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"Unconscious Bias" Is the Emperor's New Clothes

Jack Hays

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"Unconscious bias" is the Emperor's new clothes for our time. It can't be seen or measured but they say it must be fought. It's quotas in disguise. Here we have some dangerous nonsense.

Feds urged to fight ‘unconscious bias’ in hiring and promotions

As dangerous as it was, battling overt segregation during the civil rights era was in some ways easier than combating today’s insidious racism.
At least you could see the “white only” signs and you knew who was behind them.
Those signs are long gone, but racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination didn’t go with them. They are among us, often hidden, yet potent. The perpetrators of this prejudice would never call themselves bigots and might not even realize they act like one.
Beth Cobert, the acting Office of Personnel Management director, is urging federal officials to confront this unseen, but not unfelt, discrimination.
“As many of you know, one of the most challenging barriers to diversity and inclusion is unconscious bias,” she said at OPM’s diversity and inclusion summit at the Coast Guard headquarters Tuesday. “It’s difficult to grapple with because it is unconscious — not as obvious as calling out someone for using improper language or overtly passing someone over for a promotion. Probably the most unconscious bias exhibited during the hiring process is the ‘like me’ bias. The ‘like me’ bias means leaders and managers typically look to hire or promote people who look like themselves. A white male will select a white male, for example.” . . .


 
"Unconscious bias" is the Emperor's new clothes for our time. It can't be seen or measured but they say it must be fought. It's quotas in disguise. Here we have some dangerous nonsense.

Feds urged to fight ‘unconscious bias’ in hiring and promotions

As dangerous as it was, battling overt segregation during the civil rights era was in some ways easier than combating today’s insidious racism.
At least you could see the “white only” signs and you knew who was behind them.
Those signs are long gone, but racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination didn’t go with them. They are among us, often hidden, yet potent. The perpetrators of this prejudice would never call themselves bigots and might not even realize they act like one.
Beth Cobert, the acting Office of Personnel Management director, is urging federal officials to confront this unseen, but not unfelt, discrimination.
“As many of you know, one of the most challenging barriers to diversity and inclusion is unconscious bias,” she said at OPM’s diversity and inclusion summit at the Coast Guard headquarters Tuesday. “It’s difficult to grapple with because it is unconscious — not as obvious as calling out someone for using improper language or overtly passing someone over for a promotion. Probably the most unconscious bias exhibited during the hiring process is the ‘like me’ bias. The ‘like me’ bias means leaders and managers typically look to hire or promote people who look like themselves. A white male will select a white male, for example.” . . .



I have a conscious bias against this kind of stupid crap....
 
I wish Obama would stop putting idiots into positions of power and influence.

Thankfully his time in office is almost done, but sadly it means that we will have another idiot putting other idiots into positions of power and influence. It's a horrible cycle. :(
 
Just another way the left tries to stifle speech and any other opinion that doesn't follow their GroupThink. "Unconscious Bias" and "Priviledge" are the lefts panacea for trying to stop any thought that isn't theirs.
 
Unconscious bias? Seriously? This is beyond indefensible.

You don't think there are more subtle aspects of racism than "NO BLACKS" signs?
 
You don't think there are more subtle aspects of racism than "NO BLACKS" signs?

To assume that everyone makes every decision based on nefarious, unconscious, hateful, racist bias and to counter that the government must impose arbitrary, capricious, and subjective counter-measures is an indefensible position for the government to take. Unconscious bias is a fact of life. That bias can be for a multitude of reasons, only one of those reasons would be racism. The other reasons for bias would be more than just skin color. Bias can be demonstrated regarding male versus female, old versus young, blonde verses brunette, blue eyes versus brown eyes, first generation American versus tenth generation American, English as first language versus English as second language, long hair versus short hair, military veteran versus no military service at all, college educated versus high school dropout, married versus single, parent versus no children, Catholic versus Protestant, Shiite versus Sunni, tattoos versus no tattoos, and so on.

There are hundreds of unconscious biases that play into every single choice we make each and every day.

What the government is proposing is to become the "Thought Police" with the predetermined assumption that every single negative impact that may or may not originate due to some unconscious bias is singularly, nefariously, and subconsciously caused by racism, therefore the government must impose a singular, capricious, and arbitrary correction that focuses JUST on race.

It is, again, indefensible.
 
To assume that everyone makes every decision based on nefarious, unconscious, hateful, racist bias and to counter that the government must impose arbitrary, capricious, and subjective counter-measures is an indefensible position for the government to take.

It's also not a position anyone is taking.
 
"Unconscious bias" is the Emperor's new clothes for our time. It can't be seen or measured but they say it must be fought. It's quotas in disguise. Here we have some dangerous nonsense.

