D&I Strategy | You're unconscious, too? True equality, not inclusion, but communion.

Last week, Taipei Mayor Kovinge's comments were discussed in the community, as a result of his speech at a symposium with young entrepreneurs in the United States, referring to last year's marriage referendum, saying: "You know, the title of this referendum has not been in Taipei, and it is more than 60 to more than 30, so it is 2:1, but although I voted against you, But I allowed 125,000 people to march on the streets, and 5,000 of them came from abroad, and you think about it, so Taipei is a highly tolerant city. "

Some people think that the words "allow" and "tolerate" are inappropriate and not gender-friendly, and Kovinge in the community afterwards, "my original intention is not to personally vote against the referendum issue, nor does it mean that I have the right to" allow "assembly marches. Instead, it was expressed: "While the referendum result, most people disapprove of the issue, they do not interfere with the holding of marches or events by another part of the population." "The Taipei municipal government began to expand Eid al-Fitr in 2016, as well as every year's gay parade, which is an example of Taipei as the freest city in East Asia. 」

We are no stranger to such a situation. In daily life, more or less similar situations occur, whether with words, behaviors, sometimes we may not be malicious, but implicit prejudice, accidentally plunged into "unconscious bias." In the past, McDonald's has also been considered discriminatory because of the "I Accept you like boys" ad line: Why do comrades need to be "accepted"? (Recommended reading:"Gender Watch" should we "accept" the father in Comrade McDonald's advertisement? )

Today, let's talk about the unconscious prejudices that are hidden in life (unconscious bias) and how we can change them.

If you want true equality, start by perceiving unconscious prejudices.

According to the definition in the Oxford Online reference database , unconscious bias (uncouncious bias) refers to "distorted experiences that the observer and the reporter are not aware of" (any distortion of experience by an observer or Reporter of which is not themselves aware), while unconscious bias involves a person's performance, recollection, interpretation, perception, and a familiar cultural framework that makes prejudice transparent.

With regard to unconscious bias, the most common example is the belief that Asian students are unlikely to fail in maths (assuming that Asian students are good at maths) and ask students of African or Latino questions: "Do you think you are ready to go to college? "(Assuming that the success of the Afro-descendant and Latino communities is unreasonable), that the actions of female leaders to punish subordinates are" emotional "(assuming that all sex of female leaders are irrational), or that when women in the workplace give birth, they are assigned easier jobs and even asked if they need to be transferred (assuming that women need to take on family responsibilities).

In the article, she mentioned a brain trick: a father and son in a car accident, the father died at the scene, the son was seriously injured. After his son was taken to the hospital, the surgeon said: ' I couldn't help him with the knife because it was my son. 」

Many people still can't immediately relate to the boy's mother as a surgeon (or this is a same-sex family), which reflects how we are affected by unconscious biases. Even if we know that there are many good female models in the medical profession, when we refer to "surgeons", we still intuitively jump out of the male picture.

Many people in the day do not realize how they are shaped by the social framework of values, and thus prejudice, but even if we live in such a social environment for a long time, does not mean that this is "taken for granted", "normal".

If we want true equality, we must first start by perceiving unconscious prejudices.

You have to say your prejudices.

At present, there are many foreign enterprises, in order to promote the diversity of the workplace, has begun to offer employees to eliminate unconscious bias courses. In our daily life, we can also do some small exercises, and the way to detect prejudice, and thus eliminate prejudice, is to constantly broaden your horizons. (Recommended reading:d&i Strategy |d&i only white female executives benefit? Facebook admits: It is difficult to recruit African-American employees )

Here, I would like to quote Ted talk, a meteorologist, J. Marshall Shepherd, who, from a scientific point of view, talks about how prejudice shapes the human world view. At the end of the film, he mentions three ways to broaden one's horizons:

1. Take stock of your prejudices: examine where your prejudices come from, and he may have something to do with the parenting process, possibly with the education, political views, and beliefs you come into contact with. Go one by one and count the factors that may cause your own bias.
2. Evaluate your source of information: Where does your information come from? To examine the sources of your daily reading and audio-visual.
3. Say it: J. Marshall Shepherd says this is the most important step. After counting the sources, try to assess these sources and the factors that cause bias.

Admitting that you are biased is not a mistake, and the next step in admitting it is that you can use different methods to reach out to more ethnic groups, to understand different ethnic groups, to build shared thinking and values, rather than to be inclusive. We also look forward to when society talks about pluralism, no longer "mutual tolerance", "mutual acceptance", or I go to "accommodate" you, but each other has its own place, in the world to merge symbiosis.