Use Your Difference to Make a Difference

2Education of Self (Internal Culture)

What Does Your Bias Say about You?

The first thing to understand about your internal culture is your bias. Bias is an inclination or prejudice for or against one person or group. Unconscious bias is the unconscious feelings we have toward other people and groups. Being biased doesn't automatically make us racist or sexist. Biases are human inclinations and ways for us to make decisions in life. Biases allow us to make shortcuts as we go about our days and act as a filter. They are the ways we categorize, view, perceive, remember, connect, and learn about culture.

Although this emotion is not always negative, examining your own possible biases is an important step to understanding the roots of stereotypes and prejudices in our society today. These biases inform every decision we make (what we teach, who we hire, who we fire, who we promote, the marketing programs and policies we create and/or support).

Understanding Unconscious Bias

As a diversity and inclusion consultant, I lead a lot of unconscious bias workshops. One of the things I do is to list out the most common types of biases that influence our everyday lives. I go through them because it is important for me to show my clients how their inherent biases translate ambiguous pieces of information into meaningful thoughts. I want people to see how our biases impact connection in the following ways:

• Our worldviews: how we see people and the world.
• Our attitudes and behaviors: how we ...