I had friends growing up from various races, my wife is from another race, and I work with other races. I still catch myself sometimes not treating people equally. It’s really easy to prefer someone that looks like me over someone who doesn’t.
Yeah, that’s apparently the prevailing opinion, hence why I wrote the last two sentences.
Don’t assume you’re “not racist” just because you treat some people well. It’s really easy to treat people differently just based on appearances, so watch yourselves. I assume I’m better than most because I get angry a lot at stupid stuff I overhear, but then my wife catches me saying something stupid sometimes. Nobody’s perfect.
I work with people from a variety of countries, and I naturally gravitate toward people from my own. We share the same cultural background, have the same accent, and have similar skin tones. So I go out of my way to correct that.
I’m a manager, so when I look at promotions, I have to take a minute to write down the pros/cons to justify a promotion to help counter that bias. I also try to spend more time (lunches, water-cooler type discussions, etc) with those who are different from me as well, otherwise I’d naturally cluster with those who are more similar to me. I notice it in the people from other cultures as well, they tend to cluster with those that are similar to them as well, so hopefully me being proactive encourages them to reciprocate.
At least that’s how I see it, and it seems to be working out alright.
I had friends growing up from various races, my wife is from another race, and I work with other races. I still catch myself sometimes not treating people equally. It’s really easy to prefer someone that looks like me over someone who doesn’t.
“I can’t be racist, some of my friends are black!”
Yeah, that’s apparently the prevailing opinion, hence why I wrote the last two sentences.
Don’t assume you’re “not racist” just because you treat some people well. It’s really easy to treat people differently just based on appearances, so watch yourselves. I assume I’m better than most because I get angry a lot at stupid stuff I overhear, but then my wife catches me saying something stupid sometimes. Nobody’s perfect.
Sorry maybe I misinterpreted your comment. Treating someone differently just because they don’t look like you just sounds pretty strange to me…
It’s subconscious.
I work with people from a variety of countries, and I naturally gravitate toward people from my own. We share the same cultural background, have the same accent, and have similar skin tones. So I go out of my way to correct that.
I’m a manager, so when I look at promotions, I have to take a minute to write down the pros/cons to justify a promotion to help counter that bias. I also try to spend more time (lunches, water-cooler type discussions, etc) with those who are different from me as well, otherwise I’d naturally cluster with those who are more similar to me. I notice it in the people from other cultures as well, they tend to cluster with those that are similar to them as well, so hopefully me being proactive encourages them to reciprocate.
At least that’s how I see it, and it seems to be working out alright.
ah when you put it like that I guess that’s fair