Limitless

Reflection 3: Implicit Associations

Words hurt. Words can hurt even more so when the person doesn’t even realize what they’re truly saying. There is a term, implicit bias, that is used when we have attitudes, thoughts, and feelings towards people or stereotype them without even consciously realizing. Often times it’s on accident, or it is something society or someone else has ingrained into our heads.

These implicit bias’ are more impactful than we even realize. They carry and perpetuate hate and stereotypes, furthering dividing us. Implicit biases make it “okay” to say certain things and feel certain ways about a group of people because it’s “not that bad”, when in reality these biases can carry heavier weights than some blatantly rude comments.

We often times see implicit biases done when it relates to race and ethnicity, or sexuality. For example, this could include a person avoiding eye contact with a lesbian couple walking down the street holding hands, or a business owner following around a person of color in their store.

An implicit bias I have dealt with in my own personal life is that of mental health. You always hear about how important it is to take care of our mental health, reach out to our loved ones, and to have these “mental health days” but then when people are actually faced with someone struggling they are disgusted or turned off from the matter. Depression doesn’t always just look like crying alone in your room, sometimes depression means going days without showering or cleaning, under eating or over eating, and even complete isolation. I have heard people make comments about these people who are truly struggling that they are just lazy or making up excuses, or that “it isn’t that bad”, or even worse that they’re just making it up.

But these mental health struggles are serious. They are just as serious as physical health conditions, you just can’t always see them. That’s why it is important to be a kind human being. It’s so important for us to watch for these implicit bias’ out in the world and in our own attitudes, behaviors, and speech. Addressing these bias’ and breaking down our barriers will help us better understand one another and respect one another thus uniting us. We never know what someone else is going through and why make life harder for people, it’s already hard enough.