implicated

  Saw a post from a friend of mine concerning specific training now being required for doctors in California. This training teaches that all white people have an implicit bias against black people. Fifty hours of training in this area are required every year. Failure to take this training will result in the loss of their license to practice. Basically, the lesson is that all white people are prejudicial. I admit to not continuing to read the entire article but I'm assuming without this training the fear is blacks will not be treated on equally medical terms. I'm not sure how that would work if the doctor were black though, but my guess is that blacks do not harbor implicit bias. I didn't finish reading the entire article simply because I see this as just another "woke" thing in some misaligned attempt to appease a demographic. Those liberal folks insist on proving they are liberal! In fact, that's the most important part of the whole deal to those people. 

  Now, as to implicit bias all I can say about that is that everyone harbors implicit bias against someone/something. It's a judgement based on what you are taught, what you learn, and what you experience. I have an implicit bias about city folks. I developed that bias when I was a child growing up in the country. It doesn't mean I hate city people, but it does mean I make certain assumptions about them. I'm as equally convinced that they make assumptions about me. Call it a mutual bias. Is it implicit bias? The thing about implicit bias is that has to be inferred. This training seems to believe that from the color of my skin you can infer that bias. But, if you are inferring bias based on the color of my skin wouldn't that make you prejudiced? It's a bit confusing, isn't it? I harbor implicit bias against those with black skin, and those with black skin know this because I have white skin. If they don't know they will be taught that with this training. That must be the thinking as they aren't exempt from taking this training. But that isn't implicit bias on their part, that is knowledge. Must be knowledge if you are being taught that in the classroom. And if I don't agree with that, I'm prejudiced and most likely a racist. I can't help that though, it's implicit. Only white skinned people are implicitly biased however, must be a design flaw, maybe an assignment at birth or something like that. 

 To be truthful about all of this I'm not really overly concerned at the moment. That is California the land of fruits and nuts anyway. They have always been a bit different. I know at least one person that was born and raised in California and discovered he was pretty much like everyone else despite that. It really wasn't a surprise though, just something to rib him about. But then again, he has white skin so I couldn't tell right off he was from California and that was probably the difference. It wasn't implied! I didn't infer it either. When I traveled south and heard those folks saying ya'll and calling everyone honey I knew right off, they were rednecks! I inferred that from their speech. Funny thing is they knew I was a Yankee! They inferred that from my speech. But at least there was no implicit bias involved, we were all white folks. Those redneck people were the ones feeding all this implicit bias in the first place. That's why we had to get rid of those statues, change the names of military bases, parks, schools and courthouses. Now we realized that we needed to teach that to doctors in California. They don't know about that because they are from California. 

 As for me I firmly believe in an old adage. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Ben Franklin famously pointed that out. I'm certain it wasn't an original thought on his part. The meaning is clear enough. Be careful, try to prevent something bad from happening before it happens. In order to do that you must exercise sound judgement based on what you were taught, what you learn and what you experience. When you do that, you will also develop some bias. It isn't implied however, it is inferred. When you become implicated because of inference that doesn't make you prejudiced, that makes you a victim of prejudicial thinking.