Biased

For months, Asian women in Oakland, CA, reported a nonstop stream of harassment and muggings by local youth. The problem: their harassers were Black. In a lineup, the women couldn't identify their attackers, and they walked free. To counter this, women in the community received cross-racial training...which failed. The robberies stopped when cameras were installed and the police didn't need a victim to ID anymore. Eberhardt’s book is full of gems like this, smart snippets of life, and the innate biases that run it. This smart examination of cognitive biases goes further than pointing out how racial biases influence criminal… show more.

Our individual histories also shape our experience of racism and our often-unwitting perpetuation of it because of the biases we have internalized, even without our conscious awareness. Biased is an excellent discussion of how our biases are formed, how they shape our behavior (even when we don’t want them to), and what we can do about it. Jennifer Eberhardt’s powerful examples will stick with you a long time!

The first step in raising anti-biased kids is checking our own biases. Eberhardt is a highly renowned social psychologist who has woven together her own personal stories with the science of implicit biases. In the wake of repeated shootings of unarmed Black men, her award-winning research is extremely timely. By relating cutting-edge research to her own experiences as a Black woman, this book feels both intellectually engaging and deeply personal.