I was really glad to win this from NetGalley back in June because I had a hunch (and I was correct!) that this would be a good pairing with Pragya Agarwal’s “Sway”, and so it proved to be. However, this meant I had to read “Sway” first (see my review here) and that was quite a substantial book and so was this!
Jessica Nordell – “The End of Bias”
(24 June 2021 – NetGalley)
I found a hidden topography of interventions, a patchwork of scrappy, inventive organisations, researchers, and lay people rooting out discrimination through curiosity, creativity, and brute force.
As I was hoping, although this book started off with good, clear definitions of implicit or unconscious bias, this part was a lot less exhaustive than in “Sway” and we soon got into the other side of things – the way in which organisations, in the main (though these vary between kintergarten classrooms, university departments, police departments and others) have addressed and sought to reduce bias and its effects. The main biases looked at here are gender and race, with some class mixed in, too (there’s nothing on ageism or disability, for example, which “Sway” covered a little, and gender has to be assumed as being binary as there is so little research on nonbinary gender and bias at present). But the precepts and general ideas covered here are applicable in other areas, too, of course.
Nordell opens with the case of Ben Barres, a trans male professor, who discovered with his different gender a whole set of advantages and lack of discrimination – he’s even praised for his work being “better than his sister’s” when of course both sets of work were done by the same person. Of course, Nordell hastily moves to make the point that the advantages trans men can enjoy can also disappear in a moment if their trans status is discovered – she’s very careful in her assertions and also talks a in detail about how she’s identified and addressed her own biases. We move on to other experiments where having a control has allowed bias to be seen, and then look a little at how bias is formed and more about how it’s evidenced.
The main interest in the book is in the detailed case histories of organisations which have reduced bias. In all cases, and Nordell is careful to point this out, it comes down to a mixture of personal work and cultural/organisational work – so the power of diversity is only unleashed in a ‘learning’ environment where people see the differences between themselves but opt to learn from those differences, and for that to happen, the culture needs to make that possible. There’s also reference to systematic cultural change needed throughout society, and that’s perhaps the hardest to achieve.
Removing bias from everyday practices is essential but not sufficient for creating a truly inclusive environment. To foster a climate that includes all, everyday practices must be built on a foundation of learning from and valuing differences. And this environment need not be a workplace. These dynamics play a role in places where people live, worship, and learn.
Nordell ends with a call for personal, organisational and systemic change, which will benefit both those on the receiving end of bias and those who have acted with bias. She asks us to pause and examine where we’ve got the beliefs we subscribe to (like a newsletter, as she describes on branch of research as stating) and the associations we hold unconsciously (which spam us). A good, careful and powerful book that gives the examples and best practices you might be looking for.
Thank you to Granta Books for approving me to read this book via NetGalley in return for an honest review. “The End of Bias” was published on 23 September 2021.
I’ve read this book for Nonfiction November!
whatsnonfiction
Nov 13, 2021 @ 11:06:25
This sounds fantastic! I hadn’t heard of it, but I read Jennifer Eberhardt’s Biased earlier this year (still haven’t gotten around to reviewing, ugh) and it sounds like it looks at similar topics. I found it completely fascinating, and interesting that gender is a consideration in this one as well. Wonderful review!
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Liz Dexter
Nov 14, 2021 @ 06:20:31
I’ve not read that one, but it definitely chimed with Pragya Agarwal’s “Sway”. It was a bit disappointing that it only really included gender- and race-based bias but then again it was already quite a long book, and there isn’t the research on the bias, let alone its solution.
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Claire 'Word by Word'
Nov 13, 2021 @ 13:05:19
This is a popular subject, it reminds me of the documentary Coded Bias, I watched recently directed by Shalini Kantayya, which exposed the bisas of facial recognition software. Joy Buolamwini, an MIT student discovered it by chance, when she realised a program wouldn’t recognise her face unless she put a white mask over it. It went from being an art project into a movement.
Shalini Kantayya followed the journey of Buolamwini and other computer scientists, data analysts, mathematicians, and activists to uncover this and many other biases that govern our technology.
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Liz Dexter
Nov 14, 2021 @ 06:21:30
That does sound interesting – I’ve got Safiya Umoja Noble’s Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism on my wish list, which I think will cover similar ground but I will look out for that, too.
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mallikabooks15
Nov 13, 2021 @ 14:06:33
I agree on cultural changes and the related or perhaps basic level individual change being most important and hardest to achieve. No matter what changes organisations might try to bring, if the people that make them up still have bias in them, it will be hard to reduce. Sounds a good read; may be more approachable than the Pragya Agarwal book. Must look it up.
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Liz Dexter
Nov 14, 2021 @ 06:25:52
Yes, and also organisations have to be incredibly careful, otherwise their well-meaning effects will increase rather than decrease bias. The Agarwal book was different in that it was explaining all the research on bias, so had to be a bit more scientific and dense, whereas this could tell stories, but the science and background section was necessarily shorter, so really they go together very well.
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mallikabooks15
Nov 14, 2021 @ 12:19:50
It would be good to read them together as you did.
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kaggsysbookishramblings
Nov 13, 2021 @ 18:44:23
Sounds really interesting and if I’m interpreting correctly, it’s people’s individual attitudes we have to change to make bigger changes – and it’s always been like that, I think.
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Liz Dexter
Nov 14, 2021 @ 06:27:43
It’s a three-pronged thing, really – people need to understand their biases and then take that moment to not react in the instant but think about what they’re interpreting. But cultural changes will promote that on a societal level, and organisations (including schools, etc.) can work at integrating people in teams so people are more used to being with people different from themselves in a positive and collaborative context, which is the best way to counteract stereotyping and the associated biases.
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wadholloway
Nov 14, 2021 @ 12:14:23
The most difficult thing it seems to me is overcoming the outrage every time positive discrimination is attempted. There are a huge number of Australians who believe that individual Aboriginal people have access to monies not available to whites. When the truth is the so-called Aboriginal budget goes mainly to bureaucrats, and the provision of (often inadequate) health, education and policing services that whites take for granted.
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Liz Dexter
Nov 14, 2021 @ 15:46:53
Yes, I agree that’s a tricky thing to do. There’s an outcry every time an all-woman nomination list for a political position is announced, for example.
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Fazila Reads
Nov 14, 2021 @ 17:51:18
Ooh! This sounds like a fascinating read. Love the detailed review❤️
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Liz Dexter
Nov 15, 2021 @ 06:07:22
Thank you! It’s well worth reading!
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heavenali
Nov 14, 2021 @ 19:54:49
This sounds fascinated, I can see how it made a good pairing with Sway. It’s hopeful to see organisations trying to make necessary changes, but of course individuals need to look to themselves first or nothing really changes.
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Liz Dexter
Nov 15, 2021 @ 06:08:00
Yes, indeed, although organisational and cultural stuff can help the personal stuff, too.
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Simon T
Nov 18, 2021 @ 08:58:26
This sounds really interesting, and a great addition to Nonfiction November (I decided I couldn’t do that AND NovNov, but on reflection have read at least 2 non-fic books for my own challenge!)
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Liz Dexter
Nov 18, 2021 @ 11:16:12
Yes, it was. You’re doing twice as many NovNov books as me, although at least half of mine are Nonfiction – I have done a few of the prompts in advance so it’s all going OK although I don’t have Monday’s written up yet!
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buriedinprint
Nov 22, 2021 @ 01:33:38
Sounds perfect for the DataHead on my gift list. 🙂
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Liz Dexter
Nov 22, 2021 @ 07:36:17
Do have a look at Sway as well, then, as that’s even more data-driven.
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