Unconscious Bias Quotes

“After it happened I was at a loss for words. Haven't you said this yourself? Haven't you said this to a close friend who early in your friendship, when distracted, would call you by the name of her black housekeeper? You assumed you two were the only black people in her life. Eventually she stopped doing this, though she never acknowledged her slippage. And you never called her on it (why not?) and yet, you don't forget.”
― Claudia Rankine, Citizen: An American Lyric

“. . . [I]t's very difficult to ask questions of nature that aren't somehow already colored by our very human preconceptions. Even the simplest, most objective, questions may play into preexisting prejudices.”
― K.C. Cole, The Hole in the Universe

“I must ask myself whether I am not colouring what I see with my own views.”
― Sven Holm, Termush

“It can feel as if we’re giving up our own values or giving in to the other person’s preferences. The reality is, it’s not giving up but adding on.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“Being in the dominant group, where the culture matches our culture, tends to lead to not only advantage, but also conscious laziness.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“CAMPERS is a seven-step process you can use to improve your ability to provide inclusive, nonjudgmental care when you are planning, engaging in, and reflecting on a patient interaction. The letters in the mnemonic device stand for: clear purpose, attitudes and beliefs, mitigation plan, patient, emotions, reactions, and strategy.”
― Kimberly D. Acquaviva, LGBTQ-Inclusive Hospice and Palliative Care: A Practical Guide to Transforming Professional Practice

“People in a majority or socially supported position, no matter how well-meaning, are often so protected in their assumptions about the world that they do not even know they are making assumptions.”
― Sam Hope, Person-Centred Counselling for Trans and Gender Diverse People: A Practical Guide

“These disfigured relationships were handed down through the generations. The people whose ancestors had put them atop the hierarchy grew accustomed to the unearned deference from the subjugated group and came to expect it.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“Americans of today have inherited these distorted rules of engagement whether or not their families had enslaved people or had even been in the United States.”
― Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

“Our Filters are what we need to pay attention to, yet they are what many of us are oblivious to.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“The vital question we each need to ask ourselves is not if but when and where I am contributing to disparities in my profession, in my system, in my community?”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“We think we are in conscious control and are making our own decisions when, in actuality, we aren’t.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“We mistakenly believe our cultural behaviors are the good, right, and respectful behaviors. What convinces us of that misperception? Our Filters.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“Our challenge is how to identify and talk about our differences, well, differently.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“Unless we’re interacting with a mirror all day, we are interacting across differences.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“Organization after organization has created a culture of, for, and by only round holes, yet they say they want square and triangle and star pegs.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“Equality applies the same rules and advantages to all in an attempt to treat everyone fairly. While used with the best of intentions, the results are rarely equal.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“The systems within our organizations continue to churn out disparities and inequities, and all too often, those charged with fixing the problem look to the wrong source.”
― Sara Taylor, Thinking at the Speed of Bias: How to Shift Our Unconscious Filters

“The peril of unconscious bias is greatest when it seeps into all levels of society and becomes group thinking.”
― Gaiti Rabbani, Curious About Culture: Refocus your lens on culture to cultivate cross cultural understanding