Feds urged to fight ‘unconscious bias’ in hiring and promotions

As dangerous as it was, battling overt segregation during the civil rights era was in some ways easier than combating today’s insidious racism.
At least you could see the “white only” signs and you knew who was behind them.
Those signs are long gone, but racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination didn’t go with them. They are among us, often hidden, yet potent. The perpetrators of this prejudice would never call themselves bigots and might not even realize they act like one.
Beth Cobert, the acting Office of Personnel Management director, is urging federal officials to confront this unseen, but not unfelt, discrimination.
“As many of you know, one of the most challenging barriers to diversity and inclusion is unconscious bias,” she said at OPM’s diversity and inclusion summit at the Coast Guard headquarters Tuesday. “It’s difficult to grapple with because it is unconscious — not as obvious as calling out someone for using improper language or overtly passing someone over for a promotion. Probably the most unconscious bias exhibited during the hiring process is the ‘like me’ bias. The ‘like me’ bias means leaders and managers typically look to hire or promote people who look like themselves. A white male will select a white male, for example.” . . .



There is such a thing as bias and it usually is unconscious, kinda redundant to call it "unconscious bias."
 
The government is. Read the OP.

You believe that an acting director 'urging' people to act against something is the same thing as "the government must impose arbitrary, capricious, and subjective counter-measures"? :lol:
 
Bias can be demonstrated regarding male versus female, old versus young, blonde verses brunette, blue eyes versus brown eyes, first generation American versus tenth generation American, English as first language versus English as second language, long hair versus short hair, military veteran versus no military service at all, college educated versus high school dropout, married versus single, parent versus no children, Catholic versus Protestant, Shiite versus Sunni, tattoos versus no tattoos, and so on.

So because they do exist, people should not be urged to be aware of and counteract their unconscious biases?

Besides age - which happens to everyone indiscriminately - race and sex are the biggest areas of bias, both conscious and unconscious, and least controllable (or hideable) characteristics, in modern Western societies.


Honestly I was predisposed to dismissiveness of complaints along these lines, having had a relative who often posted seemingly trivial and definitely unpersuasive complaints along such lines on Facebook. My response was (and is) that as far as the legal/government side of things go, we're getting pretty close to mission accomplished; question marks over women in direct combat military roles, abortion access, gender-neutral child custody/support payment rulings, and gender-neutral parental leave notwithstanding.

But you too evidently acknowledge that outside the legal framework, bias still persists in areas like hiring and promotion: So exactly how can it be considered a bad thing for people to recognise that fact?
 
The government is. Read the OP.

No, that interpretation is so absurd it's clear you didn't even click the link to read the article. You just made up one in your head.
 
"Unconscious bias" is the Emperor's new clothes for our time. It can't be seen or measured but they say it must be fought. It's quotas in disguise. Here we have some dangerous nonsense.

Feds urged to fight ‘unconscious bias’ in hiring and promotions

As dangerous as it was, battling overt segregation during the civil rights era was in some ways easier than combating today’s insidious racism.
At least you could see the “white only” signs and you knew who was behind them.
Those signs are long gone, but racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination didn’t go with them. They are among us, often hidden, yet potent. The perpetrators of this prejudice would never call themselves bigots and might not even realize they act like one.
Beth Cobert, the acting Office of Personnel Management director, is urging federal officials to confront this unseen, but not unfelt, discrimination.
“As many of you know, one of the most challenging barriers to diversity and inclusion is unconscious bias,” she said at OPM’s diversity and inclusion summit at the Coast Guard headquarters Tuesday. “It’s difficult to grapple with because it is unconscious — not as obvious as calling out someone for using improper language or overtly passing someone over for a promotion. Probably the most unconscious bias exhibited during the hiring process is the ‘like me’ bias. The ‘like me’ bias means leaders and managers typically look to hire or promote people who look like themselves. A white male will select a white male, for example.” . . .



Just how much more of this liberal PC nonsense will they push ? Like Affirmative Action and quotas aren't discrimination !!! :roll:
 
So because they do exist, people should not be urged to be aware of and counteract their unconscious biases?

Besides age - which happens to everyone indiscriminately - race and sex are the biggest areas of bias, both conscious and unconscious, and least controllable (or hideable) characteristics, in modern Western societies.


Honestly I was predisposed to dismissiveness of complaints along these lines, having had a relative who often posted seemingly trivial and definitely unpersuasive complaints along such lines on Facebook. My response was (and is) that as far as the legal/government side of things go, we're getting pretty close to mission accomplished; question marks over women in direct combat military roles, abortion access, gender-neutral child custody/support payment rulings, and gender-neutral parental leave notwithstanding.

But you too evidently acknowledge that outside the legal framework, bias still persists in areas like hiring and promotion: So exactly how can it be considered a bad thing for people to recognise that fact?

I have no idea how it is in Australia, but here in the US we have freedoms which include freedom of thought, freedom of speech, and freedom of association. It's that last one, more than the others, that allows for US citizens to have bias - freedom of association inherently allows for freedom to not associate, which is another way of describing bias.

Here in the US, the government does not have the power to be the Thought Police. I understand that in the UK (and maybe even in Australia given your response) that the government has the power to make you act a certain way - it isn't like that here in the US.
 
I read the OP article. [on second thought - deleted]

And it doesn't say that absurd thing you came up with. So... how bout them Yankees?
 
No, that interpretation is so absurd it's clear you didn't even click the link to read the article. You just made up one in your head.

Your quote above is an example of unconscious bias.
 
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