WeR1 on defining White Privilege and Unconscious Bias

St Nic's have committed to the journeying through the risky, challenging, but liberating road of talking, listening and most of all learning about racism.

We had our first Open Discussion (July 2021) at church and received quite a lot of questions that were impossible for us to answer in the time that we had.

We wanted to honour those questions and thought a great way to keep this important conversation going would be to answer them.

So, we grouped the questions into four themes:

Definitions

White Allyship

Church Action

Black Majority vs Multicultural Church and Leadership

In true WeR1 style, we've had a person of colour and a white person write about each theme, to give the two perspectives.

Our hope is that these pieces will be informative, inspiring and transformative.

Marsha Farmer

Written by Janet Willcocks

Unconscious bias is often defined as prejudice or unsupported judgement in favour of or against one thing, person or group. Your brain tells you that you are safe with people who look think and act similar to you. We all have unconscious bias and this can cause a great deal of harm especially with issues around race. Unconscious bias can affect your behaviour or decisions without you realising it. This does not make you a bad person. 

For example:
On separate occasions a couple of my black friends have turned up for a conference; one is a lecturer, the other a senior social worker, with their secretaries. The person on the receptionist desk booking them in addressed the white secretaries assuming they were the managers. Rather than seeing the black person as management.

Unconscious bias or implicit bias is frequently used to explain instances of systematic discrimination like, why a white boss might not promote a black employee for example, or why a black child is more likely to be suspended from school. 

A personal example:

I went to buy some honey and picked up three jars clearly marked how much they were. I went to pay for them, only to be asked, “you do know that they’re £4.50 each?" To which I replied, "yes, I saw the price." I left the shop wondering why did he speak to me like that, was it because of my skin colour?

The argument is that the behaviour is triggered by a deeply embedded belief that the individual is unaware of, rather than an act of conscious and intentional racism.

Is the concept of unconscious bias just a convenient way for people to avoid acknowledging racism or taking responsibility for their action?

I think to break down these attitudes we REALLY need to get to know people from different classes, races and genders. Invite them for a meal - you could widen your social circle and do some research around the topic.

1 Samuel 16-7 says But the Lord said to Samuel do not consider his appearance or his height for I have rejected him. The LORD does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart. 

White Privilege is an advantage that protects white people against any form of discrimination related to their race. As a black woman, I’m not saying that white privilege implies that white people have not, or cannot experience challenges in life, it means that any challenges that a white person has faced or may face isn’t related to the colour of their skin. Which is what many people of colour experience every day.

Example of White Privilege:
When out shopping, do you assume that the employee might be looking at you because they think you’re going to steal something? Or if you’re in a shop that is upmarket, do you get the impression the salesperson is thinking, “why are you in here, you can’t afford our products?” When walking down the road do you fear being stopped by police, or being picked on because of your skin colour? My daughter only a couple of months ago was called a nigger which was very upsetting for her. As a white parent do you feel the need to teach your child about how they may have to deal with discrimination around their skin colour or their hair texture? If you’re watching tv or a movie, reading magazines do you ask yourself why none of the characters look like you? If not, that’s white privilege. These kinds of worries don’t exist when you have been born with white privilege. As a black person these are some of the issues I have to deal with daily.

As Christian Jesus teaches us in Luke 10:25-37 that loving your neighbour as yourself means loving those in particular who are different than you ethnically.

Written by Pricilla Paradise

White Privilege and Unconscious Bias

I’m a middle-aged, middle-class woman, and I know I am somewhat privileged. However, I don’t think I was really aware of the privileges I have of being white until I read Ben Lindsay’s book, ‘We need to talk about race’, watched programmes on race, and heard the experience of black friends. This was despite working in a diverse public sector environment and undertaking unconscious bias training.

I have become deeply aware of how many aspects of life are different for me, being white, compared to my black brothers and sisters, whether in everyday occurrences of micro-aggression, or worst of all, hate crime based on skin colour.

As a result, I’ve made changes to my behaviour, because in the same circumstances I am now aware that I might be treated with more tolerance than my black brothers and sisters. Examples might be trivial, such as asking to go in front of someone at the supermarket checkout because I’ve only got a few things in a basket, or holding up the traffic trying to do a right turn, but they demonstrate that whilst I may be judged by others, I’m not faced with the realities of racism every day.

Reading about white privilege, and hearing stories from black friends, has helped me, so that in conversations with white friends I can put forward different perspective helping them to become more aware of the privileges they have.

Last Maundy Thursday, we had a service which focused on issues of race. The reading and sermon was, John 17:20 – 23, and this opened my eyes to see the priority Jesus puts on us being one. Through repentance and thinking about what it means to be one – “that they may be one as we are one - I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity”, I have changed my attitude and behaviours. I have become very aware of those who do not have the same privileges as me, the daily challenges they face, and the need to create awareness and understanding so that “[we] may be one … and brought to complete unity.” 

Resources on white privilege:

https://www.barnardos.org.uk/blog/white-privilege-guide-for-parents - simple definition of white privilege, what it means and what to do about it

https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/articles/zrvkbqt - short video by John Amaechi explaining white privilege