Witness: unconscious bias
I do agree with Josephine Kwhali when she discusses the “unconscious bias” being used a free out jail card. Racism and issues around bias have been discussed for far too long for people to use ignorance as an excuse. The discourse that people still need to be educated and called out is somehow quite convenient for the perpetrators of the status quo. It really brings back the question of ‘educated by whom?’ by the same people that already feel oppressed, pretered and having to prove their abilities twice as hard? Not very fair and just another way of maintaining the inequalities without being called out.
https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/knowledge-hub/retention-and-attainment-disciplines-art-and-design
After reading some SON passages, I started questioning my place in talking about race with students. Is it my place to bring this conversation when the context of my teaching practice does not touch on the subject of race or minorities? Science is quite controversially racist with many problematic moments of eugenistic points of view, but aside from ALL THAT, science in its core of experimentation and questioning is rather democratic. When a student comes to observe a plant or a microbe on the microscope we start dealing with the interspecies relationships and not human interactions. When we talk about working with DNA or experiment with chemistry, we are not looking into one’s skin colour or cultural background.
Perhaps is not up to me to bring race in the teaching practice but to think about it when creating a space where students feel welcome and heard. Where they won’t feel they don’t belong or they need to prove themselves to be heard, which should apply for any space within the University and beyond. Of course, that does not mean that I wish to wash my hands and step away from the subject, I’m just weary of my place and limitations and don’t want to shoe horn subjects in the wrong place and time. Perhaps I need to reflect further on how to make people feel welcome and how can I contribute to decrease the amount of drop-outs and all those worrying statistics that were brought up.
I, myself, grew up as white/mixed Brazilian and soon after moving to the UK found out that I’m indeed not white, I’m Latina (apparently). I always knew that I have the most wonderful mix of bloods within my family, Brazilian indigenous, black, European white, Brazilian white. Here in the UK I’m mixed race (other). Then I get questioned about which mix, if Caribbean or Asian. None. I’m none of that. Should I go back being just white even though I know I don’t pass as one? It’s a weird set of boxes that we are forced to fill and although the statistics are important and the questions need answering, when we don’t have enough boxes to fill, we become no one or inflate the wrong numbers.
Maybe my place of rediscovering my own race based on the eyes of others (this country in this context) can be a starting point to exercise the empathy with our diverse body of students. The difference between how we see ourselves and how that changes based on the environment we are it, can be the parallel I need to explore this subject in the context of science and nature.
- Comments found on:
- https://mira.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/07/14/inclusive-practices-race/
- https://relearning.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/05/29/decolonising-the-university/
- https://anz2023.myblog.arts.ac.uk/2023/07/16/blog-3-race/
5 replies on “Race and bias”
Hi Paula
I enjoyed reading your post. It’s interesting that you say that you know that you don’t pass as white, when my assumption without reading your post would have been to describe you as white. It reminds me of the seminar when we were asked to describe identities from photos of people and how this was challenged by our cohort as been very problematic. Whilst I agree with the discussion raised in the group regarding the exercise, in the absence of all the facts and details, I wonder whether we do make assumptions as part of the human experience rather than simply an attempt to stereotype or make judgements. I say this because my assumption about your identity was not rooted in any form of prejudice.
It’s interesting when you say that rediscovering your own race based on the eyes of others could be the pathway to understanding the experiences of racialised students. I have been exploring the idea of starting with the ‘self’ in the development of my artefact. It’s not too dissimilar to how the initial tasks in ‘Inclusive Practice’ asked us to reflect on our positionality. The understanding of ‘self’ really is important in how we understand and relate to others. I’m reminded of psychoanalysis.
Anyway, thank you for your posts.
Hi Shade,
Very interesting how sometimes those things are really on the eyes of the beholder and we just need to learn how to go along. This repositioning of how I classify myself wasn’t something I imparted on myself, by the way, was a product of conversations I had with other people that brought this awareness about how I am perceived and made me reflect on it.
By all means I don’t want to imply that I experienced any sort of prejudice as I haven’t to the extend that it stopped me from progressing. I’m fully aware of my privileges and never felt uncomfortable or un-belonging to a space, which unfortunately are the experiences of many students from different ethnic backgrounds. I’ve felt the need to adjust, adapt and prove due to being an immigrant but a white passing one nonetheless.
