Diversity & Inclusion Committee announces "Community Read Program"
by Keilee Kramer
Please join me and Wedgwood’s Diversity & Inclusion Committee in kicking off our Wedgwood Elementary Community Read Program with our first selection: Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. Last year the Wedgwood Elementary staff and leadership read this book so we thought it would be the perfect pick for our first “community read.”
Blindspot is an interesting and enjoyably easy read (or listen) about an incredibly complex topic – the implicit or unconscious biases we have and how our brains go to great lengths to hide things from us. The title comes from an actual blind spot in the eye – a fascinating phenomena where our brain fills in the spot with its own information – which is exactly what is happening with unconscious bias. The book is filled with experiments and tests that demonstrate fascinating and interesting examples of how bias happen without our even knowing.
It’s a great read, and I highly encourage those of us “good people”, for whom the book will be the most uncomfortable, to join me in reading this selection. While it’s challenging to confront implicit and explicit prejudice, the authors argue that while we may not have much power to eradicate these prejudices, we are often capable of counteracting them. The first step is to turn the hidden bias into a visible one. Reading this book is a great first step.
About the authors:
Mahzarin Banaji and Anthony Greenwald have been collaborating for more than 30 years to understand how minds operate in social contexts. Their special focus has been on the unconscious, automatic, less reflective aspects of the mind and the decisions humans make about themselves and others in society. Their analysis has centered on social categories of gender, race, age, class, sexuality, disability, religion, politics, nationality and the many other social groupings that mark modern societies.
More information links:
The D&I Committee has some copies of the book which can be lent out, please email wwdiversityinclusion@gmail.com for more information.
You can check out the book at the Seattle Public Library, purchase it at your favorite local bookstore, or buy it on Amazon.
To learn more about the book and Harvard’s implicit bias tests visit - http://blindspot.fas.harvard.edu/
Interesting in testing your own implicit bias? There’s a test for that! Click here to learn more about the test or here to take the race test or here to explore a variety of tests on social attitudes (race, gender, sexual orientation, and more) and on mental health topics (self-esteem, anxiety, and more).
Want to find that blind spot in your eye - take the online blindspot eye test.
Keilee Kramer is a Wedgwood mom and avid reader.