Question

Do you feel implicit biases about African Americans exist? If so, what are some of the biases and how are they harmful?

Answer 1

The term “implicit bias” refers to attitudes, stereotypes, or associations that we are not aware of but which can influence our judgments and actions. Which means serious social problem is partly based on automatic, unintended cognitive processes

As per me, I strongly feel there exist implicit biases about African Americans. Too often, racism is seen as a social phenomenon that happens to black people. But it happens through black people as well.

In the criminal justice system, implicit racial bias can negatively influence decisions made by judges. For example, research on capital punishment shows that killers of White victims are more likely to be sentenced to death than are killers of Black victims and that Black defendants are more likely than White defendants to receive the death penalty. Other research shows that defendants with more afro-centric facial features are given longer sentences than defendants with fewer afro-centric features.

Many people stereotypically associate African Americans with violence and weapons, causing them in simulations to “fire” guns more often when presented with images of unarmed black persons, and less often when facing images of armed white persons.

Implicit racial bias can also influence many of the most important decisions we make in our personal, professional, and social lives: where we live, where we work, who our children’s friends are, who our friends are, which political candidates we vote for, what social programs we support, etc. For most Americans all of these issues are influenced by racial attitudes.

Why are black people sicker, and why do they die earlier, than other racial groups? Many factors likely contribute to the increased morbidity and mortality among black people. It is undeniable, though, that one of those factors is the care that they receive from their providers. Black people simply are not receiving the same quality of health care that their white counterparts receive, and this second-rate health care is shortening their lives.

NAM ( National Academy of Medicine) found that “racial and ethnic minorities receive lower-quality health care than white people—even when insurance status, income, age, and severity of conditions are comparable.” By “lower-quality health care,” NAM meant the concrete, inferior care that physicians give their black patients. NAM reported that minority persons are less likely than white persons to be given appropriate cardiac care, to receive kidney dialysis or transplants, and to receive the best treatments for stroke, cancer, or AIDS. It concluded by describing an “uncomfortable reality”: “some people in the United States were more likely to die from cancer, heart disease, and diabetes simply because of their race or ethnicity, not just because they lack access to health care.”

One study of 400 hospitals in the United States showed that black patients with heart disease received older, cheaper, and more conservative treatments than their white counterparts.

African Americans have learned to expect bias in their lives from an early age, and very little has been done to counteract the effects associated with implicit biases.

This problem is also faced by African American children. A study by Yale University faculty found that preschool teachers looking to prevent behavioral problems focused on black male students significantly more than their peers.  Resulting differences in discipline exposure by race lead to juvenile incarceration, lower graduation rates, diminishing academic achievement, higher incidences of future poverty.

If black students experience the effects of implicit bias from the first day they step into a school, how can we expect them to develop healthy or positive attitudes toward authority figures later in life?