So, what is racial bias training? There isn’t actually a simple answer I’m afraid, and it may be more useful to be clear about what it is not. It is not an attempt to eradicate unconscious bias, because that is likely not possible. As the New York Times has noted, trying to do so “would be like trying to convince someone with an instinctive dislike for Abstract Expressionism that it was worthwhile”. These biases are learnt over our whole lives and are deeply ingrained in insidious ways. Instead, the training seeks to make people aware that these biases exist in every one of us, in a non-confrontational way that allows trainees to not feel attacked, so they can consider how these biases play out in life, and they can work to notice and avoid acting on them. “The point is to decouple the bias from the behaviour,” Dr Phillip Atiba Goff told the newspaper.
Read “What is racial bias training and does it actually help stop racists being racist” on i-D