by a person of color, then there is a continuation of colonization (“The Next Evangelicalism: Freeing the Church from Western Cultural Captivity”)
my family’s missionary film for U.S. churches/donors started with Christopher Columbus landing on that Caribbean island (doctrine of discovery)
my family’s Yankee, northern pride of being "not-southern, not-racist." The fam's photo album included a "cute' pic of my kissing a boy (with more melanin,) while living on the mission field. Years later, my religious grandmother was shocked that I would date a Black man; she asserted that I should never marry a Black man.
my differentiating between people in poverty based on work ethic rather than seeing our ongoing marginalization, racism, redlining, displacement, mass incarceration, & racial wealth gap since the race-based chattel slavery
my differentiating terms & support for programs by socioeconomic status (SES), ie: welfare, food stamps versus financial aid, mortgages ("welfare queen" trope) (Matthew Desmond’s “Poverty, by America”)
I share more in my racial autobiography; I intend to self-examine with more regularity, community, & accountability.
Good words. Thanks Jemar
This question still grips me! I think the comments about Angel Reese connect with another bias I recently recognized. Who gets to speak/rage over what? white rules, whites rule "vs race card"
"Jackie Robinson Part II," PBS. (angry black man trope); Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King's quotes about permission for Black folks to feel anger (essence of humanity to feel anger), Harry Belafonte (singer), "It's ok to be angry. Dr. King said so often, 'Anger is a righteous emotion.' It's almost necessary to your being." (27:30)
Howard Bryant (writer) "Who wouldn't be angry? And what we would prefer to do in America is to always focus on the person who is angry and not focus on the situation that created it." (27:45) **Displace the focus, blame the victim, & continue oppressing**
"America & Kaepernick" (2022), even Colin Kaepernick's adoptive mother publicly admonished Colin for not standing during the national anthem
DeRay McKesson, (civil rights activist) "One of the ways dominant culture works is that it has to silence critique." "Part of what white supremacy does is that it wants to challenge the idea that you even have the power as a Black person to make a choice for yourself. *So the reason why there was this fixation on the fact that he (Colin Kaepernick) kneeled was like, 'how dare this black man do something that we did not give him permission to do?"* ("Protest to me, is the work of hope.")
Colin Kaepernick, "Racialized oppression and dehumanization are woven into the very fabric of our nation. But I remind you, it is love that is at the root of our resistance."
Dr. Jemar Tisby, "Growing Up, I Needed a Story Like Colin Kaepernick's, "https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/29/opinions/colin-in-black--white-black-identity-tisby
Having read and listened to both you and Emmanuel Acho during recent years on my listening and learning journey, I appreciate your thoughtful perspective. as well as your citing Banaji and Greenwald’s research: “Because many biases are not ones of which we are even aware, the act of becoming aware of them is a key first step …The goal is to make the unconscious, conscious. To make the implicit, explicit.” Your shepherding the rest of us who will listen and strive to share is hopeful and for that: gratitude!
Thank you so much for this! The cruelty towards Angel Reese is heartbreaking, as is the idea that she should just "suck it up." And thank you for your comments about unconscious bias - I was very aware of that after the championship game. It must have been hard for South Carolina, a team that has been undefeated all season, to feel like everyone was rooting for Iowa. I say that as someone who was rooting for Iowa, but I have all the respect in the world for Dawn Staley and the South Carolina team. I am afraid that there will be a backlash for them.
Well-meaning people start the biggest fires IMO. Glad you called it out. Acknowledging and working on our own biases is key to understanding and navigating differences and relationships. I recall being shaken when I became aware of mine. So I try to remember when I encounter those who “live unaware” especially in my family and close friendship circles.