Unraveling Bias

Yes!

I attended a training about implicit bias a few years ago and as a mom have been trying to implement some of the recommendations to combat bias in my kids.

This book lays out our nation’s historical bias, what is happening today and clear ideas to move forward in a way that all children are treated in a fair, inclusive manner.

Anyone who teaches, parents, coaches, or works with children or families in any way should absolutely read this book.

This book pictures what unconscious (and conscious) bias can ultimately lead to and how and why it's (naturally) developed. Brown also shows how we can change our internalized biases and avoid handing down bias to our children. Educational and insightful!

“First, we have to move past assumptions that well-meaning adults don’t unintentionally pass along biases to children and that children are exempt from biases simply because they are young. Second, we have to accept that bias is pervasive and harmful, and reducing bias is everyone’s responsibility.”

This was a book I was excited to dive into! As a teacher, I’m constantly trying to identify bias and work on fixing patterns and behaviors built upon prejudice. I learned a lot of relevant information, including:

📚 how and why biases form, and the age levels where perceptions are more rigid than others.
📚 the effect that exposure to diversity has on bias.
📚 how children internalize nonverbal cues, so when conversation about prejudice isn’t happening, the nonverbal cues of the adults around them are how they learn to see and react to others.
📚 that being the target of discrimination results in worse grades, higher dropout rates, lower self-esteem, more depression, more thoughts of suicide, more delinquency, more drug use, more aggression, and more health issues.
📚 the importance of court cases in moving social processes forward; the “laws sometimes need to change first and people’s attitudes and beliefs will follow.”
📚 how the court decision to desegregate in the US had so much leniency that many districts never did, and others found loopholes to continue serving primarily white families. The number and types of loopholes were shocking, and I thought I knew a bit about this already.
📚 tips on how to talk with children about bias in a way that is helpful in confronting and overcoming it.

One thing I didn’t love was that disability wasn’t covered at all. There are so many biases concerning physical and/or mental disabilities, but this wasn’t more than a mention in the book. Yes, I know entire books could be written on this topic alone, but the audience of this book is looking at bias in children and I feel that this should have been addressed. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the book and learned a lot from it!

Thanks to NetGalley and BenBella books for this Advanced Reader Copy!