The End of Bias: A Beginning, The Science and Practice of Overcoming Unconscious Bias
Jessica Nordell
Metropolitan Books/HenryHolt & Company (September 2021)

Many of us have an invisible enemy that can do incalculable damage 

Long ago, Mark Twain observed, “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.”

His observation refers to what Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham later characterized (in 1955) as “the unknown unknowns.” That is, ignorance of one’s ignorance. It is one of the reasons why so many people develop and then retain biases, including one against acknowledging a bias. For example, these are among the most common conscious or unconscious biases in a workplace culture, listed in alpha order: Affect Heuristics, Affinity, Attribution, Beauty, Confirmation, Conformity, Contrast Effect, Halo Effect, Horns Effect, Illusory correlation, Intuition, and Similarity.

According to Jessica Nordell, “Over time, I came to see bias as a kind of soul violence, an attack not just on the material conditions of one’s life — on one’s choices and possibilities — but on one’s sense of self…The racial bias of today, whether stealthy or overt, continues to alter one’s inner experience. Repression becomes, as poet Dawn Lundy Martin writes, ‘so much a part of you that you hardly feel it…Your heart rate increases when you see the police drive by, but you feel relief the second the car turns the corner.’ On cold currents, bias travels from the outside world into a person’s deepest interior.” (Pages 7 and 8)

Later in the Introduction, she observes, “In the field of ecology, there is the notion of an ‘edge,’ a place in the landscape where two different ecosystems meet, like the salt marshes where land meets sea or the riparian zone where a stream cuts a hillside. This edge is often the most fertile and generative area in an entire landscape, providing nurseries for fish and stopover points for migrating birds. Where one human meets another is also an edge. It’s the place where bias appears, a space thick with potential for harm.” (Page 13)

Nordell wrote this book in order to make a substantial contribution to thought leadership; more specifically, to a greater understanding of how and why the science and practice of overcoming unconscious bias can help almost anyone anywhere replace that bias “with different ways of seeing, responding, and relating to one another. In the ferment of that edge, something new can grow — insight, respect, a mutuality that has evaded us for too long.”

She is determined to help as many people as she can to create an “edge” within their own landscape for positive and productive communication, cooperation, and — especially — collaboration, rather than confrontation because of a bias of which many may be unaware.

These are among the other passages of greatest interest and value to me, also listed to suggest the scope of Nordell’s coverage:

o Ben Barres (Pages 1-3 and 11-13)
o Patricia Devine (17-18, 23-31, 35-36, 39-40, 92-93, and 97-102)
o History of racial attitudes and biases (18-20, 53-54, and 274-277)
o Black Americans and bias (18-22, 67-69, and 110-119)
o Racial attitudes and behavior (20-23, 21-30, 31-34, 53-54, 138-139, and 274-277)

o Deliberate vs, automatic thinking and bias (29-34)
o Children and gender bias (45-51, 54-55, and 58-60)
o Managing categories of raw sensory data (45-55, 58-60, 68-70, and 181-182)
o Strategies to change bias (91-101)
o Antibias training and other corrective responses (91-103 and 105-109)

o Constance Rice (113-114)
o Mindfulness and bias (126-128 and 139-142)
o Structural organizational change (151-163)
o Medical systems and healthcare biases (175-189)
o Gifted programs (190-195)

o Anete (Peko) Hosoi (204-207
o Inclusive environments (225-249)
o Federico Ardila-Mantilla (241-247)
o Unbreaking culture (250-270)
o Bias in pre-schools (261-270)

I wholeheartedly agree with Jessica Nordell: “The stakes are high, the repercussions are serious, and the problem is solvable. There is so much we can do. This book is one beginning.” For many who read this book, this will be the beginning of their understanding of the scope and depth of the problem of unconscious bias. For the first time also, perhaps, this will trigger the beginning of their efforts to recognize and then eliminate unknown unknowns that have compromised their humanity. She hopes so, as do I.

An African proverb reminds us, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Each of us can eliminate our unconscious bias in a timely manner. To embrace the much greater challenge, we will need more time — as well as mutual respect and trust — as we proceed in collaboration.

Here’s another reminder, from Margaret Mead: “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”