Bias against one = favouritism for another

From the current draft of a post I am working on:

bias against one = favouritism for another 

Let’s consider a police officer who sees a black person and a white person doing exactly the same thing, but at different times. Reality is that globally endemic racism means that police officer’s bias against blacks will result in a presumption or suspicion of wrong doing and thus harsher, possibly violent or punitive, treatment of the black person (which creates a feedback loop of harm - especially if this leads to incarceration [or serious injury or even killing of the black person). However, that bias against blacks is just a different way of saying favouritism for white - the white person is being treated more favourably (i.e., without the presumption/suspicion) and that means THE WHITE PERSON IS BEING TREATED MORE FAVOURABLY THAN THE BLACK PERSON. 

One of the problems of unmanaged unconscious bias means that police assessment of events ignores unmanaged unconscious bias and focuses on conscious decision making only - which is why statistics and independent evaluations show bias but police investigations into themselves generally do not.

This sort of failure to comprehend bias in thinking shows in other areas as well. As an example, female protestors may be searched by male police, allegedly because no female police are available, which the police see as pressuring protestors to conform - but the female victim of what is effectively sexual assault sees that as sexual assault, and that creates a valid perception in her mind of police as sexual predators and abusers (a bias supported by historical police incompetence at managing sexual assaults and domestic violence). 

However, when police “investigate” such incidents their unmanaged unconscious biases mean they do not even accept the possibility that their actions could have what are - consciously, at least, to the police (or perhaps, what they are prepared to openly admit) - unintended consequences. 

Unmanaged unconscious bias is a major, unacknowledged blight on every part of our society. 

And it often shows in the form of bias against one aka favouritism for another. 

And I am going to start calling it out that way.

 

 

PS - here are a couple of additional pieces of information that may help with understanding this issue: 

From   “Freud’s Unconcious [sic], Preconscious, and Conscious Minds”   https://www.verywellmind.com/the-conscious-and-unconscious-mind-2795946   “The Psychologist's Three Levels of Awareness”      

“While the information in the unconscious mind is outside of awareness, it continues to have an influence on a person’s behavior. Some of the ways the unconscious can affect behavior include: 

... 

- First impressions of other people 

- Prejudice and stereotypes”

From   “Freud’s Theory of the Unconscious Mind”   https://www.simplypsychology.org/unconscious-mind.html   This includes good graphics, and a critical evaluation      

“Will my unconscious make me do or say self-destructive things?

The unconscious mind evolved as a way to help us survive. It’s not bent on anyone’s destruction. It is sometimes referred to as the “shadows of the mind,” because it was thought to be a shadow of the “real” mind. Although it is not a black hole of unacceptable impulses, it can be a source of hidden beliefs, biases—so-called implicit bias—fears, and attitudes that affect everyday thinking and behavior.”

 

PPS - see also:   “Nobody is happy with the Northern Territory police, including officers. Leanne Liddle hopes to fix that”   https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/29/nobody-is-happy-with-the-northern-territory-police-including-officers-leanne-liddle-hopes-to-fix-that       

 

Assumptions / basis 

In writing this, I have assumed / started from the following: 

• this blog states quite clearly that it is about political and human rights matters, including lived experience of problems, and thus I will assume readers are reasonable people who have noted the content warning in the post header;

Possible flaws 

Where I can, I will try to highlight possible flaws / issues you should consider:

• there may be flawed logical arguments in the above: to find out more about such flaws and thinking generally, I recommend Brendan  Myers’ free online course “Clear and Present Thinking”; 
  
• I could be wrong - so keep your thinking caps on, and make up your own minds for yourself.
  

 

If they are of any use of interest, the activism information links from my former news posts are available in this post. 

 

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Note that, as with my main blog [see here], I am cutting back on aspects of my posts.

Remember: we need to be more human being rather than human doing, and all misgendering is an act of active transphobia/transmisia that puts trans+ lives at risk & accept that all insistence on the use of “trans” as a descriptor comes with commensurate use of “cis” as a descriptor to prevent “othering”.

Copyright © Kayleen White 2016-2024     NO AI   I do not consent to any machine learning aka Artificial Intelligence (AI), generative AI, large language model, machine learning, chatbot, or other automated analysis, generative process, or replication program to reproduce, mimic, remix, summarise, or otherwise  replicate any part of this post or other posts on this blog via any means. Typo’s may be inserrted deliberately to demonstrate this is not an AI product.     Otherwise, fair and reasonable use is accepted under Creative Commons 4.0 on an Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike basis   https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/