Jay-Z Concert – Unconscious Bias
My job providing replenishment tickets to other team members converting Clinton tickets into venue tickets did not require much work at all. They all had plenty of tickets. So, I wondered aimlessly watching the people come through security.
I discovered a large roll of Hillary stickers and decided to distribute them to the incoming Jay-Z fans. It was an interesting social experiment for me. As might be expected, most of the attendees were African American rap fans. Distributing stickers meant going up to people and offering them a sticker. Some would simply take the sticker, some would lean their shoulders toward me for me to apply. It was fun interacting with people.
However, I found myself more willing to approach the women with a sticker than the men. Some of the guys frankly looked scary to me. Leather jackets, torn jeans, lots of bling and sunglasses. I realized that my reluctance to approach the men was a clear sign of my unconscious bias. Most of them had been waiting for 2 hours before they got through security and their expressions were serious, if not grim. But I forced myself to approach whoever came through security, including the scary guys. In literally every case, the man’s face would soften into a smile when I offered the sticker. They immediately went from looking scary to looking benign, if not downright friendly. No matter how many times this happened, I retained my reluctance to approach many of these guys. That unconscious bias is very deeply ingrained.
There was, however, one very mean comment that cut me deeply. I relieved one of the team members and waded into the crowd to do distribute tickets. One guy in the crowd yelled, “Hey, look, Bernie Sanders is here.” Ouch. I reminded him that I had the tickets and he’d better be nice to me. He claimed that somebody else that looked like him made the comment.
You be the judge.
Me
Bernie
Hey, what a minute…
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I think you look at lot more like Jay-Z