Conflating Biases

All right, this one is going to be a little out of my comfort zone, and maybe a little controversial. It's going to be about bias - how different biases might overlap and become conflated so that one bias may be mistaken for another which may result in confusion and an inability to correctly diagnose the problems our society faces. To get a better idea of what I'm talking about, you should probably check out this paper I wrote awhile ago.

What I would like to point out is that when two biases (such as race and class) are commonly conflated, it is possible for an individual to suffer from one of the biases and not the other. For instance, a person might be classist but not racist and vice versa. However, from an outside viewpoint, that may be difficult to discern. When a person voices a seemingly biased opinion on a topic that is relevant to both biases, such as the welfare system, it may not be possible to determine which bias is the overriding one. And if some outside observers are unaware of the possible class bias, it could lead them to falsely accuse the first person of being racially biased. So before accusing someone, or say a large group of people, of a particular bias, I believe it would behoove us to consider what other biases may account for their words or actions.

That said, this also shows how difficult it is to combat institutionalized racism. It does not actually require anyone to be racially biased at all. If every American woke up tomorrow, and not a single racist or biased individual was left, we would still have a system that economically disadvantaged minorities. Our history of racism combined with our (mostly) capitalist economy would be enough to ensure that any existing wealth gaps persisted. Of course, racism and bias still do exist, and they exacerbate the situation, making the problem even more difficult to fix.

I think it's important to consider this when discussing controversial topics. Do not assume you understand the reasoning of those who disagree with you. It is important to identify their motives so that you can tailor an argument that might sway them.