Battling Bias

According to psychologists, we are all prejudiced. So what can we do about it?

- Katherine Laidlaw

SUSAN LUCAS WAS SURPRISED to realize she had so many racial biases. Two years ago, the Toronto-based registered psychotherapist was listening to an interview on the radio with a Black author and activist who posited that everybody is racist—even if they don’t realize it. “When I started to think about it, I recognized that, deep down, I do have some fears of, and aversions to, people of colour,” says the 63-year-old. Using the skills of her trade, Lucas got to work examining why she felt that way and finding ways to address it.

Society is facing something like a reckoning recently, as the news cycle is dominated by harrowing accounts of racism, sexism and homophobia across the arts, politics and many other fields. According to one 2016 survey, more than a third of Canadians admit they’ve made a racist remark in front of other people; one in five has been a victim of such a remark. Ongoing discrimination against Indigenous people in Canada has motivated the government to issue a formal apology and set up the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in an attempt to rectify wrongdoings.

But as the nation realizes it has work to do, every individual has an obligation to address the prejudices that live within them. Here are some tips for unravelling yours.

RECOGNIZE AND REDIRECT