It's Only Words

 

You cannot end racism and gender bias by banning certain words. You'll make it worse. Of course, that may be the +intention. Banning words is denial. It is holding your hands up to your ears and singing, la-la-la-la. 

When bias, bigotry, prejudice, racism, and all the other isms and phobias are directed against people it's a sin. Think about it, Sunday school 101, The Golden Rule. We are to treat everyone with love and respect, no exceptions to the rule.

        A racist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial inequity between racial groups. An antiracist policy is any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups. By policy, I mean written and unwritten laws, rules, procedures, processes, regulations, and guidelines that govern people. There is no such thing as a nonracist or race-neutral policy. Every policy in every institution in every community in every nation is producing or sustaining either racial inequity or equity between racial groups.

(Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist)

The good news, bias, bigotry, prejudice and racism are learned behaviors. I went to a site called Psych Central to reinforce my assumption that behaviors can be changed. What was it that Red Green said in the Man's Prayer? "I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess."
People can change when they're self-aware, receive support, and become intentional about behaving differently. But, change takes time and it may be challenging in some cases. For example, if you live with a mental health condition that involves lifelong symptoms that may impact your attitude, habits, and behaviors. Self awareness means facing and acknowledging the problem instead of denial.

Why People Lie

And Why We Believe Them

Everybody does it. When we were little we lied to our parents, hoping we wouldn't get into trouble. We exaggerated our accomplishments to our friends. We've omitted things to influence the outcome. We've fibbed to keep from hurting people. Most of this stuff is harmless, until it isn't. When is that? When it hurts people, betrays a trust, deliberately misleads, it's used to keep others in their place. You could probably come up with more reasons, but big lies today are clearly unethical and lead to violent behavior. And in some cases, that's the goal. Many times when we lie, we're simply in denial about our own behavior, and we might not care who we hurt.  

According to Psychology Today, there are six reasons why people lie.  

 -David J. Ley PhD

1. The lie matters to the liar.  The number one reason people lie when it just doesn’t matter is because they actually think it matters. 

2. Telling the truth feels like giving up control. Often, people tell lies because they are trying to control a situation and exert influence toward getting the decisions or reactions they want. The truth can be “inconvenient. ” 

3. They don’t want to disappoint you. People who tell lie after lie are often worried about losing the respect of those around them.

4. Lies snowball. They get out of control. Eventually,  we’re arguing about the color of the sky, because to admit anything creates the potential of the entire house of cards tumbling. 

5. It’s not a lie to them. Multiple studies demonstrate that our memories are influenced by many things, that they change over time, and that they are essentially reconstructed each time we think about them. 

6. They want it to be true. Sometimes, liars hope that they can make something come true by saying it over and over, and by believing it as hard as they can. In today’s environment of “alternative facts,” it’s hard not to see this as somewhat justified.

So many people deny the facts laid out before them. Why?

I went to Vital Briefings website to find out more.

a) We want to,

b) it fits our view,

c) we're accustomed to believing the source.

But facts matter

 David Schrieberg points out that facts matter. Anybody who is the business of reporting information needs to support a higher ethical standard than the run of mill meme on social media. But putting the facts out there may not be enough anymore.

“Think about what is now required for a Republican politician to be considered a party member in good standing. He or she must pledge allegiance to policy doctrines that are demonstrably false; he or she must, in effect, reject the very idea of paying attention to evidence.” PAUL KRUGMAN, THE NEW YORK TIMES

According to Schrieberg recent research on this subject focus on three explanations, which can be linked, as to why people are willing to ignore facts in their process of making judgements.

#1: Motivated Reasoning - Selectively choosing evidence.

#2: Confirmation Bias - It feels good to ‘stick’ to our guns’ even if we are wrong,” JACK AND SARA GORMAN

#3: Illusory Truth Effect - The more times you read, hear or watch a story, the more you believe it’s true. 

So, what can we do? 

