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Identify Cultural Bias in the Community
According to Psychology Today a bias is a tendency, inclination, or prejudice toward or against something or someone. Some biases are positive and helpful like choosing only to eat healthy foods or staying away from someone who has knowingly caused harm. But biases are often based on stereotypes, rather than actual knowledge of an individual or circumstance. Whether positive or negative, such cognitive shortcuts can result in prejudgments that lead to rash decisions or discriminatory practices.
Biases often characterize as stereotypes about people based on the group to which they belong and or based on immutable physical characteristics they possess, such as their skin color or their sexuality. This type of bias can have harmful, real-world outcomes. People may or may not be aware that they hold these biases.
3 Types of Biases
1. Implicit biases are thoughts and feelings that we are unaware of or mistaken about their nature. We have a bias when, rather than being neutral, we have a preference for (or aversion to) a person or group of people. Thus, we use the term implicit bias to describe when we have attitudes toward people or associate stereotypes with them without conscience knowledge. A fairly commonplace example of this is seen in studies that show that white people will frequently associate criminality with black people without even realizing that they are doing it.
2. Cultural biases are a form of prejudice that occurs when one culture views another culture differently. It is characterized by an individual or group’s attitudes and behaviors that are based on stereotypes and assumptions about another culture. Numerous such biases exist, concerning cultural norms for color, mate selection, concepts of justice, linguistics and logical validity, the acceptability of evidence, and taboos.
Cultural bias is a form of ethnocentrism in which people from a particular ethnic background judge the outside world through a worldview based on their own cultural standards. For example, the majority of people in the United States eat with forks and spoons while many Asian cultures eat with chopsticks, and many mid-Eastern cultures eat with their fingers. Most people are largely unaware of the influence their culture has over their views of the world.
3. Social biases are “Prejudicial attitudes toward particular groups, races, sexes, or religions, including the conscious or unconscious expression of these attitudes”. The concept of social bias is more pervasive in our society than most people realize. Research in the field of social psychology reveals that social bias prevents mutually beneficial interaction among people. Defining the terminology Social Bias occurs in at least three forms:
a. Stereotyping- an over-generalized belief about a particular category of people. It is an expectation that people might have about every person of a particular group. The type of expectation can vary; it can be, for example, an expectation about the group's personality, preferences, or ability.
Examples: Girls are more docile and want to please others while boys are not as good at listening to instructions and are less attentive. Or…Girls will sometimes sulk too long over next to nothing.
b. Prejudice - a favorable or unfavorable opinion or feeling formed beforehand or without sufficient knowledge, thought, or explainable reason.
Examples: this can include race, gender, nationality, social status, sexual orientation and or religious affiliation. A group may not admit a applicant based on facial disfigurement because they are fearful that the disfigurement may make others feel uncomfortable.
c. Discrimination– A prejudiced treatment or consideration of, or making a distinction towards, an individual based on the group, class, or category to which they are or are perceived to belong.
Examples: Age, disability, sexual orientation, status as a parent, religion, national origin, pregnancy, sexual harassment. Having a group of people gang up on you. Being made to do hurtful or inappropriate things. Finding yourself having to defend who you are and what you believe against stereotypes and untrue claims.
Foster an understanding of diverse community.
Race and culture are not necessarily compatible terms, nor are they necessarily incompatible.
Race is associated with biology, whereas Ethnicity is associated with culture. There are a significant number of people who do not regard themselves as one race due to having parental heritage of more than one race. They most often identify as mixed or multiracial.
The Census defines race in the United States within the following parameters.
· American Indian or Alaska Native: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of North and South America (including Central America), and who maintains tribal affiliation or community attachment.
· Asian: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.
· Black or African American: A person having origins in any of the black racial groups of Africa. Terms such as "Haitian" or "Negro" can be used in addition to "Black or African American".
· Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.
· White: A person having origins in any of the original peoples of Europe, the Middle East, or North Africa.
· Hispanic: is not a race but is listed as an ethnicity. There are many races within the Latino community, including White, Black, Native Indian, and even Asian. Argentineans are mostly White and some Latin American countries, including Mexico, have a strong Native Indian background. According to the Census Bureau Hispanic or Latino is defined as a person of Cuban, Mexican, Puerto Rican, South or Central American, or other Spanish culture or origin, regardless of race. The term, "Spanish origin", can be used in addition to "Hispanic or Latino".
