If I understand the English language, and I think I do, “unintended racial bias” means that a person is biased against another race, but is unaware of being so. But this definition is loaded with problems. Can one be accused of doing something of which one is unaware?
Down that slippery slope awaits the Thought Police.
It’s possible, we’re told, to have repressed memories (of childhood abuse, for instance), but I don’t think “unintended racial bias” is the same thing. I like to think that I know what I’m thinking and why I act in certain ways; in fact, it’s a fundamental truth for how I navigate my world. It goes against my grain to think that, at some level of which I’m completely unaware, I’m motivated by impulses I know nothing about. And yet, this is what progressives would have us understand.
I do believe that people can have instantaneous responses to certain people and situations and be quite judgmental about them. When I’m out early in the morning and see overturned waste bins with garbage and debris scattered everywhere, I grow angry at the unknown people who, overnight, committed these atrocities. I grow angry at the people who let their dogs shit in the middle of the sidewalk without cleaning it up. If I read about a thug who assaulted an innocent victim, I want that thug thrown in jail. I can be quite judgmental about such things. If these misfits are Black, I scrutinize myself morally to see if my anger is because of their race, or because of their behavior.
It’s always their behavior.
It’s obviously impossible for me to put myself in another human’s head, so I can never know precisely why anyone does anything. But when it comes to “unintended racial bias,” I’m firm in my conviction that it’s faux-psychological claptrap that means nothing. California’s “Racial Justice Act of 2020” refers to unintended racial bias as a possible reason for disparities in sentencing, particularly with reference to cops, who are alleged to stop Black people more than they stop White or Asian people, due to unintended racial bias. I simply don’t buy that. Cops stop people when they (the cops) have a reasonable suspicion that a crime has been or is being committed. That’s exactly what they’re supposed to do.
We really need to get rid of this bizarre notion of “unintended racial bias.” It’s an insult to human intelligence.
KQED
And a brief note on the war in Washington concerning defunding the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The Trump administration/DOGE is trying to do this, based on their claim that CPB and its broadcast affiliate, the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), are hopelessly political in their ideology, which Trump describes as woke.
In my opinion there’s no question that CPB and PBS lean liberal. I base this conclusion on KQED radio, which I often listen to in the morning. Their programming is “woke.” It blows my mind how unerringly KQED finds minority communities and individuals to sympathize with, and implicitly criticizes the dominant culture for its oppressive, inconsiderate ways. Yet I often wonder why people like me—elderly and White, with cancer and financial struggles—are never featured. It’s almost as though we don’t exist.
It’s annoying, and it also bothers me that PBS/KQED are constantly having pledge breaks to ask us for money. Their claim that they’re commercial free is a farce. If I made a list of all the “donors” (i.e., sponsors) who advertise on KQED, I’m sure it would be in the scores if not hundreds. I’ve read that KQED is one of the richest PBS stations in America. PBS is given (according to their own website) $500 million annually.
So should PBS be defunded? My own answer is, not at this time. Although I find their content biased, I think they may be getting the message that they’re going to have to moderate their approach. PBS still has a lot of excellent programming that is not available elsewhere. Besides, this whole defunding conversation has to occur in the context of everything else Trump/DOGE are trying to do, which clearly is to eliminate opposing views in the media. Trump and Musk go after the low-hanging fruit. Once they’ve consumed all of it, they’ll reach higher and further, until America has nothing but State-controlled media, like Hitler’s Germany or today’s Iran. One way of fighting against that is to defend PBS. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.
Steve Heimoff