For social changes to occur, people whom that change would not affect the need to fight for it.  Similarly, to begin to enact change, people must understand why that change is necessary.  These are the respective central ideas of the Ted Talk, “Want a More Just World?  Be an unlikely ally” and the NPR podcast, “The Air We Breath: Implicit Bias and Police Shootings.”

In the Ted Talk, speaker Nita Mosby Tyler recalls a time in her childhood when she wanted to ballet, but no ballet school would accept a black student.  The author grew to resent ballet until a white ballet teacher, aware of the lack of opportunity given to black girls in ballet, agreed to teach ballet at the speaker’s segregated school.  Tyler uses this as a leverage point for her argument that change cannot occur unless people whom it does not affect become involved.  One historic example she used was the Civil Rights movement.  White Americans, especially ones in positions of power, needed to support change for that change to occur.  President Kennedy was ultimately a major catalyst for change and shortly after his death, the Civil Rights Act was passed.  

In the podcast, researchers discuss the presence of implicit bias in ordinary people and how it relates to police shootings. One experiment the podcast discussed was one that took place on a “video game” simulator.  The simulator had participants identify whether or not a person was a threat and whether or not to shoot him or her. The simulated people were either white or black performing identical actions.  The study found that the general public had an implicit bias to perceive black people as threats more so than white people.  The researchers then had police officers participate in the same experiment, expecting a similar or more biased outcome.  Strangely, the subjects from the Denver Police Department actually exhibited less bias than the general public.  Researchers then concluded that while police officers are not inherently more biased against African Americans, the latter are killed more often by police because of the implicit bias in the American culture.  Police shootings are more likely to occur in neighborhoods where implicit bias is prevalent, contrary to the belief that bias police officers cause these shootings.   

Both the podcast and the Ted Talk reinforce one important idea: that for change to happen, we have to first understand ourselves and make an effort to change before we can expect a change in society.  Whether it be asking ourselves if turning a young girl away from a ballet class because of her skin color is just, or testing ourselves on our implicit bias towards people of color, we must first determine whether or not we contribute to the problem.  

In the twenty-first century, many of us like to believe that we are open-minded.  However, based on the podcast it seems that we all carry some implicit bias, myself included.  Trying to suppress that bias is difficult; the researchers in the podcast admitted that.  However, I believe that I can personally change that by being less judgemental when meeting people.  I will openly admit that whenever I meet someone, and even before, I already have an opinion formed about them.  From now on, I will avoid forming an opinion on someone until I have talked to them.