I suspect that a lot of people forget the concept of mens rea (sometimes through lack of critical thinking, sometimes for deliberate conflation). Labels are easy to throw around; unconscious bias gets lumped together with racism. One is culpable behaviour, the other not paying attention. But again if someone wants to push a particular point of view it's just easier to label someone else as "bad" without having to explain exactly what is bad or how bad.

For every problem there is a solution that is simple, neat—and wrong. -- H.L. Mencken

and from a different social issue but highlighting how easy it is to go from "good guy" to "bad guy";

When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist. -- Hélder Câmara

Mens rea as a cultural notion has been undermined by the growth of strict liability laws to be "tough on crime" plus it spares any prosecutorial inconveninces like having to prove the barest level of intent.

I am no domain expert but an ammendment to require mens rea for far more felonies as opposed to the farcical nonsense where picking up an unidentified feather could be a crime if the feather turns out to be from a bald eagle.

>No. I reject this. No matter how many times you or others tell me that I’m racist and can’t help it, and if I just pray... I mean take enough sanctioned training courses it’ll go away I will not partake. Period. Nobody is racist until proven otherwise, or racist until they’ve taken enough unconscious bias training courses. That’s something you and others are making up to deal with your own insecurities and racism. Being uncomfortable walking down the street at night because you see a black man is your racism. Not mine. No thanks.

Racism comes in many forms, it's not just about being scared of black men on the street. That's a wildly exaggerated strawman.

Everyone has biases and prejudices. Everyone. Yes, that includes you.

But people don't have the same biases and prejudices. People differ in what they're prejudiced against (or for!) and they differ in the magnitude of their prejudice.

And let's be clear: this is not just about skin colour. Gender, sexual orientation, class, accent, formal education... people have prejudices against all of these things and more.

Unconscious bias not a type of prayer or cleansing ritual. You don't stop being biased or prejudiced because you do UB training.

It is supposed to help you identify when and how that prejudice manifests itself so that you can take a step back and try and consciously try and remove your prejudices from your decision-making.

And if you reject racism, why not arm yourself with this tool? If you're not racist (or sexist or classist etc...) Why not take a couple of seconds to think "has some stereotype about this person lead me to this conclusion? No? Okay, let's carry on..."

Political activists regularly equivocate between "racism as unconscious bias", "racism as benefiting from systemic forces", and "racism a overt discrimination" at will, going to whatever definition is expedient to achieving their tactical aims. It's not a truth-seeking process, it's psychological manipulation. A growing minority of people are recognizing those tactics for what they are and rightly rejecting them.

And for the record, unconscious bias training has not been shown to have any correlation with actual discriminatory behavior, and the the researchers who developed the test reject how it is being used in these training sessions.

> Everyone has biases and prejudices. Everyone. Yes, that includes you.

Everyone is a sinner (not the Pope, tho). Yes, that includes you! Go confess and do your penance

Congratulations for completely missing the point of my comment. Please go back and read it in good faith.

It's _not_ a value judgement. People aren't evil for having biases. They're not sinners because they do, and they don't have to do penance.

congratulations on missing the point of the whole thread.

Also, for having biases, people are actually getting called evil (racist, nazi, bigot, etc) every day, and are expected to apologize/be fired/read more sacred texts/participate in group exorcisms/etc

> I’m really sick and tired of seeing this crap. It’s ruining western civilization and creating conflict.

It’s ruining western civilization and creating conflict for whom? Western civilization has always been marked by conflict for some.