National and global attention has shown a spotlight on the brutal killing of George Floyd – an unarmed black man who died when Officer Derek Chauvin pressed his knee against Floyd’s neck for an estimated eight minutes and 45 seconds while other officers looked on without intervening. Although Officer Chauvin has been charged with second degree murder, protests continue to advocate for police reforms to stop these needless killings. Indeed, the historical record reveals that law enforcement throughout the U.S. has all but declared open season on Black males. For example, a Tulsa Police Department Division Commander, Major Travis Yates, recently explained that African Americans probably ought to be shot more often based on the amount of contact that they have with the police.[i]
In the ensuing debates about police reforms, unconscious bias training has emerged as one potential strategy. But what is “unconscious bias”? Following is one simple definition:
“Unconscious biases, also known as implicit biases, are the underlying attitudes and stereotypes that people unconsciously attribute to another person or group of people that affect how they understand and engage with a person or group.” [ii]
The key term here is “underlying” which suggests that the individual may not be aware of these attitudes and stereotypes. For example, gender bias is the tendency to prefer one gender over another gender. Confirmation bias is the inclination to draw conclusions about a situation or person based on your personal desires, beliefs and prejudices rather than on unbiased merit. Although there are different types of unconscious bias, they share one thing in common: a lack of awareness or consciousness by the individual who may later choose to act on these beliefs.
Regardless of the type of unconscious bias under consideration, I do not buy the argument that people are not conscious of their “underlying” attitudes and stereotypes – as if their behavior deserves to be forgiven or not disciplined due to an alleged lapse in memory or consciousness. The following three examples will hopefully make my point.
Training Police on Using Pepper Spray
A news article in The Dallas Morning News described an unusual training program at the Cambridge police academy on the appropriate use of pepper spray when apprehending Mexican American suspects. [iii] Police academy trainers were instructing new cadets to use stronger doses of pepper spray on Mexican American suspects. Officer Gutoski, the department training officer, explained their rationale in rather un-scientific terms: “Mexicans grow up eating too much spicy food, and because they spend so much time picking hot peppers in the fields….so with Cajuns, Mexican-Americans, Pakistani, Indian…what happens is that pepper spray is effective for a much shorter time.” Even more unnerving is the explanation by departmental spokesman, Frank Pasquarello, that “Officer Gutoski was repeating information that’s shared all the time among officers in informal training sessions on the use of pepper spray.” The training program might have been considered an act of “unconscious bias” if not for the fact that it was part of the approved training program.
Is Racial Profiling on the Decline?
A recent analysis of traffic stops made by the Texas Highway Patrol revealed that racial profiling of Hispanics was on the decline, although critics suspected that the Department of Public Safety was deliberately misclassifying Texas drivers that they stopped in order to lower the state’s racial profiling statistics. [iv] Further analysis, however, revealed that the DPS troopers were assigning the race category based on the physical characteristics of the drivers, rather than simply asking each driver to identify themselves by race or ethnicity. To achieve the lower racial profiling statistics, troopers apparently found it convenient to classify Hispanic drivers as white. Was this unconscious bias? Perhaps not since the misclassifications by race-ethnicity were not random and designed to achieve one objective: to lower the racial profiling statistics in Texas.
Just a Cup of Coffee
A Starbucks shop in Pennsylvania received national attention regarding the mistreatment of two Black men who were asked to leave the premises even though they were just waiting for a meeting to take place. The Starbucks manger called police to remove the two men from the premises. The CEO of Starbucks wasted little time in personally apologizing to the two black men for their discriminatory treatment and announced that all Starbucks employees would be required to attend a workshop to identify and remediate unconscious bias.
In my view, the Starbucks manager in Philadelphia that requested police action to remove the two black customers was not motivated by “unconscious bias,” but rather by conscious beliefs and prejudices against blacks that were not detected in the screening process by Starbucks staff. While it is common practice for organizations to screen applicants for job skills, personality, career and criminal background, it seems that screening for beliefs and attitudes about blacks and Latinos should also be part of the hiring process.
Does cultural knowledge or awareness influence medical treatment?
One recent study explored the trend in pain management wherein whites were more likely than Blacks to be prescribed strong pain medications for equivalent treatments.[v] Researchers at the University of Virginia quizzed white medical students and residents to learn how many believed inaccurate statements about biological differences between the two races – such as “black people’s blood coagulates more quickly,” “Blacks’ skin is thicker than whites’,” and “Blacks’ nerve endings are less sensitive than whites.’ ” Although they expected some endorsement of these statements, the investigators were surprised that so many in the group with medical training endorsed such beliefs. It was discovered that those who held false beliefs often rated Black patients’ pain lower than that of white patients and made less appropriate recommendations for the treatment of their pain.
Does Unconscious Bias Help Us Understand Police Brutality?
It is not likely that Officer Chauvin experienced unconscious bias while he forced his knee on Floyd’s neck for eight minutes and 45 seconds. It is more likely, based on his past behavior, that he intentionally and consciously killed Floyd. Officer Chauvin should have been removed from policing a long time ago, and it is not likely that any amount of unconscious bias training could have changed his animosity towards blacks. Such individuals pose a danger to the safety of all residents, especially people of color.
Beliefs, prejudices or stereotypes about people of color are a consequence of many factors – family values, a past negative experience, media stereotypes, and growing racial segregation in residences, churches, schools, and social networks – factors that are very resistant to change. In addition, the current political climate in the U.S. has “normalized” racist commentary and behaviors towards blacks and Latinos, making it much easier to mistreat these groups. In 2018, there were 7,120 hate crime incidents in the U.S. with a majority of the reported hate crimes motivated by race, ethnicity or ancestry bias (59.6 percent). [vi] (See Figure 1 below)
Figure 1
Conclusion
[i] Li, D.K. (2020, June 11). African Americans ‘probably ought to be’ shot more by police, a top Tulsa officer said. NBC News. Accessed at https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/african-americans-probably-ought-be-shot-more-police-top-tulsa-n1229981
[iii] Dallas Morning News (1999, August 14). Pepper spray remarks backfire on department. Cited from Los Angeles Times.
[iv] Rincón, E. T. (2016). How DPS can improve its system of recording race/ethnicity during traffic stops. Dallas News, Jan. 2016. Available at https://www.dallasnews.com/opinion/commentary/2016/01/27/edward-t.-rincon-how-dps-can-improve-its-system-of-recording-raceethnicity-during-traffic-stops
[v] Hoffman, K.M., Trawalter, S., Axt, J.R., and Oliver, M.N.(2016, April 19). Racial bias in pain assessment and treatment recommendations, and false beliefs about biological differences between blacks and whites. PNAS Vol. 113 No. 16.