美国国家公共电台 NPR A Lesson In How To Overcome Implicit Bias

 

AILSA CHANG, HOST:

Starbucks' plan to close all of its U.S. stores for an afternoon to give their employees racial bias¹ training has a lot of people asking, will this even work? We know little about what the training will include. Starbucks has said they'll be looking at implicit² bias, among other things. For some thoughts about how all of this might go down, we called up Alexis McGill Johnson. She runs racial bias workshops for the Perception Institute. I began by asking her, what exactly is implicit bias?

ALEXIS MCGILL JOHNSON: Implicit bias is our brains' automatic processing of negative stereotypes³ that have become embedded⁴ in our brains over time about particular groups of people oftentimes without our conscious awareness⁵. They are essentially⁶ associations that we've come to link with particular groups' traits and characteristics that help us navigate⁷ and make quick decisions about who those people are.

CHANG: But my first question to that is, can you actually teach implicit bias out of somebody? Can you recircuit the brain?

JOHNSON: Yeah, can you actually retrain your brain to see people differently?

CHANG: Yeah.

JOHNSON: Absolutely. Can you do it in a short period of time - absolutely not. It's taken centuries for our brains to create these negative schemas about particular groups of people that have been marginalized in society. And so it will take a really concerted, intentional⁸ effort to develop the counter-stereotypes that are required to move them out of our brains and replace them with others.

CHANG: So give us some concrete examples of how you would try to cultivate awareness of biases⁹ in ourselves. How do you teach this?

JOHNSON: Well, actually, I kind of think our workshops are quite fun and quite disarming¹⁰. We use the science of how our brains work. We start with an idea of a fairness paradox¹¹, this idea that most of us believe ourselves to be fundamentally fair. We believe in the egalitarian of all races and genders¹². And yet these behaviors arise, and then we cannot explain - we can't account for the disparity in outcomes.

And so the question we've raised at Perception is perhaps the way we've been practicing fairness is flawed. We've been taught to be colorblind. We've been taught that we can be objective when it comes to evaluating people, and the science suggests that sometimes our values aren't sufficient for us to actually practice those pieces because our brains see race very quickly.

CHANG: Yeah.

JOHNSON: They see gender¹³ very quickly and end up overriding¹⁴ that.

CHANG: But what would you - like, give me an exercise you would do at one of these workshops to sort of illustrate¹⁵ that tension.

JOHNSON: Sure. Why don't we do this. So the radius¹⁶ of a wheel is called a...

CHANG: Spoke¹⁷.

JOHNSON: I tell you something funny. It's a...

CHANG: Joke.

JOHNSON: I don't drink Pepsi. I like...

CHANG: Coke.

JOHNSON: The white part of an egg is called a...

CHANG: Yoke¹⁸.

JOHNSON: No.

CHANG: Oh.

JOHNSON: The white part of an egg is called an egg white (laughter).

CHANG: Oh, my God, you totally pulled me in. Wait. How am I learning about racial bias in that? (Laughter) Connect the dots for me.

JOHNSON: Yes, absolutely - right? - because your brain was automatically processing things, right?

CHANG: Yeah.

JOHNSON: It was anticipating things, right?

CHANG: Yes.

JOHNSON: Your brain has...

CHANG: Yes.

JOHNSON: I like to say our brains are like Google - right? - that every experience you've had, every show you've watched, everything that you've read - I mean, we develop, derive¹⁹ bias from just seeing certain pairings of words together over time. And those bits of information help us navigate our unconscious processes.

CHANG: OK, but you are talking about rejiggering some really fundamental processes going on in the human brain. And it sounds like this Starbucks training might just be one afternoon. Given your experience, how much can you accomplish in one afternoon? Would that even be meaningful?

JOHNSON: I think at best it will spark curiosity and an awareness that biases do not make us bad people - they actually make us human - but that we do have a capacity to override²⁰ them. And it's really important for us to build in systems and practices that help us do that.

CHANG: Alexis McGill Johnson is executive director of the Perception Institute. Thanks very much for joining us today.

JOHNSON: Thank you so much for having me.

