P2P

35 I L T A N E T . O R G A s a woman of color, I find facing my own unconscious biases difficult having been the victim of explicit bias. When you have experienced overt discrimination as a person of color, you cannot imagine spewing out hate to anyone else. This makes recognizing unconscious bias in yourself very hard. As a child, I grew up in Oklahoma City where sleeping all night on my Grandmother's front porch under the stars was perfectly safe. However, my perception of safety as a child was altered when I learned about Emmett Louis Till, a fourteen year-old African American boy from Chicago who, while visiting his family in Mississippi in the 1950's, was accused of offending a white woman. A violent mob lynched and brutally beat Till to death. His battered body, which barely looked human, was laid to rest in an open casket at his mother's request for the world to witness. Fortunately, I recalled Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s moving words, where he said, "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character." Dr. King's words gave me hope that the content of my own character would matter and be valued. Fast forward to my teen-aged life in California at Hollywood High School with a racial mix that included students from all over the world. While eating lunch at an Arby's restaurant across the street from the school during the summer session, to my horror someone in a passing car yelled, "Go home n****r." Immediately, I was frightened because I lived close enough to walk to school. I was home. Later as a young adult working at a law firm in Century City, California, the same thing happened while waiting at a bus stop one night after working overtime. Again, someone in a passing car yelled, "Go home n****r." I was petrified and afterward saved money for my first car so I would no longer need to wait for buses at night. So facing my unconscious biases is daunting, but necessary. As a victim of conscious bias, I have had to work hard to overcome my hurt and abandon my learned, unconscious biases to meet, work with, and trust others. In particular, when I meet new people in a group setting I tend to look for someone I know and take my time before approaching strangers. Working consciously to change this tendency is an important head and heart task for me. ILTA R O B I N P R I C E Facing My Unconscious Bias as a Victim of Conscious Bias R A I S I N G C O N S C I O U S N E S S

• Cover