Unconscious Bias was the topic chosen by Mary Stamey and Pat Hudgins.  Pat first defined several different types of biases.  Explicit Bias as social or political bias that people see every day.  Implicit Bias implies prejudices that we hold inside.  Uncommon Bias are those we are born with and are in our thinking.  Internalized Bias are messages about oneself that we hold. External Bias are those that are clearly seen and heard.

What can we do about these biases? Ask yourself “What if my actions pertain to someone I love or to me?”  How would you react? Ask for open feedback.  Ask a person about their hair if different from yours.  Teach others about differences.  With Barbie dolls from different ethnic groups you can show that people are different.  Exam your organizations policies.  Some may be harmful to others as they attempt to progress in their job and in the community.  Have courage to change some things.  Be forward in your thinking.  We need to work toward inclusion.  Work toward eliminating bias when we find it in our lives or workplace.

Mary showed many items with a power point display that showed biases in today’s world.  A Pantene commercial – smooth, dedicated and persuasive were the males while females were labeled bossy, etc. In the slide “Nevertheless she persisted “we saw biases such as – clothing is distracting, that’s a man’s job, she was asking for it, will your kids get in the way of your work, I didn’t think you would want that much responsibility……..We must teach our girls to say, “You cannot do that to me”.  With sexist jokes use silence or humor. What is a good comment? I don’t get it.  Don’t get combative. Is this factual? Help the person move to something else.

In our ever changing world we have many “Unconscious Biases”.  We have many leaders in this community. Some people are in different spaces now than before and we need to think differently. We need to continue paving a way for new thinking.

To celebrate International Women’s Day, the next Manhattan AAUW Branch meeting will be on (change of day and location) March 8, 2017 at the Holiday Inn Manhattan at the Campus in the Landon Room.  Dinner is at 6:00pm with cost of $20 and the Public Forum (no reservation needed) is at 7:00 pm. The speakers are Dr. Paola Paez, from K-State in Food Safety Research in Child Nutrition, Maria Fernando Rivero Perez a senior at KSU in Marketing and International Business from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Dr. Falma Rahi, neurologist with Medical Associates from Iran, Sneha Gullapalli, KSU Master’s student in Computer Science from India, and May Altamimi. They have been asked to speak about why they came to the US, political climate in their home country, barriers here in the US and have they been effected by the pending travel ban here in the US?

Persons interested in learning more about AAUW in Manhattan may go to manhattan-ks.aauw.net or email manhattanksaauw@gmail.com.