By Jeff Nesbit
We clearly have a problem in America.
When almost 90 percent of white people in America who take the Implicit Association Test show an inherent racial bias for white people versus black people, that means something.
When young, black teenaged men are shot and killed by white police officers and trigger an extraordinarily intense social commentary about racial tension in communities like Ferguson, Missouri, it means we haven’t solved the equation yet.
When America’s first black president feels compelled to use part of his State of the Union address midway through his second term in office to talk about the state of the dialogue between blacks and whites in America, it means we haven’t reached a point where we can talk about the issue of inherent racial bias in the criminal justice system, in educational settings and in workplace hiring.
We need a new, national conversation about race – about what it means when nearly every white person in America carries around an implicit racial bias that subconsciously prefers white people over black people in social, professional and educational settings. It’s black and white. It’s that stark. And we need to start on that conversation as soon as possible. (Read more)