The term "person of color" today is used primarily in the United States to describe any person who is not European American or white. However, there are only 3 “races” with genetic differences; they are, Asian, Caucasian, and Black.
Culture is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities and habits of the individuals in these groups. Humans acquire culture through the learning processes of enculturation and socialization, which is shown by the diversity of cultures across societies.
A cultural norm codifies acceptable conduct in society; it serves as a guideline for behavior, dress, language, and demeanor in a situation, which serves as a template for expectations in a social group. Accepting only a monoculture in a social group can bear risks, just as a single species can wither in the face of environmental change, for lack of functional responses to the change. Thus, in military culture, valor is counted as an ideal behavior for an individual, as are duty, honor, and loyalty to the social group are counted as virtues, or functional responses in the continuum of conflict. In the practice of religion, analogous virtues can be identified in a social group.
Fostering relationships with cultures other than yours begins with seeking to understand. Seeking may be by asking questions, education or by situation. In many cases being thrown into another culture forces the assimilation by necessity. In other cases, the change can be eased through education and research into the cultural norms of the other group, guiding actions that are less likely to offend.
The process of changing values and hopefully is known as the forming–storming–norming–performing model of group development. This model was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who said that these phases are all necessary and inevitable for the team to grow, face up to challenges, tackle problems, find solutions, and deliver results. Although Tuckman’s model is associated with business teams, the principles can be very appropriate for cross culture settings. But be mindful that this same process can be used for unhealthy indoctrination also.
Fostering understanding starts with self-examination and continues with an open-minded approach. Mutual respect and understanding are cornerstones of building relationships.
Understand Effects of Bias Upon Security Personnel’s Mission
When preparing for work, the successful Officer will leave all bias outside the workplace. Few people can truthfully say they are without bias, but most people can and do prevent bias from interfering with their work and daily life.
Bias can be overt or perceived and can be detrimental to the mission of the Officer and the School Security Personnel program in its entirety. The actions of one officer can influence the perception that the public holds for all officers. Actions of Police out of the school setting can influence the perception of bias for all officers. Biases, real or perceived, are hard to overcome.
Students who believe the officer is prejudiced or unfriendly to their particular group will shun the officer making the mission of the Officer difficult at best. The impact of all biases on the school climate and the individual needs to be considered by the Officer. Biases can influence how you behave toward the members of social groups. This can lead to a phenomenon known as a stereotype threat in which people internalize negative stereotypes about themselves based upon group associations. Research has shown, for example, that young girls often internalize implicit attitudes related to gender and math performance.
By the age of 9, girls have been shown to exhibit the unconscious belief that females have a preference for language over math. The stronger these implicit beliefs are, the less likely girls and women are to pursue math performance in school. Such unconscious beliefs are also believed to play a role in inhibiting women from pursuing careers in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) fields.
Basic attitudes can also influence how teachers, parents, police and other students respond to student behavior. From a public safety point of view this can result in groups being adversely targeted for discipline due to race, religion, athlete vs. non athlete, generationally or bad experience with a family. For example, “she comes from a bad family"; first, what does her family have to do with her ability and actions and what is the basis for the family being “bad”. In education this can be devastating as the goal is to prepare the student for the future. Considering that Curriculum is the total student learning environment managing biases, be it personal or experienced, is crucial. Bias is a learned behavior that can be unlearned.
Identify Strategies for Healthy Relationships in a Diverse Society
The Officer cannot change the opinions of the world, but they may have the opportunity to change small parts of the world. A good Officer can foster relationships between youth and law enforcement that may last a lifetime. Creating a relationship which fosters mutual respect and trust could well influence actions between the students that will have benefits years later if the youth become involved with law enforcement as an adult.
It will do well to examine some strategies that tend to promote a healthy relationship which are commensurate with the missions of the Officer. Remember these are professional relationships, rather than personal relationships. As such there are some strategies that will assist the officer with fair and impartial professional relationships with a diverse school population.
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