Ken Berwitz
Oregon State University (OSU) will be hosting aworkshop called “Making the Unknown Known: ExploringImplicit Bias in Everyday Life” as part of a nine-day commemoration of MartinLuther King Jr. The workshop will teach students “to uncover and challenge theimplicit biases that contribute to injustice.”
Among these “implicit biases that contribute to injustice” is “ordering coffee,” according to the workshop\’s description.
“What do the Supreme Court\’s ruling on the Fair Housing Actin late June, recent killings of black men by white police officers, and aperson ordering coffee at Starbucks have in common? Answer: Implicit bias,” thedescription states.
Implicit biases, according to the event description, are “stereotypes that influence our perceptions, judgements, and behaviors in anunconscious manner,” meaning an act as unconscious as ordering coffee could bea bias incident that contributes to injustice.
Michele Ribeiro, interim mental health promotion director atOSU who helped organize the workshop, told Campus Reform orderingcoffee could be considered an implicit bias “because it is a common everydaything people do.”
“Just because it is a common everyday thing people do…ordercoffee…implicit bias is also a common everyday thing people do, though maybenot conscious,” she explained.
