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Workshop 2: Decolonizing Your Mind

Dismantling Oppression

In Our Fight for Democracy

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Agenda

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COMMUNITY NORMS & FRAMING

OWNING YOUR PRIVILEGE

UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNAL CONFLICT

FIGHTING IMPLICIT BIAS

NEXT STEPS

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Community Norms for a Brave Space

Learning leaves but names and stories stay

Speak from your own experiences (“I” statements)

Listen and share the airspace

Challenge your thoughts and understanding

Ask for clarification

Be conscious of intent vs impact

Lean into discomfort

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Community Norms for a Brave Space

Learning leaves but names and stories stay

Speak from your own experiences (“I” statements)

Listen and share the airspace

Challenge your thoughts and understanding

Ask for clarification

Be conscious of intent vs impact

Lean into discomfort

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Why are we doing this?

TWW/Indivisible Los Gatos is an inclusive network of global citizens and everyday activists, united in our enduring commitment to support efforts that strengthen our democracy. We are driven by our common values of inclusion, respect, fairness and equality.

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Being an ally requires...

a strong sense of identity

continual self-reflection

checking your privilege

recognizing power and oppression

taking action to be anti-oppressive

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Being an ally requires...

a strong sense of identity

continual self-reflection

checking your privilege

recognizing power and oppression

taking action to be anti-oppressive

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Being an ally requires...

a strong sense of identity

continual self-reflection

checking your privilege

recognizing power and oppression

taking action to be anti-oppressive

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Being an ally requires...

a strong sense of identity

continual self-reflection

checking your privilege

recognizing power and oppression

taking action to be anti-oppressive

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How does my privilege and the biases I hold affect how I interact with others?

Essential Question

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Why is it so hard to talk about privilege?

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Part 1: Owning Your Privilege

Read excerpt of Privilege 101

Reflect & Discuss

Breakout Rooms

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What are some takeaways your group discussed?

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“You have to get over the fear of facing the worst in yourself [...] Fear the thought that right now, you could be contributing to the oppression of others and you don't know it. But do not fear those who bring that oppression to light. Do not fear the opportunity to do better.”

― Ijeoma Oluo, So You Want to Talk About Race

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Agenda

01

02

03

05

04

COMMUNITY NORMS & FRAMING

OWNING YOUR PRIVILEGE

UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNAL CONFLICT

FIGHTING IMPLICIT BIAS

NEXT STEPS

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Key Terms & Ideas

DECOLONIZING KNOWLEDGE

STEREOTYPE

PREJUDICE

DISCRIMINATION

IMPLICIT BIAS

an intellectual quest to challenge our ideas and beliefs that are rooted in the Western knowledge system as the dominant form of thinking and definition of ideals and norms

oversimplified generalization about a group of people

when prejudices and biases are acted upon in a way to oppress individuals or groups of people

a bias thought, belief, feeling, and/or attitude someone holds about a social identity group

unconsciously held set of associations about a social group; sometimes referred to as implicit association or unconscious bias

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Reflect on your life experiences that may have influenced what you accept as cultural “norms”.

Consider your childhood and family upbringing; the neighborhoods in which you’ve lived; elements of your career path; media messages; your family and peer networks; etc.

How might these experiences have shaped your biases, with or without your conscious awareness?

I have one example that applies to many of us: I grew up only knowing Presidents as MEN - I’ve wondered how that influenced my support of Obama over Hillary as the democratic presidential candidate in 2008?

Just take a moment to think about how some of your experiences might have influenced the “norms” you hold - either explicitly

IF TIME: Western knowledge, culture, and ideas has dominated American society and has discouraged diversity. From the time we are born we receive messaging by society that Western = good because Western culture has shaped and controls who has power in American society. Although we have reduced explicit discrimination in our society we are not as good at reducing implicit bias and subconsciously acting on it.

What are some “Western” ideas that we accept as “norms” that

should be challenged?
prevent equal participation in our democracy
allow for the continued oppression of certain groups?

