Building Cultural Bridges - How To Overcome Biases

TED Talk: How to Overcome Our Biases: Walk Boldly Toward Them

Our biases can be dangerous, even deadly — as we've seen in the cases of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and Eric Garner, in Staten Island, New York. Diversity advocate Vernā Myers looks closely at some of the subconscious attitudes we hold toward out-groups. She makes a plea to all people: Acknowledge your biases. Then move toward, not away from, the groups that make you uncomfortable. In a funny, impassioned, important talk, she shows us how.

Why you should listen

Vernā Myers is a diversity consultant and self-described "recovering lawyer" with a degree from Harvard Law. She leads the Vernā Myers Consulting Group, an organization that has helped break down barriers of race, gender, ethnicity and sexual orientation in thousand-member workplaces. She is also the author of Moving Diversity Forward: How to Go from Well-Meaning to Well-Doing.

Myers encourages us to recognize our own biases in order to actively combat them, emphasizing a "low guilt, high responsibility" philosophy. In her work she points to her own inner biases, because, as she says, "People relax when they know the diversity lady has her own issues."

Interested in identifying your unconscious biases?

Project Implicit is a non-profit organization and international collaboration between researchers who are interested in implicit social cognition - thoughts and feelings outside of conscious awareness and control. The goal of the organization is to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a “virtual laboratory” for collecting data on the Internet.

Project Implicit was founded in 1998 by three scientists – Tony Greenwald (University of Washington), Mahzarin Banaji (Harvard University), and Brian Nosek (University of Virginia). Project Implicit Mental Health launched in 2011, led by Bethany Teachman (University of Virginia) and Matt Nock (Harvard University). Project Implicit also provides consulting services, lectures, and workshops on implicit bias, diversity and inclusion, leadership, applying science to practice, and innovation.

Go To: Project Implicit

Buddy Jones & Friends

Buddy Jones & Friends is about preservation, renewal, and celebration. Our cultural activities include West African drumming, agriculture/construction wood reclamation and sculpture (old growth grapevines and old buildings), storytelling, food, and African American history. Our activities are designed for all ages and particularly engagement of youth in the larger community and in culture and art. We have recently started a historic touring program that celebrates Allensworth State Park and the contribution of African American contractors to California’s National Parks (Yosemite, Sequoia, and Kings Canyon).

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