My latest rant about bias

Bias is human nature. To an extent, I will defend it. My defining beliefs even state that I believe Neutrality is impossible. That doesn't mean that there is nothing that I want to change to address bias.


The biggest issue I have with bias is when people make decisions related to bias that enter the realm of consciousness. What I mean by that is that I fully disagree with anyone making decisions to pick one race over another, to intentionally act sexist, or anything along those lines. Racism and sexism could legitimately be viewed as bias, but these examples are not actually bias. This is because bias is more of a subconscious influence.

Common influence is another issue. Generally speaking, we need to diversify our influences. Don't get all your news from a single source or even a single type of source. Try to seek out opinions that contradict the dialog that you're used to. Look for the mistakes from sources you trust and seek out additional answers.

Let's throw personal history into the mix. If someone has had a history with any kind of group that can potentially skew view beyond an acceptable level, that person should not be responsible for decisions involving that group.

No matter what, we will never eliminate bias. A better focus of ours would be to target sources of bias. Once again, common influence is noteworthy. The same can be said of personal history.

We also need to address corrupt sources that promote various forms of bias. For example, the media reports any unfortunate incident between a black man and a white man as racially motivated. While this definitely can be true, it is wrong for the media to recklessly label individuals as racist without evidence that race was indeed a factor. The fact that they are attaching labels based purely on skin can be viewed as racist well beyond bias.

The consequences of these actions have blacks suspicious of all whites, effectively increasing racism within the black community. Whites get sick of being villainized by the black community, and they end up resenting blacks. Racism increases on both sides of the issues. Can anyone deny that the media has irresponsibly injected race into numerous stories in recent years? Can anyone deny that racial tensions are on the rise?

In addition to the media, some high profile Americans have joined the game. Barack Obama is a good example of this. This is very unfortunate. The next black politician to run for president is going to have a tougher time because whites will be more wary of a black candidate. This is completely unfair to the black community. The next black person to run for the presidency will not be Obama. It would be completely inexcusable to judge such an individual based on Obama's mistakes.