“The Conversation” by Robert Livingston

  • Proximity is the fastest way to change values
  • Conversation, even thinking about having one, is a powerful change
  • There is a large gap between perception is equity gap
  • (I don’t see the connection between Rights and Treatment. I understand that we have equal Rights but that is not translating into equal treatment.)
  • When other people are around, people are less likely to help
  • “Bias Credentials” are when we support a person of color and we feel entitled to judge other people of color
    • (This is the, “I have a black friend, so it is okay” moment)
  • Racism is more of a sticker than a tattoo
  • People are more often complicit than racist
  • Getting benefits is different from having detractors… They are not opposites
  • A strong grounding in authority is associated with racism
  • When we feel diminished, we are comfortable to diminish others
  • There will always be an “other” group but it is a malleable group
  • Brown people have been settling white people since forever
  • Key identity trigger: Am I competent? Am I a good person? Am I worthy of love?
  • Witnessing discrimination tends to lower our opinion of the person being discriminated
  • Compassion is not empathy
  • Humans do better recognizing affiliation than race
  • Try to add extra categories (try for 4) in addition to race
  • Use concurrent validity to avoid timing or measuring bias
  • Make sure the thing you are measuring matches the thing you want to improve
  • It’s less about having the right answers and more about asking the right questions