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Handling a diverse workplace

I GOT involved in an online argument recently about the concept of unconscious privilege.

To be honest, I understand why my interlocutor couldn’t wrap his head round the idea: He was a) white, b) male and c) middle-aged.

In other words, he grew up surrounded and protected by privilege that was not acknowledged, not even seen – it was the unheeded, invisible wallpaper of his life.

(And by the way, I’m taking a small bet with myself: Several readers will get this far, assume this is yet another column taking unfair aim at white men and skip down to the bottom to add comments. Watcha bet?)

As a boy he would never have questioned why his sister had to stay at home and wash dishes, while he took off on his bicycle with friends after a Sunday feast.

In his first job, he probably never even realised that he was earning a third more than the woman training him to be an insurance underwriter – and if he had, he wouldn’t have questioned it.

After all, he’s a man and therefore a breadwinner. Never mind that he hasn’t even got a girlfriend yet and that his trainer is a divorced woman with three kids to raise. It’s only natural.

The modern, highly diverse workplace is not friendly to unconscious privilege - the assumptions that people make when they have lived with a following wind all their lives.

It may be difficult for such people to understand why others – women, black people, people with disabilities, short people, people from poor backgrounds, people who grew up fighting prejudice of one kind or another – should take offence at comments or actions you think are harmless.

It’s genuinely hard to understand how unconscious privilege works if you have been a beneficiary all your life.

I found this wonderful analogy recently, which might help those of you who really would like to get it.

It’s drawn from a beach holiday experience by someone who has been conquering his fear of the water with swimming practice and comes from Shankar Vedantam's The Hidden Brain: How Our Unconscious Minds Elect Presidents, Control Markets, Wage Wars, and Save Our Lives.

“The water felt suddenly cooler as I rounded the lip of the bay. It felt pleasant… My legs and arms felt stronger than ever. Each kick took me several feet.

"My technique was better than I remembered. I lengthened my stroke, feeling the pull of cool water against my torso. I felt graceful. Without realising it, through steady practice, I had become a very good swimmer. I felt proud of myself. […]

"I pivoted and started to kick my way back. A particularly lovely piece of coral lay just beneath me. But as I watched for it to go by as I swam past, the coral did not budge.

"I kicked again and again. It was as though I were swimming in place, stuck with invisible glue to a single spot. My fear of the water, long dormant, opened one monstrous eye.

"Unconscious bias influences our lives in exactly the same manner as that undercurrent that took me out so far that day. When undercurrents aid us … we are invariably unconscious of them.

"We never credit the undercurrent for carrying us so swiftly. We credit ourselves, our talents, our skills. I was completely sure that it was my swimming ability that was carrying me out so swiftly that day.

"It did not matter that I knew in my heart that I was a very average swimmer, it did not matter that I knew that I should have worn a life jacket and flippers.

"On the way out, the idea of humility never occurred to me. It was only at the moment I turned back, when I had to go against the current, that I even realised the current existed.

“Our brains are expert at providing explanations for the outcomes we see. People who swim with the current never credit it for their success, because it genuinely feels as though their achievements are produced through sheer merit.

"These explanations are always partially true — people who do well in life usually are gifted and talented. If we achieve success through corrupt means, we know we got where we are because we cheated. This is what explicit bias feels like.

"But when we achieve success because of unconscious privileges, it doesn’t feel like cheating. And it isn’t just the people who flow with the current who are unconscious about its existence.

"People who fight the current all their lives also regularly arrive at false explanations for outcomes. When they fall behind, they blame themselves, their lack of talent.

"Just as there are always plausible explanations for why some people succeed, there are always plausible explanations for why others do not. You can always attribute failure to some lack of perseverance, foresight, or skill.

"It’s like a Zen riddle: If you never change directions, how can you tell there is a current?"

Even those of us who have consciously worked at reducing our levels of prejudice may still be riding a current of unconscious privilege (and it doesn’t have to be race or gender, either).

Our workplaces in particular, the one place where all of us have to cross paths with people who are different from us routinely, would benefit from an understanding of this phenomenon.

I challenge you to ask yourself what your unconscious privilege is, and try to consciously understand how it impacts others.

*Mandi Smallhorne is a versatile journalist and editor. Views expressed are her own.

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