The brutal reality is we all have unconscious bias. It is the ability of our brain to make assumptions and take shortcuts without us realising it. It’s the snap judgement that we tend to make based on the fleeting thoughts.
Visible role models and trailblazers, have more than often faced the ‘Us vs Them ‘ bias. History teaches us that marginalized communities have always been a victim of this bias. Our brain puts certain people in the ‘them’ category based on majorly the prejudices,fear, and ignorance. This categorisation further leads to descrimination. It’s rampant at the workplaces. Celebrations for such role models come with the ‘them’ tagging.
Whilst mentioning bias, we also need to understand the difference between bias and preference.Preference is associated majorly with the competency where as bias prefers prejudice over competence.
One of the ways to eradicate bias,specially at the workplaces could be, questioning and challenging your thinking, opinions, and assumptions.
Excerpts from my talk on ‘Unconscious Bias’ during NASSCOM Diversity and Inclusion summit, 2018 in Chennai.
Amita Karadkhedkar 