As a member of the African American community in the United States, prejudice and

discrimination are not simply concepts learned in the classroom, they are experiences that one is

confronted with at various points in your life. However, I found the impacts of subtle

discrimination insights introduced in the Journal of Social Issues particularly interesting. While I

was previously aware of discrepancies in access to healthcare for minorities in the United States,

the article introduced me to new material that suggests that even when variables such as income

and insurance status are controlled, subtle biases of White health care providers and Black

patients still take place (Nier & Garetner, 2012).

The aspect of this module’s activities that resonated most strongly with me was the

NPR’s In Fresh Air radio interview examining the hidden cost of racism. What stood out was the

portion of the interview when the background of college tuition in the United States is discussed.

When a great majority of the U.S. public was White, one could conceivably work their way

through college with a part-time job due to government subsidies and grants. When the

population became more diverse, government grant support was scaled back and “majority of

states rely on tuition dollars for the majority of the costs of college” (In Fresh Air. NPR, 2021).

The primary reason I did not attend college immediately after high school was concerns about

affordability and debt. While I was still able to go on and have a successful career, it does not

mitigate the reality that systemic discrimination played a role in my education decisions.

The Race Implicit Association Test was an interesting exercise and I intend to read

further on the research behind the test methodologies. My results from the test suggest that I

have “no automatic preference between Black people and White people”. At a high level, I agree

with the result statement because I my general experience is that I have unbiased interactions

with other people and their respective cultures. I found it concerning that according to existing
research, there is no known way to reduce implicit bias. Although that statement was based on

broad existing research, it encouraged me to reflect more deeply on the accuracy of scoring or

rating one’s implicit bias via a test method that allows much room for error. For example, the test

does not control for one’s ability to type any letter quickly on a keyboard, let alone match what is

on the screen to an emotion and then a corresponding keyboard stroke.

I intentionally chose a video clip from the New York Times selections that did not

represent a demographic of which I am a member. After viewing the short documentary ‘A

Conversation with Police on Race’ I have an enhanced understanding of the nuanced perspective

of police and how their role in serving the community. I was a bit taken aback by one the White

officer’s casual concession that he would “stop a group of Black teenagers in a White

neighborhood”. There also seems to be a prevalent unwritten code rife with practices of

discrimination in which police of all backgrounds operate.

Unfortunately, I believe that subtle discrimination exists in a substantial number of

organizations. In my experience with an organization that I spent several years working for,

discriminatory hiring practices were blatant and prevalent. A particular manager responsible for

hiring on our team only hired males from the Asian Pacific Islander community in the years

following my hiring. It is my belief that there were aspects of implicit bias that manifested in the

hiring manager’s decision making.

While there is a diminishing Black community in the San Francisco Bay Area, the Black

community remains visible throughout the area’s several counties. Additionally, there are other

demographics that are prominent in the area such as the growing Latino community that could

have improved the team’s diversity. It should be noted that the manager identified as female and
has not hired a woman from the applicant pools for numerous positions over the years, but the

horn and halo effect remained the modus operandi.

Compounding the issue of lack of team diversity, was the manager’s microaggressions

toward others in the organization. Although non-confrontational by nature, I recall an incident in

which I felt the need to address what I perceived as either a microaggression or an act of willful

ignorance. During a meeting, the manager approached a Surinamese employee who works on a

different team within our larger division about writing a post about their experience with

Juneteenth solely because they perceived that employee to be African American. While issues

like that are complex in nature, they ultimately were the deciding factor in me transitioning to a

different team within the organization.

Resources:

Gandbhir, G., & Peltz, P. (2015, November 11). Opinion | ‘A Conversation With Police on
Race.’ The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/10/opinion/a-
conversation-with-police-on-race.html

Nier, J.A. and Garetner, SL. (2012). The Challenge of Detecting Contemporary Forms of
Discrimination. Journal of Social Issues. Vol. 62, Issue 2, 202-220.

Sue, D.W. et. al. (2007). Racial Microaggressions in Everyday Life: Implications for Clinical
Practice. American Psychologist. Vol. 62, No. 4, 271–286.

'Sum Of Us' Examines The Hidden Cost Of Racism — For Everyone

https://www.npr.org/transcripts/968638759 (2021, February 17). In Fresh Air. NPR.