Schrieberg suggests:

• Consume less.
• Be very selective in the news you consume.
• Check out the sources you choose. Do they adhere to genuine journalistic practices? If they have biases, are they clearly stated and presented? Do they present multiple sides to the story, but not necessarily giving them all equal weight? Are their conclusions based on responsible reporting?
• Be wary of sites that don’t clearly present the sources of their revenue.
• Avoid sources displayed in your social media feeds that you can’t verify and/or lack legitimate expertise in the subject matter.
• Don’t rely solely on breaking news. Seek out more in-depth stories and analyses to inform your opinions and decisions.

How to Apply Critical Race Theory

A Real World Problem 

To find out what is causing all the hubbub in America, I went Britanica. Why? Racism is real. It still exists. Yet, a large portion of our population doesn't want us to know about it.

 Critical Race Theory (CRT), intellectual movement and loosely organized framework of legal analysis based on the premise that race is not a natural, biologically grounded feature of physically distinct subgroups of human beings but a socially constructed (culturally invented) category that is used to oppress and exploit people of colour. Critical race theorists hold that the law and legal institutions in the United States are inherently racist insofar as they function to create and maintain social, economic, and political inequalities between whites and nonwhites, especially African Americans.

Bias?

As an example of the unconsious bias that permeates our society, the job numbers for June were really good. According to an article by Kristan Broady and Carl Romer of the Metropolitan Policy Program, the Bureau of Labor Statistics jobs report for June, released earlier this week, showed a continuation of the steady economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nationally, 850,000 jobs were added last month. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly, to 5.9%, after falling from 6.1% in April to 5.8% in May.

The numbers are robust, but the gains are uneven. Blacks continue to have the highest unemployment rate, an established trend. 

A Racist Trope

A lot of jobs are opening up. Yet, many postions are going unfilled. I know people who would say, "They're just lazy." "Black people have no incentive to look for work because of government payouts." Both statement are based on bias. If they are true, there are plenty of white people who would take those jobs. Please ask yourself, why haven't they? 

Rational Reasons

The article from The Brookings Institute, "Despite June’s positive jobs numbers, Black workers continue to face high unemployment", points out mitigating circimstance. 

While June’s 850,000-job increase is promising, the number of people who are not in the labor force but who currently want a job is at 6.4 million—up by 1.4 million since February 2020. These people are not counted in the unemployment rate because they had not actively looked for work within the last four weeks. Racial disparities in unemployment also continue, with Black workers—particularly, Black teens—experiencing the highest unemployment rates. As the recovery continues, employers, government officials, and policymakers must continue to consider Americans who will be impacted by expiring enhanced unemployment benefits, as well as those who are not actively looking for work due to problems in transportation access, a lack of child care, or other issues.

The situation is not as simple as some would have us believe. 

Critical Race Theory would have us start the discussion from a point of an informed conversation, taking into account all of the factors that have led us to this point. In other words, we need to take in perspectives that have been suppressed or withheld for more than four centuries and apply them to today's problems.

Binary Thinking Missed Opportunities

Binary Thinking 

My day started with a bit of irony.

The mayor sent me a letter saying I would not be selected to serve on a commission I wanted to participate with. She found other candidates that better fit the state requirements for diversity. In a touch of irony, the letter was addressed to Ms. Kim Grehn.

Hey, I've dealt with this misunderstanding (prejudice?) my whole life. But trust me, there are other males named Kim. I went to a party once where there were three men named Kim. Yes, the axis of the earth tilted slightly, no harm was done.

So many of us are binary thinkers. There could only be two ways of thinking, right? Anything else is an outlier, strange even. Taken to an extreme, feared. Fear of the 'other' is exploited by certain groups of politicians and  certain religious leaders to create the illusion they have the answers that will keep us all safe. They will play on our fears and phobias.

Trans Fear

My situation doesn't even come close to the fears being exploited over the prejudice against people who fall outside the binary explanations of sexuality. It's being used now to ban trans individuals from participating in sports activities based on their gender identity.

There's an article in Psychology Today about the fear of gender identity that may fall outside what is considered by some to be the norm. That assumption alone is dangerous because it marginalizes people.

What Precisely Do Transgender People Threaten?

By Karen L. Blair Ph.D.

I'll drop down to the conclusions. You can read the article. You might see a glimmer of enlightenment.

