Of Note: Driving Choices

Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think and Do by Jennifer Eberhardt
Penguin Random House, March 26, 2019

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A black boy entering eighth grade is told by a school administrator to cut the blond tips from his hair, or serve detention. The school handbook clearly states that students may not wear their hair dyed or colored, and he has clearly broken that rule. However, so have many of his white classmates. The difference is that his hair was noticed by the dean, and theirs was not. In Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think and Do, implicit bias expert and Stanford University professor Dr. Jennifer L. Eberhardt correctly identifies this as an episode of unconscious racial bias at work. She then describes the personal challenge she undertook in addressing the issue, as the boy facing discipline was her own son. Although primarily concerned with the devastating role that implicit bias plays in American law enforcement and criminal justice, Dr. Eberhardt's book has wide-ranging relevance to educators as well. "Black students are nearly four times as likely to be suspended from school as their white peers," she reveals, citing a study conducted by the U.S. Office for Civil Rights involving more than 96,000 K-12 public schools. "That’s a gap that can’t be explained by racial differences in student behavior or socioeconomic status. The disparities, in part, are driven by choices made by teachers or administrators in subjective cases." Dr. Eberhardt's use of data sheds incontrovertible light on the impact of implicit bias on even the youngest children, putting pressure on teachers and administrators to do much more than acknowledge their own unexamined habits and biased enforcement of school policies, although acknowledgment is the first step.