Training alone won’t end implicit bias
When I watched the video of two African American men getting arrested last week at a Starbucks in Philadelphia, I thought of the times I’d visited the coffeehouse chain, asking — like the men — to use the bathroom.
Sometimes I bought a drink on the way out, or if the line was too long, or if I was in a rush, I skipped making a purchase. Not once did the manager call the police, not once was I led away in handcuffs, accused of trespassing.
As Melissa DePino, who filmed the video that touched off a national debate, told Philadelphia Magazine: “People ignore this kind of stuff. They don’t believe that it happens. People are saying that there must be more to this story. There is not. This would never happen to someone who looks like me. People don’t believe black people when they say this stuff happens. It does. They want to know the extenuating circumstances. There are none.”
The men — Rashon Nelson and Donte Robinson — were waiting to meet Andrew Yaffe, a property developer, to discuss business opportunities. Kevin Johnson, the Starbucks CEO, met with Nelson and Robinson and pledged to close its 8,000 stores for an afternoon next month for “unconscious bias” training of its 175,000 employees. The manager who called the police is no longer working at the store.
The men told the Associated Press they are continuing to talk to Starbucks about changes that could include posting a customer bill of rights, new policies regarding racial profiling and discrimination, and independent investigations of complaints of profiling.
Unconscious, or implicit bias, was coined by psychologists a little more than two decades ago, and came into more common use after a string of high-profile police shootings.
The more you think about it, the more you realize how pervasive — and lifethreatening — that bias can be. Last week, a 14-year-old African American teenager was shot at by a white homeowner after he missed the bus and tried to ask for directions.
After giving birth, tennis star Serena Williams felt short of breath and reminded health care providers about her history of pulmonary embolism. At first, the nurse thought the pain medicine was causing confusion in Williams, who pushed for a CT scan and a blood thinner. It turns out blood clots had settled in her lungs. A heart-wrenching New York Times investigation found that black mothers and infants are dying at a higher rate than whites, in part because of racial bias in the health care system that dismisses or ignores the concerns of black women.
Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, a UC Berkeley psychology professor, cautioned against the prevailing narrative around implicit bias, which is that it can’t be controlled.
“It leads people to shrug their shoulders and say, ‘This is a process I can’t help. What can I do about it?’ We also don’t want to let the discussion of implicit bias overshadow the very real nature of oldfashioned racism.”
Given that racism — explicit or implicit — is systemic and widespread, is bias training effective? Sometimes people may resent it or dismiss it. Or they become “morally licensed,” Mendoza-Denton said. “They say, ‘I know about it, so now I’ve received my bias vaccine.’ ”
David Rock, director of the NeuroLeadership Institute, which studies and offers consulting on how to mitigate bias on an organizational level, suggests training must be designed to make teams — not individuals — less biased.
“Seeing your own bias as it happens is hard to do, but if you know about bias, you can see it in other people. Getting diverse perspectives on decisions helps.”
Michelle Kim, co-founder and CEO of Awaken — which provides diversity and inclusion workshops — said that people need to face their own biases, and understand how they have material consequences — their impact on employee feedback, pay gaps, mass incarceration and so much more.
“Implicit bias is not an intellectual concept that exists in a vacuum, and training needs to tie bias to systemic issues,” she said. And it’s only the starting point of the conversation.
What next, then, for Starbucks? Research has shown that when people of different groups come into contact with each other, it can reduce negative attitudes toward each other, said Mendoza-Denton.
Starbucks should strive for a diverse workforce at every level, including senior leadership and cafe managers. People of the out group — the social group in which someone does not identify — in leadership positions, and positions of prestige, can go a long way toward breaking stereotypes.
“You’re showing the workforce your commitment,” he said. “Not just telling them.”
The more you think about it, the more you realize how pervasive — and life-threatening — that bias can be.