In other words, if you strongly believe that there are only two sexes and that those two sexes always create two genders, and that it is not possible for someone to change from being one gender to another, being presented with a masculine trans man (someone who was identified female at birth) who visually and behaviorally is indistinguishable from a cisgender man, may be a very jarring experience that challenges binary beliefs about gender. Furthermore, gender conforming trans individuals may elicit distinctiveness threat because if you yourself are a man and hinge a great deal of your identity on being a man, what does this piece of your identity really mean if someone born female can ‘pass’ as being just “as much of a man” as you? Thus, the more an individual strongly believes in the gender binary, the more threatening transgender individuals (especially those who ‘pass’) are to that individual’s own personal identity as either a man or a woman.


Finally, it is important to emphasize that a transgender individual’s gender expression is not responsible for eliciting the prejudice of others. Rather, transprejudice stems from an internal process in which the person holding the prejudice experiences a threat to an aspect of their own identity, and thus lashes out against trans individuals as a means of trying to reaffirm the boundaries surrounding important aspects how they define their identity—in this case, their gender.

Undervalue leads to underestimating

Open your mind, listen and learn. The world is not binary. 

Your fear of others is holding people back. Your fear is holding you back.

Finding News You Can Trust

What to look for

UCMerced put together some really clear guidelines on what news consumers should be looking for.

Characteristics of Reputable Newspapers

• publishes accurate content; checks facts, and if errors are made, corrects them
• uses reputable sources (people, documentation) and verifies those sources
• presents headlines which accurately represent the article content; headlines don't play on readers' emotions
• clearly identifies authors of articles with bylines
• produces its own content; doesn't merely aggregate content from other sources
• clearly identifies content types (e.g. report vs. editorial)
• conducts reporting not just editorializing
• employs journalists who follow the profession's code of ethics
• Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ) Code of Ethics, four main sections: Seek Truth and Report It, Minimize Harm, Act Independently, Be Accountable and Transparent
• 10 Elements to Good Journalism (American Institute Press), selected from Kovach and Rosenstiel's book The Elements of Journalism.

As long as public a radio and television can continue to meet these standards, it will continue to meet the expectations of its audience. These standards need to adhered to no matter the platform.

Pew Research points out who you trust depends on your politics, but do politics make for reliable news? 

According to Melissa Zimdars, assistant professor of communication & media, Merrimack College, this is what you should watch out for. 

• Avoid websites that end in “lo” ex: Newslo. These sites take pieces of accurate information and then packaging that information with other false or misleading “facts” (sometimes for the purposes of satire or comedy). Example: Newslo also using URL politicot.com (similar to a legitimate news site)

• Watch out for websites that end in “.com.co” as they are often fake versions of real news sources. Example: abcnews.com.co (This domain is now available.)

• Watch out if known/reputable news sites are not also reporting on the story. Sometimes lack of coverage is the result of corporate media bias and other factors, but there should typically be more than one source reporting on a topic or event.

• Odd domain names generally equal odd and rarely truthful news.

• Lack of author attribution may, but not always, signify that the news story is suspect and requires verification.

• Some news organizations are also letting bloggers post under the banner of particular news brands; however, many of these posts do not go through the same editing process (ex: BuzzFeed Community Posts, Kinja blogs, Forbes blogs).

• Check the “About Us” tab on websites or look up the website on Snopes or Wikipedia for more information about the source.

• Bad web design and use of ALL CAPS can also be a sign that the source you’re looking at should be verified and/or read in conjunction with other sources. Example: Drudge Report

• If the story makes you REALLY ANGRY it’s probably a good idea to keep reading about the topic via other sources to make sure the story you read wasn’t purposefully trying to make you angry (with potentially misleading or false information) in order to generate shares and ad revenue.

• If the website you’re reading encourages you to DOX individuals, it’s unlikely to be a legitimate source of news.  DOX refers to publishing an individual's personal information with the intent of causing harm.

Naming Names

• It’s always best to read multiple sources of information to get a variety of viewpoints and media frames. Some sources not yet included in this list (although their practices at times may qualify them for addition), such as The Daily Kos, The Huffington Post, and Fox News, vacillate between providing important, legitimate, problematic, and/or hyperbolic news coverage, requiring readers and viewers to verify and contextualize information with other sources.

