Thinking Fast and Slow about Racism
February is celebrated as Black History Month in the USA! I hope that you are following and finding new voices that challenge you and your organization. There are so many choices. Building knowledge and awareness about racism and principles of a white supremacy culture is a strong first step. However, a continuous deconstruction of our internalized white supremacy is required for change to happen. Thankfully, we have some researched ways to continue this work.
In 2011, Israeli American psychologist Daniel Kahneman shared his research about the two thinking systems in our mind in his bestselling book, Thinking Fast and Slow. Kahneman noted that System 1 operates quickly and houses our deep unconscious biases. He calls this “fast thinking.” System 2 operates deliberately and demands brain effort. Kahneman calls this “slow thinking.” While System 2 likes to think it’s in charge, System 1 most often leads our lives.
What do thinking systems of the brain have to do with breaking down white supremacy culture? Much more than we realize. System 1 thinking frequently leads to fast and faulty judgement because judgement takes less brain power. For instance, we may learn about a white person calling the police on a black person for being in a park. System 1 thinking with fast and faulty judgement may defend the white person or even think that we are not capable of such racist behavior. If we tap into System 2 thinking, we take time to reflect on times when we have been suspicious and acted differently based on racial markers.
Kahneman identifies three ways to recognize System 1 thinking and practices.
1. Frequent exposure – The more we see or hear something, the more likely we are to believe it.
2. Status Quo – We mentally weigh losses more than wins and overvalue what we own and invest in. The status quo feels more comfortable.
3. Tunnel vision – Our mind jumps to conclusions and blocks out conflicting information based on what we unconsciously know and think.
These three ways link closely to our work in deconstructing white supremacy culture. First, frequent exposure drives right to the heart of white supremacy – environmental conditioning. If you have lived in mostly white places or watched mostly white television shows for a long period of time, then you are more comfortable with those situations. A way to break frequent exposure is being in mostly non-white spaces (when welcome) or watching mostly non-white television shows for a period of time. While doing this, note what you feel in your body in these new spaces and how the stories in these shows might differ from your regular viewing.
Second, the status quo is all about comfort and safety. We enjoy what we know (frequent exposure) and don’t want to change unless it is absolutely necessary. Members of 12-step recovery groups quite often say, “The pain to change has to be greater than the pain to stay the same.” A way to break the status quo is to try something different or show up differently. If you regularly see someone making racist jokes, then say something. You will not do it perfectly, which means you will feel some discomfort. If you regularly give money to places with mostly white leadership, then find a similar organization with non-white leadership. The reflective question here is “What am I scared of losing if I make a change?”
Finally, tunnel vision is easier than deliberately working our way through our internal biases. Tunnel vision blocks our cognitive thinking space, so we make bad assumptions. A way to break tunnel vision is to take a personal assumption and travel up and down the ladder of inference with it. The ladder of inference, as created by Chris Argyris, breaks down the stages of thinking into reality and facts, selected reality, interpreted reality, assumptions, conclusions, beliefs, and actions. I’ll use a personal example here. In the past year, I’ve being doing a lot of personal work around my biases of people with larger bodies. I took some of my beliefs and went down the ladder of inference with each belief to see where these biases were rooted. Wow, I learned a lot about myself and how much I projected my own body image issues onto people with larger bodies. Personal work with the ladder of inference can be powerful.
As we move through this month of celebrating Black history, I encourage you to engage your System 2 thinking system and be aware of your System 1 paths of frequent exposure, status quo, and tunnel vision. As Audre Lorde said, “The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.” May we each ignite a personal riot with our learning processes this month.
Photo Credit: Clay Banks via Unsplash
P.S. These are book concepts that Loftis Partners teaches in the Doing the Work class that we offer. Contact us today if you are interested in bringing this class to your group or organization.