1 bias   

n.偏见，偏心，偏袒；vt.使有偏见

参考例句：

• They are accusing the teacher of political bias in his marking.他们在指控那名教师打分数有政治偏见。
• He had a bias toward the plan.他对这项计划有偏见。

2 implicit   

a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的

参考例句：

• A soldier must give implicit obedience to his officers. 士兵必须绝对服从他的长官。
• Her silence gave implicit consent. 她的沉默表示默许。

3 stereotypes   

n.老套，模式化的见解，有老一套固定想法的人( stereotype的名词复数 )v.把…模式化，使成陈规( stereotype的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Such jokes tend to reinforce racial stereotypes. 这样的笑话容易渲染种族偏见。
• It makes me sick to read over such stereotypes devoid of content. 这种空洞无物的八股调，我看了就讨厌。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

4 embedded   

a.扎牢的

参考例句：

• an operation to remove glass that was embedded in his leg 取出扎入他腿部玻璃的手术
• He has embedded his name in the minds of millions of people. 他的名字铭刻在数百万人民心中。

5 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

6 essentially   

adv.本质上，实质上，基本上

参考例句：

• Really great men are essentially modest.真正的伟人大都很谦虚。
• She is an essentially selfish person.她本质上是个自私自利的人。

7 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

8 intentional   

adj.故意的，有意（识）的

参考例句：

• Let me assure you that it was not intentional.我向你保证那不是故意的。
• His insult was intentional.他的侮辱是有意的。

9 biases   

偏见( bias的名词复数 )； 偏爱； 特殊能力； 斜纹

参考例句：

• Stereotypes represent designer or researcher biases and assumptions, rather than factual data. 它代表设计师或者研究者的偏见和假设，而不是实际的数据。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• The net effect of biases on international comparisons is easily summarized. 偏差对国际比较的基本影响容易概括。

10 disarming   

adj.消除敌意的，使人消气的v.裁军( disarm的现在分词 )；使息怒

参考例句：

• He flashed her a disarming smile. 他朝她笑了一下，让她消消气。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• We will agree to disarming troops and leaving their weapons at military positions. 我们将同意解除军队的武装并把武器留在军事阵地。 来自辞典例句

11 paradox   

n.似乎矛盾却正确的说法；自相矛盾的人(物)

参考例句：

• The story contains many levels of paradox.这个故事存在多重悖论。
• The paradox is that Japan does need serious education reform.矛盾的地方是日本确实需要教育改革。

12 genders   

n.性某些语言的（阳性、阴性和中性，不同的性有不同的词尾等）( gender的名词复数 )；性别；某些语言的（名词、代词和形容词）性的区分

参考例句：

• There are three genders in German: masculine, feminine and neuter. 德语中有叁性：阳性、阴性和中性。 来自辞典例句
• Japan was fourth among the genders of foreign students. 日本在二十个留美学生输送地中列第四位。 来自互联网

13 gender   

n.（生理上的）性，（名词、代词等的）性

参考例句：

• French differs from English in having gender for all nouns.法语不同于英语，所有的名词都有性。
• Women are sometimes denied opportunities solely because of their gender.妇女有时仅仅因为性别而无法获得种种机会。

14 overriding   

a.最主要的

参考例句：

• Development is of overriding importance. 发展是硬道理
• My overriding concern is to raise the standards of state education. 我最关心的是提高国民教育水平。

15 illustrate   

v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图

参考例句：

• The company's bank statements illustrate its success.这家公司的银行报表说明了它的成功。
• This diagram will illustrate what I mean.这个图表可说明我的意思。

16 radius   

n.半径，半径范围；有效航程，范围，界限

参考例句：

• He has visited every shop within a radius of two miles.周围两英里以内的店铺他都去过。
• We are measuring the radius of the circle.我们正在测量圆的半径。

17 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

18 yoke   

n.轭；支配；v.给...上轭，连接，使成配偶

参考例句：

• An ass and an ox,fastened to the same yoke,were drawing a wagon.驴子和公牛一起套在轭上拉车。
• The defeated army passed under the yoke.败军在轭门下通过。

19 derive   

v.取得；导出；引申；来自；源自；出自

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• We shall derive much benefit from reading good novels.我们将从优秀小说中获得很大好处。

20 override   

vt.不顾，不理睬，否决；压倒，优先于

参考例句：

• The welfare of a child should always override the wishes of its parents.孩子的幸福安康应该永远比父母的愿望来得更重要。
• I'm applying in advance for the authority to override him.我提前申请当局对他进行否决。