Am I being unwoke?

I have a very conscious bias against the term woke I think it is absolutely ridiculous an yes I am sure I have unconscious biases against a lot of things but under no circumstances would I attend any course that tried to brainwash me into believing that to have them made me a bad person or a person who needed to be trained in some way to make me more acceptable in a workplace.
All of our experiences in life form the way we view events but 99% of us are capable of realising this and are capable of going through life being kind and considerate.

Using a name or omit the need altogether is my method, to avoid saying the wrong thing.
I have a relative who has transitioned, including a slight change of name. When you have known them for over 20 years it is hard to get it right every time now . They have never said to me “ My pronouns are….”

Siope Once a bias becomes known it is no longer an unconscious bias. Those will remain,

Personally, as a catholic I have always found the simple christian belief that'we are all equal in the sight of God' has always governed my relationships with other people, and of course I have unconscious biasses, but I have always consciously to eliminate any I become aware of.

However nothing has yet managed to eliminate my belief that drivers who overtake you, as you stop for a red light, and that has happened several times recently, are anything but selfish and stupid.

If like to think people were willing to explore their possible unconscious bias and the way it affects how they interact with others.
I think that’s the important thing - knowing how our implicit bias affects the way we interact with others? Just knowing our biases is pointless otherwise.

The bias will be there - it’s an evolutionary advantage - but recognising it and learning how we (as individuals) respond to it is the only way the tests/courses will have any benefit. Many people will write off results they don’t like as ‘biased’ or ‘woke’, and refuse to acknowledge that they (like everyone) have bias, as it is almost always presented as negative. It isn’t. A preference for kittens over snakes makes perfect sense, as does being able to recognise people from one’s own side in a war, or someone more likely to attack.

If we recognise that, but learn ways to restrict our biases to when it is necessary to employ them (eg not at work or in a volunteer role) then the course could be useful. If it simply leaves attendees feeling uncomfortable about themselves or resentful for having had their biases pointed out, then it has been counterproductive IMO.

Or if it lets them just nod along and/or tick boxes without seeing any relevance to their own life.

Once a bias becomes known it is no longer an unconscious bias. Those will remain,

Oh, you are being sarky. Sorry, it’s so hard to tell sometimes from the written word.

FarNorth

Or if it lets them just nod along and/or tick boxes without seeing any relevance to their own life.

Yes, the focus of a successful session has to be on how to deal with prejudices, not just to recognise that they exist. Practical ideas are more use than theory, I think.

I don't think it is possible to change people's views on others very much, but they can learn to behave more generously to others. If someone really doesn't like children, for instance, they may always find them irritating, but can learn that talking to them with respect is more productive than assuming that they are up to no good and talking down to them.

I’m duolingoing French at the moment ! Everything is male or female ! Not an easy thing to get used to in these times

Perhaps you should learn German instead as they have an neuter gender!

Siope I am not being sarky. I am stating the obvious, and we all have hidden biasses that we are incapable of seeing, however aware we are and however much training etc we do.

The biggest unconscious bias is the belief that someone has that because they are 'woke' and have had all this awareness training, that they can recognise and overcome their unconscious biasses.

Agreed, M0nica .

The DIE training doesn’t cost that much in my experience.
You don’t have to use pronouns is you don’t want to.

Diversity inclusion and equality is a good governance issue for the charity and its Board. It’s to comply with the regulations.

Just do it, and don’t think the service is being disrupted by it- it isn’t.

My old workplace used to run training sessions on equality and diversity (I have run them myself) and some were really useful. Others were pretty dreadful however - tick box exercises which took no account of the existing expertise in the room. I sometimes wonder whether there should be quality control over things like this, as anyone can set up a training company, regardless of qualifications or experience, and people who have sat through some of the awful courses may think that they are up to speed with the advertised issues when they were never covered or were skated over.

I work for a GP. We all have to do tons of online training stupidly you can just keep clicking on "next page", answer the questions at the end, if you get too many wrong it let's you keep trying till you pass. I did a 2 hour one that included what colour bucket to use to clean different surfaces, we have a cleaner I don't know where the buckets are even kept!!!

My older-wiser-kinder neighbour was listening to the bloke next door sounding off about 'woke-ness' and 'why shouldn't he refer to people any way he chose' etc. etc. etc. When bloke-next-door ground to a halt, neighbour said something like "I think of it as being like the highway code; you don't use or need all the guidance all the time but it is a way of avoiding harm when possible."

Vintagenonna

My older-wiser-kinder neighbour was listening to the bloke next door sounding off about 'woke-ness' and 'why shouldn't he refer to people any way he chose' etc. etc. etc. When bloke-next-door ground to a halt, neighbour said something like "I think of it as being like the highway code; you don't use or need all the guidance all the time but it is a way of avoiding harm when possible."

I like that.
It's very hard to answer that and still harder if you have to keep living next door to them.

Tick box stuff seems useless. Reasonable depth where you meet people from the groups who can explain how things actually do affect them and then to talk seems to me the best way of all.

When I ran courses I DID get some people who came up and said, "I never thought of it that way". Only some.

Hmm. People would call me pretty woke but am sure unconscious bias lurk Monica. Its hard to be out of your comfort zone, however one might wish to do what my mum used to say, "do as you would be done by" as an ideal..

Dickens

I have seen a printed 'leaflet' given to me by a friend on the subject of unconscious bias, Inclusivity etc. It was very informative, well-written and concise.

It made me realise something which I already knew anyway, that I, along with others, have this bias to some degree or other.

I don't think it's necessary to hold a Course. An online Paper on the matter is sufficient. Anyone with a modicum of intelligence could understand the one I read. It's a waste of resources.

There's a lot of evidence that unconscious bias training doesn't work. It was popular in the mid teens (2013-18) and rolled out throughout many government departments, but research indicates it doesn't change behaviour and some research indicates it just helps people conceal their bias a bit better — so they still discriminate, just discriminate in a way that is less easy to pin down and do something about. Perhaps they don't say racist things about colleagues, but they find other more subtle ways of expressing their racism.

I've read an article about how unconscious bias training can make people with bias feel even more resentment and animosity because the training, when poorly conducted, can leave people feeling guilty and shamed for their bias. Unfortunately I'm not able to locate that particular article but if you google 'why doesn't unconscious bias training work?' you'll find lots of articles.

I think the whole pronouns thing has got a bit out of hand - people can make their wishes known without having to declare it on a form.

Oxfam is a case in point with a lot of money going to this sort of training.

I remember as a SW we had to keep attending similar courses and, as I was a SW for a long time, I can remember the information changing as different fads floated in and out.

There is nothing wrong with reminding people to be non-judgemental and to think about what might be in their minds that they are not aware of, but unfortunately the content tends to be extreme. One course I attended had a black man there who was very clear that he saw a lot of it as nonsense - not using black coffee or blackboard just made him laugh.