By Bobby Almeida, Project Manager
The entire Argento/Graham team of staff and consultants recently had Anti-Bias Training as a part of our standing commitment to be better humans and a better company. Led by Lisa Holder, principal attorney at Law office of Lisa Holder and Of Counsel to Equal justice Society, the training was enlightening and, at times, heartbreaking. The pervasiveness of systemic bias in America, both explicit and implicit, and its negative effects in our culture and workplaces are worse than most people realize—including me.
We began the training by viewing and discussing a set of videos depicting examples of bias in everyday life. One video focused on how people of different genders and races performing the exact same activity could be viewed with wildly varying degrees of suspicion from passersby. In the video, three different actors pantomimed stealing a bike in a park in broad daylight while admitting to anyone who challenged them that the bike was not their property. First, a young white man was questioned half-heartedly by a number of park-goers but none called the police or attempted to prevent the theft. However, a black man of similar age wearing similar clothes was aggressively confronted, with numerous people calling the police or attempting verbal and physical intimidation. Finally, a young white woman explicitly admitting she was stealing the bike found herself ignored or, shockingly, even assisted in the act by multiple men who happened upon the scene. This and the other videos illustrated the shadow of suspicion that follows Black Americans wherever they go, even if they are performing activities that would be considered unremarkable for whites, such as struggling with the lock on the front door of their residence, or bird-watching in Central Park.
Our discussion continued with an examination of the early roots of implicit bias through a famous 1940’s study conducted by Drs. Kenneth and Mamie Clark called the “Doll Test.” In the test two dolls, identical except that one is white and one is black, are placed in front of a child aged 3 to 7. The child is then asked a series of comparison questions, such as which doll is pretty, which one is nice, which one is bad, and others in a similar vein. We watched a video where both white and Black children associated positive traits with the white doll and negative traits with the black doll nearly universally. It’s especially disheartening to watch video of a Black child make these associations, then dejectedly point at the black doll when they are asked which doll looks the most like them. The “Doll Test” was referenced in the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education Supreme Court case in 1954 as evidence for the emotional harm caused by racial segregation. Though the Brown decision ended explicit segregation in America’s schools, decades later the “Doll Test” continues to render consistent results, indicating the durability of racial stereotypes despite government reform efforts.
These implicit biases shape life and death situations as well. A stark case in point: Black women are more likely to die from complications of pregnancy than white women due to implicit bias and structural racism in the healthcare industry. Another racist aspect of healthcare is evidenced by the uneven distribution of opioid prescriptions. As a result of implicit bias, doctors are less likely to believe Black patients’ descriptions of severe pain, leading to significantly lower prescription rates for pain medication for Black Americans. Doctors are much more willing to prescribe powerful painkillers for white patients, a disparity that is underscored by the overwhelmingly white face of the opioid addiction crisis sweeping the nation. Still today, Black Americans suffer needlessly through preventable pain while the comfort of white patients is prioritized, even though the medications in question can do more harm than good if abused.
Finally, we focused on assessing our own implicit bias through the Implicit Association Test, or IAT. This test forces you to make associations quicker than the workings of your conscious mind to measure your true implicit biases with no opportunity to consciously pick a nonbiased answer. Results from this test can help uncover your true biases, some of which may be surprising to you. It’s these “flight or fight” responses that produce the outcomes we see today: disproportionate violence, punishment, and restricted pathways for opportunity for Black Americans.
This training was a powerful revelation for myself and for the entire Argento/Graham team, and a critical first step of our ongoing project to recognize and deprogram personal and organizational biases. All people and companies can benefit from anti-bias training. The Green building industry in particular should understand the critical need to address implicit racial bias as we increasingly recognize the necessity of health and wellness for all as a path forward to a better future.