In The Middle

If you're looking for something centrist as your news source, the University of Michigan came up with these names.

Common Ground: Centrist News Sources

Wall Street Journal
Daily business-focused newspaper based out of New York City.

The Wall Street Journal has a bias rating of "Center" according to AllSides. The Pew Research Center found that the Wall Street Journal is read by people of all political leanings and is the only news source that is more trusted than distrusted by people all across the political spectrum. There is, however, some debate but it has been accused of being biased to both the left and the right.

BBC News
The British Broadcasting Corporation News division produces television, radio, and internet news. The BBC is a public service broadcaster established by a Royal Charter of the United Kingdom.

The BBC News has a bias rating of "Center" from AllSides. According to Pew, BBC is more trusted than distrusted among the different ideological groups except for consistently conservative individuals who view BBC as about equally trusted as distrusted.

USA Today
American daily newspaper that provides both news and entertainment coverage.

USA Today has a bias rating of "Center" from AllSides. According to the Pew survey, USA Today is more trusted than distrusted among the different ideological groups except for consistently conservatives who view USA Today as more distrusted than trusted.

Almost Center News Sources

The following news sources are rated as "Center" by AllSides and are noted for stating an independent and unbiased agenda, as well as consistently providing balanced coverage (giving time to both sides of an issue). However, they are listed here as almost center because of audience distrust from conservatives.

Respondents to the Pew survey who are consistently liberal, mostly liberal, and mixed views, rated these sources as more trusted than distrusted. Mostly conservatives rated them as about equally trusted as distrusted; Consistently conservatives rated them as more distrusted than trusted.

NPR
National Public Radio is a U.S. private and publicly funded non-profit organization that syndicates to a network of local stations.

PBS NewsHour
The Public Broadcasting Service is a non-commercial U.S. television broadcaster and distributor.

Looking Further

Look to Reuters, The Associated Press, The Times, The Post, The Hill, Politico, and The Week for more coverage. Other perspectives can be found by reading Op-ed pieces from a broad range of columnists, conservative, moderate and liberal. Search for writers with legitimate journalism credibility. Rumor mongers and punditry are less reliable. (Public media users tend to be turned off by these two groups.)

Finding reliable news sources can be problematic. Algorithms tend to classify you by your clicks. If you happen to click on a particular kind of sight (Conservative or Progressive), the algorithms will send you more of the same. The system will reinforce that particular viewpoint. It makes looking for diverse viewpoints and opinions more difficult. Aiming your search to centrist sources help mitigate that problem.

 

 

Segregation Is Holding Us Back

Implicit Bias

Diversity and inclusion are indicators of a strong society. Still, segregation persists. 

WalletHub measured the gaps between blacks and whites across 22 key indicators of equality and integration in each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Their data set ranges from median annual income to standardized-test scores to voter turnout. #diversity #inclusion #equality

Most Segregated States

The least diverse states are all up north. The results didn't surprise me, but I used to live in one of these states and I experienced some of the aspects of systemic racism, most notably, a bank loan officer who pulled out his redline map. He said I could not get a loan for houses in certain areas because they were black neighborhoods. 

Could it be because of systemic barriers? 

Here's a series of videos that define systemic barriers.   

Race Forward

They include:

The Wealth Gap

Employment

Housing Discrimination

Government Surveillance

Incarceration

We cannot do anything about the past. We can do something moving forward.

Race in America

Post Racist America?

I don't think so!

I see and hear racism a lot. Maybe it's because of how my family embraces diversity. Maybe it's because of how this election has brought a deep divide about hate and bigotry.

I was waiting in line to buy a newspaper this morning. The man in front of me was teasing the woman behind the counter calling her Momma. After he left she confided, "I'm not his Momma. I hate when he calls me that. He works here. They're all like that, you know." 

He was black. She was an older white woman.

There was an implicit bias in what she said. I was on the verge of saying something like, "This man does not represent an entire race. His actions represent himself. Why don't you just ask him nicely to stop?"

I let it pass. Maybe I shouldn't have.