Jennifer L. Eberhardt

Eberhardt has been working at Stanford for 30 years now, uncovering the roots of systemic racism via social science. Together with other researchers she has performed a lot of studies and learned and published. One focus of her work has been in using social science to address pressing social problems. In this book she takes all her years of research and expertise and lays it all out for the non-academic reader.
If you're not up on implicit bias it is the part that we all have picked up on show more regardless of our explicit ideas or beliefs. It kicks in faster than thought and slips in under our mental radar. It's why police shoot unarmed black boys, why they stop more people of color driving, it's why fewer African American and Hispanic children are labelled gifted and are more likely to have the school cop called on them for minor infractions. It's much more than that, too.
But there's the best part: Eberhardt knows how to short circuit it. There's a reason why people call them "genius" grants even if the MacArthur Foundation never does.
Engrossing, insightful, and with luck, truly helpful. We can all do better and this book is a first step for many. Brilliant.

Library copy show less

This is a well written and interesting examination of how unconscious bias changes the way that we interact with many things in the world. The author seems to suggest that by being more aware of the natural human tendency toward bias, we can mitigate how much it changes our thinking, and I hope that by further educating myself this will be true.

A book for anyone who wants to know how biased are formed, how they manifest and even how our brains process them. There are examples, even from the authors own life, and studies that show how biases are used in everyday life. Statistics to back up the authors assertions, and experiments that prove the validity of the statistics. How to counter these biases, by education, training in empathy for professionals like the police, where they are daily confronted with situations that could prove show more deadly.

I was raised in Chicago and was well aware of much that was written within. There were places we were told to stay far away from for our own safety. Never really explained but the message was clear regardless. The author also takes us to the Charlottesville incident, so awful, so much hatred. How education is lacking in discussing past history. So many school children do not know about the Holocaust, don't know what Auschwitz was. Slavery glossed over. One can never forget what one never knew. To me this is a shameful admission.

"Our experiences in the world seep into our brain over time, and without our awareness they conspire to reshape the workings of our mind."

"The mistake we keep making-the mistake we all keep making-is in thinking our work is done. That whatever heroic effort we've made will keep moving us forward. That whatever progress we've seen will keep us from sliding back to burn and hiding Today scrolls."

&In truth, bias has been hiding it's time in an implicit world-in a place where we need not acknowledge it to ourselves or to others, even as it touches our soul and drives our behavior." show less

This should be required reading for EVERYONE. Makes us face all of our implicit biases. There is some overlap with other books such as The New Jim Crow, and The Color or Money and the Color of Law, but there is a lot of other data based on more social and psychological studies, and Eberhardt shares her own personal stories and experiences with the reader. Well researched, well written, thoughtful examination of how bias plays a key role in how we think and react to much of what we do in our show more daily lives. show less