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Characteristics of Implicit Bias

Operates at the subconscious level

Based on rapid and automatic mental associations that we make

Runs contrary to our conscious core beliefs

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Operates at the subconscious level

If you can raed tihs praapragh, it’s bcsecuae our mnids are vrey good at ptuting tgoehter peiecs of ifnroamtoin in a way taht is esay for us to make snese of. Our mnids do tihs atoumtaicllay, whituot our cosncoius cotnrol.

Read the paragraph:

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Based on rapid and automatic mental associations that we make

Word Association Game

Night and _________

Black and _________

Young and _________

Light and _________

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Based on rapid and automatic mental associations that we make

Word Association Game

Night and _________

Black and _________

Young and _________

Light and _________

Corporate __________

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Based on rapid and automatic mental associations that we make

Word Association Game

Night and _________

Black and _________

Young and _________

Light and _________

Corporate __________

Government __________

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Based on rapid and automatic mental associations that we make

Word Association Game

Night and _________

Black and _________

Young and _________

Light and _________

Corporate __________

Government __________

Communism __________

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Based on rapid and automatic mental associations that we make

Word Association Game

Night and _________

Black and _________

Young and _________

Light and _________

Corporate __________

Government __________

Communism __________

Global __________

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Runs contrary to our conscious core beliefs

A father and son were involved in a car accident in which the father was killed and the son was seriously injured. The son was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital and was immediately wheeled into an emergency operating room. A surgeon was called. Upon arrival and seeing the patient, the attending surgeon exclaimed, “Oh my God, it’s my son!”

Can you explain this?

Around 40% of participants who are faced with this challenge do not think of the most plausible answer—being the surgeon is the boy’s mother.

What if a nurse was called and exclaimed, “it’s my son!”?

This exercise really showed the conflict between our implicit bias and explicit beliefs.

If these little activities were fun for you and you want to actually MEASURE your implicit bias you should check out the “Implicit Association Test” from Harvard. I will drop the link in the chat! https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/iatdetails.html don’t do it now because it takes concentration and about 15-20 mins! But definitely try it out and share with others.

https://cultureplusconsulting.com/2015/11/03/unconscious-bias-activities/

EXTRA INFO: Around 40% of participants who are faced with this challenge do not think of the most plausible answer—being the surgeon is the boy’s mother. Rather, readers invent elaborate stories such as the boy was adopted and the surgeon was his natural father, or the father in the car was a priest.

As such, the exercise illustrates the powerful pull of automatic stereotyped associations. For some individuals, the association between surgeon and men is so strong that it interferes with problem solving and making accurate judgments.

This exercise leads well into an ensuing discussion on the automaticity of stereotypes and the distinction between explicit and implicit bias.

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Implicit Bias

Why do our brains make implicit associations?

How can these be harmful?

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Agenda

01

02

03

05

04

COMMUNITY NORMS & FRAMING

OWNING YOUR PRIVILEGE

UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNAL CONFLICT

FIGHTING IMPLICIT BIAS

NEXT STEPS

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to manage bias, individuals must create SPACE between their automatic reflexes and their responses

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Addressing Implicit Bias: The Space2 Model

SLOWING DOWN
PERSPECTIVE TAKING
ASKING YOURSELF
CULTURAL INTELLIGENCE
EXEMPLARS
EXPAND

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Agenda

01

02

03

05

04

COMMUNITY NORMS & FRAMING

OWNING YOUR PRIVILEGE

UNDERSTANDING THE INTERNAL CONFLICT

FIGHTING IMPLICIT BIAS

NEXT STEPS

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Keep Learning! Bonus Materials

White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack (article)

Harvard’s Implicit Association Tests (online “test” - 10 min)

The Mind Of The Village: Understanding Our Implicit Biases (podcast - 50 min)

Don’t Talk about Implicit Bias Without Talking about Structural Racism (article - 12 min)

We Understand Implicit Bias, Now What? A Conversation With Stanford Psychologist Jennifer Eberhardt (interview - 9 min - and article)

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What’s Next?

Workshop 3: Disrupting Structural Inequity

@ TBD

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