VOL. 131 | NO. 231 | Friday, November 18, 2016
Memphasis
Dan Conaway
One of Us
BY DAN CONAWAY
IMPLICITLY AND EXPLICITLY, ONE OF US. I’ve been reading about implicit bias lately. It’s complicated but I like the way the National Center for State Courts describes it. In part:
“Unlike explicit bias (which reflects the attitudes or beliefs that one endorses at a conscious level), implicit bias is the bias in judgment and/or behavior that results from subtle cognitive processes (e.g., implicit attitudes and implicit stereotypes) that often operate at a level below conscious awareness and without intentional control.”
In other words, implicit bias is inside of all of us, and explicit bias is what we choose to show.
If you tell me you’ve never told and/or listened to and/or laughed at a racist or sexist or homophobic joke, I know that’s not true, but don’t worry. You’ve been given permission to laugh openly at the expense of someone’s soul.
If you tell me you’ve never assigned, not even a little bit, certain behaviors to entire races, religions, beliefs and countries based on your observations while driving, standing in a grocery line, at work, I know that’s not true, but relax. You’ve been given permission to viciously stereotype anything and everybody anywhere.
If you tell me you’ve never said anything out loud, not knowing that you would be heard, that revealed something private and hurtful, I know that’s not true, but don’t be embarrassed. You’ve been given permission to say any damn thing you want publicly, no matter what it is, no matter who it hurts.
I’m reminded of something the late Redd Foxx said in response to a question about why he used so many foul words in his standup routine. Redd replied if people claim that they never say those words, he’ll take them outside and slam their thumbs in his Cadillac door and see what they say.
Last week, the election slammed my thumb in that Cadillac door and I said all those words.
While we’ve all done the things above to some regrettable degree, implicitly exposing a darker nature, a nature controlled in the light by civilized behavior, compassion, understanding and maturity – by progress – we’ve now been given permission to do those things openly with no regret.
Those darker things have now been made explicitly presidential.
So angry about being ignored and marginalized, about a changing world, white males mobilized with such force – many voting for the first time in years – that they ironically voted for change and elected a president that is disliked if not despised by 60-plus percent of America.
So thrilled when he shouted into a microphone the things they wanted to hear but wouldn’t dare say outside their circle of support, they not only licensed those things, they celebrated them.
Donald Trump is one of us, but the part of us he appealed to – pandered to, in fact – isn’t the part that inspires great things; it’s the part that rips us apart.
Now that the worst in us has been released and enabled, pray it can be calmed and controlled.
I’m a Memphian, implicitly and explicitly.
Dan Conaway, a communication strategist and author of “I’m a Memphian,” can be reached at dan@wakesomebodyup.com.