Earlier this year, the police brutally murdered George Floyd. Videos quickly circulated, showing a police officer kneeling on George’s neck for almost 9 minutes, while George repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe,” before dying of asphyxiation.
This is not the first police-related death, and it wasn’t the last. People continue to die at the hands of the police. How is it that men and women—sworn to protect and serve—are now considered by many to be the enemy? With so many people protesting the injustice of what happened to George Floyd and the riots that followed, my company’s CEO gave everyone a copy of Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do by Jennifer L. Eberhardt.
I’ll be honest. This was not the book I would have picked. I hadn’t even heard of this book before. It was also absent from many suggested reading lists that popped up all over the internet during this time.
However, I did ultimately find this to be an informative, well-written, educational book. And while the title seems to indicate it’s generally about bias, it is more specifically about race-related bias.
“Our ideas about race are shaped by the stereotypes to which we are exposed on a daily basis. And one of the strongest stereotypes in American society associates blacks with criminality.”
Eberhardt presents her information set within the context of her work with the Oakland police department and her brief time teaching introductory social psychology to inmates at San Quentin. She mixes anecdotes from her work- and life-experiences with many eye-opening statistics such as the one in the following quote.
“Some five million children—roughly 7 percent of all children living in the United States—have a parent who is currently or was previously incarcerated, according to data from the National Survey of Children’s Health.”
Overall, Biased is a decent introduction to bias and how it often unconsciously impairs our ability to be fair-minded and free from stereotypes and racism. The main point she makes is that everyone has biases, everyone is affected by bias. The goal is to recognize, if we can, what’s causing our bias and to try to see the world without it.
This is a good book to read if you’re looking for something close to home. I’m from San Jose, so I found it interesting to read about Oakland, which is nearby. However, if you’re looking for a book about bias in general or more specific information on racism, the history of racism in the US, or on how to combat racism, that’s not what this book is.
“It’s implausible to believe that officers—or anyone else—can be immersed in an environment that repetitively exposes them to the categorical pairing of blacks with crime and not have that affect how they think, feel, or behave.”
I have three main critiques:
- The chapter dedicated to the “Unite the Right” march, which occurred near UVA in 2017, doesn’t feel completely relevant and seems a bit out of place.
- When introducing statistics about Airbnb and Nextdoor, I felt she went overboard explaining these companies’ concepts. On the flip side, she mentioned Uber once or twice with no explanation.
- The author offers minimal to no solutions or suggestions for continued reading, learning, etc.
“How do we know when we are being insensitive or unfair? How much of who we are and how we feel is dictated by things outside our awareness or control? How often are we really the tolerant, fair-minded person we want to be? And how can we learn to check ourselves and mute the negative impact that bias can have?”