This piece was rejected by The Recorder with I thought an appropriate and concise email: "Thank you very much for your submission. While it is a very creative approach to addressing the issues of bias and racism, I don’t feel it will speak directly to our readers." The Recorder's readers are lawyers, after all, and their creativity is limited...as is their interest in addressing their own bias, so I was hopeful, but I was not surprised (one of my attorney friends said, "OMG! I hope they publish it. The Recorder is the most boring, dry publication ever!"). Ah, pues. I haven't heard from Salon.com and submitted three weeks ago, so I've printed my article here. I am simply too lazy to search for another publisher...and it's hard to fight for something I don't really think will make a difference.
Got Bias?
It wasn’t the first time I dreamt that I was a White guy, but it was the first time I had a girlfriend. She was almost a redhead if the light hit her just right, but really, she was a brunette with curly locks that cascaded halfway down her back. We were driving - well, I was driving - a road trip of unknown duration to an unknown location, but despite the sun shining brightly and me feeling certain we had just hit the road, it was already feeling like a very long day.
After she finished putting on way too much make-up for such a journey, she pulled out a can of hairspray and mid-sentence fumigated the passenger seat. As I choked on the drifting fog, I complained, “Don’t put on hairspray in the car!” An argument ensued. It felt typical.
I knew where we were on the interstate, the neighborhood that Whites like myself avoided at all costs, but I exited anyway, tired of the bickering and the frilly girlfriend I never thought of leaving. I pulled into the parking lot of some local bar, a place connected to my consciousness by a large, dingy sign that stood high enough to be seen from the freeway. When I walked through the front door, I went from nervous to edgy.
All (four) of the patrons and the three bartenders were Black. An old man at a rickety round table looked up slowly and locked his gaze. One by one, they stared at us ... all except for one large bartender who was more concerned with cleaning beer mugs.
My girlfriend sped toward the bathroom, no doubt eager to vacate the main hall to tend to her grooming. I sauntered over to the bar, trying to seem like nothing was amiss. The one bartender stopped cleaning glasses, looked up casually, and said, “That’s your girlfriend? She’s cute.” How I yearned to seem cool to these Black guys. Was this my chance? I replied, “You like her? You can have her!”
Wait, is this the story that will make the difference? ....
"When were these pictures taken?" he asked. "Right after the accident?"
"No, Your Honor. I believe they were taken in May of the following year."
He shook his head at me in disdain.
"I never claimed damage to my vehicle," I explained. "Defendant's insurance company filed a claim against mine and sent an adjuster." He rolled his eyes and continued to sway his head from side to side. I was so confused. It was the person who rear-ended me while I was at a full stop who then filed a claim against me through his auto insurer and whose adjuster found damage I never asserted. No, it doesn’t make sense, but the nonsense is not my own doing. .... Besides, we were there for my pain and suffering from the consequent whiplash, so why the hostility about something not in dispute? Why, ultimately, award me only $500 for a year and a half of uncontested symptomatology that cost over $7000 to treat?
Then I remembered....
Oh, right, I’m Black.
.... That will definitely not make the difference.
My boss fired me after my supervisor told me to “act Blacker” and I complained of discrimination, admitting she was motivated by my recitation of employment rights. The arbitrator ruled against any finding of race-based retaliation or discrimination....
No....
My supervisor at Legal Aid (!) pushed me down on a couch during an office party demanding a “sexual massage”....
No....
Your data suggest:
a strong automatic preference for Fat People compared to Thin People
a strong automatic preference for Dark Skin compared to Light Skin
a slight automatic preference for Gay People compared to Straight People
a slight automatic preference for Abled Persons compared to Disabled Persons
a moderate association of Female with Science and Male with Liberal Arts compared to Male with Science and Female with Liberal Arts
Heavy sigh. It will have far greater impact on people for them to take their own Project Implicit ® preferences tests than to read my self-analyses.
Okay, how about instead we try this out for size:
Imagine you are casting a few films with any stars (or D-listers) you want. Whom do you pick for the following? Yes, I mean for you to write the names down as you go. Descriptions are okay, too, e.g., “co-star of Thursday night romantic comedy show.” You will know whom you mean.
Independent Soldier - Disguised as a lieutenant in the Confederate Army, this “independent soldier” joins up with a regiment just in time to fight at the Battle of Bull Run, and the following year in 1862 is arrested for being a possible Union spy, cleared of the charges ... but guilty?
role of soldier:
________________________________________________________
No. 10 - Not many passengers slept through the 1912 collision of RMS Titanic with that infamous iceberg, but one awakens afterward to knocking on the cabin door and the second-class call, “Put on your life vest!” After three times being turned back trying to make way to the lifeboats, our passenger manages to slip past a guard and fill the last seat on Lifeboat No. 10.
role of passenger:
________________________________________________________
An All-American Jedi - A graduate of Queens College, this former NYPD cadet lived for football and Star Wars until the morning of Sept. 11, 2001. When terrorists strike the twin towers, this newly hired Howard Hughes Medical Institute researcher and biochemist bravely rushes to the site to assist victims ... and disappears. For weeks afterward, family members search desperately until in March 2002, remains are identified in the rubble of Ground Zero.
role of hero:
________________________________________________________
role of hero:
________________________________________________________
A Hero Comes Home - Born in Alabama as the youngest of three children, this eventual astronaut is introduced to the world of science by a cherished uncle. But before launching into space, our young scientist must return from a Cambodian refugee camp.
role of astronaut:
________________________________________________________
Spelled Just Like It Sounds - A patent lawyer with a multi-syllabic last name waits anxiously on election night as votes are tallied for the position of Superior Court judge. Losing previous races for rent board member and transit commissioner as well as a judge’s seat two years prior, will this time be the charm?
role of lawyer:
________________________________________________________
If you’re anything like the participants of my workshop at the recent Leadership & Social Justice Conference, you have overwhelmingly chosen White males under 40 years of age to lead these productions. In fact, Independent Soldier is about Loreta Janeta Velazquez, a Cuban born woman of 20 years at the time she disguised herself as a man and went into battle. No. 10 in real life stars Masabumi Hosono, a Japanese man of 42 years. An All-American Jedi stars Mohammad Salman Hamdani, a Pakistani-American man of 24 years. A Hero Comes Home is about Dr. Mae Jemison, an African-American woman who was 22 years old when she volunteered at the camp in Thailand and 36 years old when she traveled into space. Spelled Just Like It Sounds stars Victoria Kolakowski, a Male-To-Female Polish-American transgender of 50 years when she was elected to the bench.
By now, I would think the majority of people understand the problems of bias and how they effect hiring, expectations, performance, justice, politics, socialization, and economy. But I suspect most people think these problems are of “them”, not “us”, not “me”. Perhaps this little exercise inspired a moment to ponder your Self? I hope so.
If nothing else, dreaming of being that particular White guy finding myself in a Black neighborhood bar taught me biases are not always catapulting from a bad place but sometimes from the very human place of needing to fit in, be accepted, feel safe and valued. The impact is obvious: in my (dream) case, racism and misogyny, but if I’d only known what I was doing - and why - I could have alleviated if not prevented the damage.
Maybe that understanding will make the difference for all of us....
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