After listening to “The Air We Breather: Implicit Bias And Police Shootings” podcast and watching “Want a more just world? Be an unlikely ally”, there are many lessons and takeaways that we can all learn from. In the podcast, the topic of implicit bias and why it exists is discussed. Through studies that looked at an individual’s bias when faced with an active shooter, it is shown that implicit bias increases depending on your community and your communities’ view on a certain matter may increase that implicit bias. Typically, there would be more implicit bias in a community where there was an increase in police shootings. The main takeaway from this is the existence of implicit bias and the difficulty of getting rid of this implicit bias when the entire community likely has that bias. Another takeaway was in the Ted Talk, where Dwinita Mosby Tyler talks about how important unlikely allies are to civil rights movements. An unlikely ally typically creates a gateway for other allies to come and support the movement. She gives an example of her ballet teacher named Miss Ann. She was a white woman who had come to a segregated school to teach ballet as an unlikely ally. The podcast and the Ted talk fit together in the fact that an unlikely ally could help a community get rid of its implicit bias. A community will most likely never change its views on a matter unless one of their own took charge in showing them the fault in their implicit bias.

I do believe that these two pieces shift my thinking about being involved. As someone who is not very involved in these things, it does make me realize the importance of being involved and taking part. I feel that involvement can truly have big effects and it is important for everyone that has the ability to get involved, should. In the future, I want to take the time to support these movements.