Implicit Bias vs. Explicit Bias: What's the difference?

[0:30]What's up everybody? I'm Dr. C.I. and I am back in the building to have a conversation with you today about implicit versus explicit bias. Now, we've already had conversations about unconscious bias, so why am I back in the building having this conversation again? It is because I was working with a company the other day and I saw a module on implicit bias and it was hot garbage, y'all. I had to wash my hands of it as soon as I was done watching it. And I'm going to tell you why, because what it did is it didn't distinguish the difference between implicit and explicit bias. So I'm going to do that for you. An implicit bias is a prejudice that turns into an action that is unconscious. You don't know that you are doing it, okay? An explicit bias is a conscious bias. It means that you know exactly what it is that you are doing, and that usually shows up when human beings are afraid. For example, in the module, they walked up to a young woman on the street and they said, tell us about a time when you've experienced implicit bias at work. And she said, well, I work in a warehouse, and I had a manager who would never subscribe me any hard work. And when I went up to him and asked him, why don't you give me the same amount of work, he said, because I don't believe that women can lift heavy boxes. And she said that was his implicit bias. No, that is explicit. He knew for a fact that he didn't believe that women could live boxes, therefore he prevented her from lifting boxes. Now, if she had went to him and he involuntarily said that he didn't realize he had done that, then it would have been unconscious. And there's a difference because an implicit bias can transfer to an explicit bias, but an explicit bias cannot transfer to an implicit bias. Let me give you an example of that. We was working with a company and we did a pay equity analysis. What that means is we looked at gender, for example, to see if there was any difference between the way that men, women and non-gender binary populations were paid within a company. What we found is that women were paid less for doing the same amount of work and having the same amount of experience. The director of HR was a woman. Most of the hiring managers and recruiters were women in that company. When we pointed out the pay equity analysis, they had no idea that they have been offering women lower salaries. And they fixed it. They went back and gave them equitable salaries. They had to change it, but we changed that bias from being implicit to now saying that it is explicit because you are conscious that you are doing it. Do you understand the difference? Is this starting to resonate with you and you thinking about a time when you might have experienced both? Here's what I want you to do. I want you to share with us a time when you have experienced implicit bias or explicit bias and how that showed up in your daily lives. We want to know so that we can learn and grow with you. I'm looking forward to hearing what it is that you have to say. Once again, I'm Dr. C.I. Y'all have a great day.