EJS joins the Writers Guild of America West, Screen Actors Guild, Americans for American Values and the Kirwan Institute in presenting “Reading Between the Lines: Uncovering Unconscious Bias” on September 30, 2009, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. at the Writers Guild of America, 7000 West Third Street, Los Angeles. A reception will follow the panel, which will be introduced by Norman Lear.

UPDATE: We will be videotaping this event.

The event is listed on Facebook, but RSVPs must be sent to diversity@wga.org with “Between the Lines” in subject line of your email. Contact the WGAW Diversity Department at 323-782-4589 with any questions.

In his autobiography Nelson Mandela tells of getting on a plane in Africa after his release from 28 years of imprisonment. The pilot of the plane was a Black African. This frightened Mandela. When he examined his fears, he realized that he had internalized negative stereotypes of Black incompetence. Many of us have internalized negative stereotypes of women, lesbians and gay men, the disabled, older people, and people of color. These fears operate in our unconscious.

Panelists include:

• Celinda Lake, Pollster
• john powell, Professor of Law, The Ohio State University
• Antonia Hernández, President and Chief Executive Officer, The California Community Foundation
• Dr. Camille Charles, University of Pennsylvania
• Jerry Kang, Professor of Law, UCLA
• Dr. Maninder Kahlon, Cognitive Neuroscientist
• Jeff Adachi, San Francisco Public Defender and Producer of The Slanted Screen, a documentary on Asian Americans in cinema
• Eva Paterson, President, Equal Justice Society

With special guests:

• Kathleen Antonia, attorney and actor
• Tim Paulson, California Teachers Association
• Larissa Fasthorse, WGAW American Indian Writers Committee
• John S. Johnson, Director, Harmony Institute

The panelists will explore how the brain processes information and how the need for quick decision often leads to faulty conclusions. Political ads from the 2008 presidential campaign will be used as examples of how media can “prime” viewers to activate stereotypes and similarly, deactivate the impact of negative unconscious stereotypes. A number of ads showed candidate Obama as a menacing Black man – purposefully done to make voters afraid of him.

EJS has studied the intersection of unconscious bias and social justice since 2003. Our signature project on this issue is the collaboration with the California Teachers Association to assess racial bias in the classroom and school environment and its impact on student achievement.

“Implicit (unconscious) bias and stereotyping are gaining increasing attention as a possible explanation of unequal treatment in a number of settings including education, employment, health care and law,” said Dr. James Outtz, an industrial and organizational psychologist, who leads the research team on behalf of EJS and CTA. Dr. Outtz explained that scientists define unconscious bias as implicit attitudes, actions or judgments that are controlled by automatic evaluation without a person’s awareness. Existing research shows that we all engage in a cognitive process called “categorization” to simplify and streamline how we perceive others (e.g. sex, race, or age). This process can lead to stereotype application that influences our thoughts and behaviors towards members of certain groups.

Notably, there are a number of social power relationships in our society in which the application of stereotypes may be particularly detrimental to members of racial and ethnic minority groups, the teacher-student relationship being one significant example.

Our workshop will provide a background on the unconscious bias theory, drawing from our six years of work on the issue and identifying ways that unconscious bias can be better understood and used by writers.

Contact me at kkamisugi@equaljusticesociety.org if you have questions about this event.

]]> http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2009/07/unconsciousbias-panel-wga/feed/ 1 http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2009/02/acs-sneak-preview-of-documentary-film-a-class-apart/ http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/2009/02/acs-sneak-preview-of-documentary-film-a-class-apart/#comments Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:02:11 +0000 Keith Kamisugi http://www.equaljusticesociety.org/?p=559 ACS will tomorrow give a sneak preview of “A Class Apart,” a documentary film chronicling the landmark 14th Amendment case, Hernandez v. Texas. The Thursday, February 12, event is at Landmark Theatres Embarcadero Center Cinema, One Embarcadero Center, Promenade Level, San Francisco, starting at 7 p.m. with doors open at 6:30 p.m. A discussion takes place at 8 p.m. The cost to attend this event is $10, payable online at the RSVP page.

There’s also a pre-screening reception at 6 p.m. at Chevys, Two Embarcadero, (next to the Embarcadero Center Cinema) made possible by the generous sponsorship of Keker & Van Nest LLP, the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association, and the East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association.

In the tiny town of Edna, Texas, in 1951, field hand Pete Hernandez murdered tenant farmer Joe Espinosa after exchanging words in a gritty cantina. From this unremarkable small-town murder emerged a landmark civil rights case that would forever change the lives and legal standing of tens of millions of Americans. “A Class Apart” tells the little-known story of a band of underdog Mexican-American lawyers who took their case, Hernandez v. Texas, all the way to the Supreme Court, where they successfully challenged Jim Crow-style discrimination against Mexican-Americans.

In the landmark case, defense lawyers forged a daring legal strategy, arguing that Mexican-Americans were “a class apart” and did not neatly fit into a legal structure that recognized only blacks and whites. As legal skirmishes unfolded, the lawyers emerged as brilliant, dedicated, humorous and at times terribly flawed men. This film dramatically interweaves the story of its central characters — activists and lawyers, returning veterans and ordinary citizens, murderer, and victim — within the broader history of Latinos in America during a time of extraordinary change.

The event features introductory remarks by the Honorable Maria P. Rivera, Associate Justice, California Court of Appeal, First Appellate District, Division Four and Miguel A. Mendez, Adelbert H. Sweet Professor of Law, Stanford Law School.

The discussion panel following the film will include: The Honorable Lorenzo Arredondo, Judge, Lake Circuit Court, and co-author of “El Chicano y the Constitution: The Legacy of Hernandez v. Texas, Grand Jury Discrimination;” Ignacio M. Garcia, the Lemuel Hardison Redd, Jr. Professor of Western & Latino History, Brigham Young University, and author of “White But Not Equal: Mexican Americans, Jury Discrimination, and the Supreme Court;” and Ian F. Haney Lopez, Professor of Law and Executive Committee Member, Center for Social Justice, Boalt Hall, University of California, Berkeley School of Law.

The panel will be moderated by Donato Tapia, Co-Chair, Oral History Project Committee, Hispanic National Bar Association.

The Equal Justice Society is proud to co-host with the Bay Area Lawyer Chapter of the American Constitution Society, Active Voice, the American GI Forum of the United States, the East Bay La Raza Lawyers Association, the Hispanic Association of Colleges & Universities, the Hispanic National Bar Association, the Hispanic National Bar Foundation, Latino Public Broadcasting, the League of United Latin American Citizens, the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Public Broadcasting Service, and the San Francisco La Raza Lawyers Association.