The San Francisco district attorney’s office said it plans to enable prosecutors to make charging decisions in some criminal cases without knowing the race or background of the suspects and victims, a move aimed at reducing the potential for implicit bias in prosecutions, according to the L.A. Times. This is great news for Latinos and minorities, who traditionally face negative stereotypes and police discrimination.
What is Implicit Bias?
This unconscious thinking is preconceived attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions. Assumptions like these then influence your actions and judgments: A widely held, simplified, and essentialist belief about a specific group (race or ethnicity, language, socioeconomic status, sex, sexuality, and so ...
Researchers have recently discovered 65 genetic variants in minority populations, which could lead to improved specialized medicines for those groups. Up to this point, doctors have conducted the majority of medical discovery research using data from people with European ancestry, according to the international science journal, Nature — leading to a lack of diversity that hinders precision medicine for minority populations. The news is excellent for Latinos and all minorities who have traditionally been understudied or left out of clinical research. “This is an extremely important public health issue,” Misa Graff, assistant professor in the school’s epidemiology department and co-author of the paper told UNC News. “We need to work hard to make sure that the ...
We already know that Latinos are more likely to die on the job compared to their white and black counterparts. The majority of Latino work-related deaths happen in the construction industry, and most fatalities affect foreign-born Latinos. However, there is good news: This issue was addressed at the Safety 2019 Conference. “There is a lack of communication between foreign-born Latinos, their superiors and even their coworkers because of limited language capabilities,” Carmen Julia Castellon, Health and Safety Specialist for U.S. Cellular and a Bolivian immigrant, told EHS Today.
Latinos & Workplace Harms
Latinos make up 19% of all workforce fatalities, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2016, 879 Latino workers were killed on the job. Just one year ...
Latino workers are more likely to die on the job than anyone else. Most of the Latinos killed are also immigrants, according to a news report by KALW radio. “In 2017, we lost 376 workers [in California],” Jora Trang, a managing attorney at the labor rights’ organization Worksafe, told KALW. “That’s more than one worker a day.”
Latinos & Job Fatalities
Latinos have disproportionately died on the job for quite some time. In 2016, 879 Latino workers were killed on the job. In 2017, that number rose to 903. This puts the Latino fatality rate higher than the national job fatality rate for all workers, Latino Rebels reports. “This is a national crisis. And it’s well past time that our elected leaders in Washington, D.C., stop playing politics and take ...
In California (39.1% Latino), numerous bills seeking to confront implicit bias among medical professionals, police officers and judges, are making their way through the state legislature, according to KPCC's AirTalk. “No one likes to be told what to do and no one thinks they’re a racist, so the question I hear a lot is, ‘Why do we need this?’,”state representative Sydney Kamlager-Dove told The Los Angeles Times. “The goal is not to have punitive legislation. It is to help people acknowledge they have [implicit biases] and help reduce them.”
Legislation in the Works
Senate Bill 464 Senate Bill 464, or more commonly the California Dignity in Pregnancy and Childbirth Act, was introduced by State Senator Holly Mitchell last month. It would implement an ...
Dr. Colleen Bridger knows the devastating effects of childhood trauma, from risky behavior to bad grades, to even chronic disease. Bridger saw many childhoods ruined by abuse, poverty, and other trauma in her 20 years running three health departments and a childhood research/advocacy group in North and South Carolina. Health departments rarely coordinate with schools, healthcare providers, police, the justice system, and family support groups to address and reduce the impact of childhood trauma. Bridger wanted to change that. Since taking over as head of the San Antonio Metropolitan Health Department in 2017, she has worked to create a network of coordinated trauma-informed care for children and families facing adversity, even creating city’s first-ever job dedicated solely ...
We already know that implicit bias, or unconscious bias, is an uncontrollable predetermined notion that affects understanding, actions, and judgments about others. But did you know that microaggressions are an outcome of implicit bias?
Microaggressions
Microaggressions are indirect, subtle, or unintentional discrimination against a marginalized group, according to the American Psychologist. A minority is more likely to encounter microaggressions, even when there is no obvious, explicit judgment or harassment. In a 2004 study, Researchers Sandra Graham and Brian S. Lowery identified three categories of racial microaggressions that include: Microassault: “Verbal or nonverbal attack meant to hurt the intended victim through name-calling, avoidant behavior, or purposeful ...
As you may already know, moral disengagement is a way people rationalize bad decisions. It is used to describe the process by which an individual convinces themselves that ethical standards do not apply to them in a particular situation or context. Moral disengagement consists of making justifications, diffusing responsibility, dehumanizes the victim, and minimizes consequences. Yet, some outcomes have an impact on everyone.
Sense of Entitlement
A perception of entitlement can be a result of moral disengagement. For example, consider the recent college admissions scandal. More than 50 high-profile individuals face charges for conspiring to guarantee the admission of their children to universities that include Yale University, the University of Texas, Georgetown University, ...
Want to know how people rationalize bad decisions? It's called moral disengagement. Moral disengagement is the process by which an individual convinces him/herself that ethical standards do not apply to him/herself within a particular situation or context, according to world renowned social psychologist Albert Bandura. Moral disengagement can be broken down into four categories:
1. Moral Justification
Moral justification, reconstructs immoral conduct as serving the greater good. Example: Research shows that many policy officers, when forced to choose between lying under oath (perjury) and testifying against their colleagues, prefer the first option and justify the act as loyalty to their peers. Another example: “This is actually the morally right thing to do; we’re ...
