“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. That is why right, temporarily defeated, is stronger than evil triumphant.”
— Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Nobel Peace Prize acceptance speech, 1964
Tag: justice
Recognizing and Accounting for Our Own Implicit Biases
Implicit bias is a tricky thing to root out. It’s a naturally occurring psychological phenomenon that helps us to navigate a complicated and ever-changing world. We all harbor biases and stereotypes based on our past experiences and socialization. Even young children exhibit implicit biases. Most of us are unaware of our biases because they operate at a subconscious level.
Implicit bias has been the subject of research for years, but lately, it has generated a great deal of attention from journalists, commentators, and the public, especially in relation to race. Fearing that the term “implicit bias” has taken on a particularly negative connotation in recent times, some experts have begun referring instead to “implicit associations” or “unconscious associations” in an effort to avoid defensive responses to the topic. This topic should not be as polarizing as it is. Getting beyond the defensiveness is so important because, left unchecked, our implicit biases can lead to dire consequences not only for the people to whom we are reacting, but to us, the ones who harbor the biases.
I am not a psychologist or sociologist and I have not read all of the extensive research on this topic. Based on my limited knowledge, however, here are a few key things to understand about implicit biases.
In Defense of Jury Duty
People often tell me about the jury summons they received or their experiences serving as a juror, usually with a groan. If they’ve been summonsed, they want to get out of it, and if they’ve been called to serve in the past, many express relief that the case was resolved before trial or that they weren’t selected and got to go home after a few hours.
I’ve never served on a jury myself, and I probably never will now that I’m a lawyer. Most American adults, in fact, will not be called for jury duty. According to one source, less than a third of American adults have ever served on a jury, and the number of federal jury trials is declining.
I have, however, worked in several courts and sat through a number of jury trials. In this post, I hope to demystify jury duty and maybe even convince you to be excited about your next jury summons. My discussion will mostly center on the federal courts, as each state does things a little differently.