But for me, is the shift of how you are perceived differs based on which spaces you navigate. Amongst white Brazilians, I’m one of them and always navigated that space of privilege. The way you perceive me is also based on your background. Amongst white Europeans is a different story. Perhaps due to their deeply problematic obsession with not being mixed being ingrained in the way they see others. But I can’t speak for those and luckily they’re not the majority, just a bit louder than it should. So if myself, with all the privileges I’m aware I carry, already feel the need to reposition myself, I can only imagine what other people might go through, and unfortunately it is not pretty.
I’m interested in reading more about your idea for the artefact and the exploration of self. I think is really important and it goes full circle when we spend the whole unit talking about community, others, the whole, but really the change starts with our understand of one before we can apply that empathy to the groups we navigate. For me it starts with the idea that focus on self is, well.. selfish. But it really needs to start there as everyone have their own experiences with insecurity, fear, self doubt and the list goes on. Drawing on those emotions are a good start to more humane conversations and hopefully more empathic beings.
Sorry about the long reply, you can tell I’m more rested now!
Hi Paula,
Thank you for sharing your interesting personal and broader reflection on race.
Regarding your thoughts about ‘unconscious bias’ I agree with you that it seems to be another white, lazy invention. Quite a few years ago, prior Covid and prior focussing on anti-racism to the extent as we do nowadays, I was asked by UAL to do the online ‘unconscious bias’ training which significantly, made me furious from a different white point of view (as you might remember I am white German). I simply couldn’t believe that I was told I was not aware of my thoughts, actions, and bias. I literally felt insulted and undermined. However, I can accept that I am consciously bias and that I must continuously and consciously work to remove my bias.
Your intention to create a welcoming and save space for your students to be more inclusive is commendable. As I was passing your lab last week I had wondered if people have the confidence to enter. I see a relationship in my teaching practice as I am, too, always concerned with creating a save space. However, as my teaching consists primarily of one-to-one tutorials it seems perhaps easier to establish.
As the text ‘Retention and attainment in the disciplines: Art and Design’ by Terry Finnigan and Aisha Richards mentions peer mentoring I wondered if this was something you could introduce. I have done it in my teaching practice by pairing final-year students with second-year students. Also, when I was a research fellow at LCF I had a mentor who supported me and boosted my confidence immensely.
As you mentioned yourself the sense of belonging is vital, and students of diverse background often lack the sense of belonging, ownership, and confidence. If they had a student mentor who accompanied them along to the lab perhaps that could help. This would constitute student-centred learning.
Anyway, thank you for your honest account.
Hey Paola,
Thanks for your reflections and it’s great to read all the discussion going on below the line on this one.
Re your question about is it your place to talk about race within your classroom setting, as it is focused on science rather than ‘culture’. I wonder if you could think about the question another way round – how DOES race come into your subject? I truly think that race and science are deeply entangled, and though I’m not sure of your exact field, I feel like there will be some kind of colonial history within it! For instance, I believe botanical expeditions by Europeans to the global south were one of the starting points of colonisation, and plantation slavery.
Even your discussion of your own racial identity makes it apparent how an understanding of DNA can complicate cultural notions of ‘race’ and vice versa.
Hi Rosa,
Thanks for popping by!
I really appreciate that comment since is a similar reflection I ended up working on when writing my artefact. It does really change the perspective and indeed science has a very problematic relationship with race studies and for too long enabled deeply problematic and unethical views to be classified as science, such as eugenistic views and studies that wrongly insists on notion of superiority based on physical traits. All to use science to justify blatant racism.
The dominance of western culture also has a lot to answer for in terms of what is considered advanced and technological, the ‘all so amazing’ romans and greeks vs all the indigenous cultures that had other amazing tech advancements but were always portrayed as savages or worse. That for too long used to justify colonisation and the acknowledgment of that should be the base of any discussion on decolonising the curriculum.
So to sum up, I really appreciate you bringing this point and gives em confidence that touching on those subjects will indeed have some relevance within science but also to increase diversity of thinking and appreciation for other cultures and lived experiences.