The Water We Swim In: Implicit Bias and Structural Racism

3-hour Virtual Workshop

Enrollment Options

Upcoming Workshops

Thursday, March 7, 2024

9:30am - 12:30pm

About

About The Workshop

This workshop explores how advances in neuroscience are helping us to understand bias – how it is formed, how it “sticks” in our consciousness, it’s role in individual, institutional and structural oppression, and what we can do about it. 

Our implicit biases can lead to actions and decisions at odds with our intentions or explicit values. It is critical for individuals to understand how implicit (or unconscious) bias works so that they can interrupt its development and improve both individual interactions and relationships and interrupt policies and practices that perpetuate inequities within systems and institutions. Learn how implicit bias and structural racism work together as an insidious and mutually reinforcing cycle to justify and perpetuate inequity.

Confronting our internal and unconscious biases can be scary, but the promising news is that our brains and our biases are malleable. In addition to exploring how biases are created, this workshop will also explore approaches and strategies that, when used with intention, attention, and over time, have promising results to counter existing biases.

 
 
Reviews

What Participants Are Saying

“Thank you for pushing my thinking and my work around bias. It is transformative to have tools that make equity and anti bias work more systematic so that the work can spread and shift the existing structures in place.”

– Amy Vondra, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction, Kalamazoo Public Schools

“Within a few hours, I am coming away with some concrete strategies for reflecting and rejecting implicit biases both at an individual and institutional level.”

– Daisy Yeung, Instructional Coach, Sequoia Union High School District

“Today's workshop was thought-provoking, engaging and perfectly relevant! Good balance of small group and full group discussions, with inspiring opportunities for reflection and statistics/references.”

– Alexa Hamilton, EHS Home Visitor, OESD 114 Early Learning Department

FAQs

Frequently Asked Questions

  • We are excited to offer Center for Equity Leadership Virtual Workshops. Our workshops are 3-hour interactive sessions where participants will engage with a single focused topic, connect with other equity leaders around the world, and gain new tools to add to their equity practice. Workshops are bite-sized nuggets of knowledge, frameworks and tools that are delivered in a highly engaging way.

    This workshop will be delivered in a live, 3-hour interactive learning session conducted online in Zoom. Attend the live session with facilitators and fellow participants and gain new knowledge and skills to bring back to your own context. Participants receive electronic versions of all resources and tools.

    We are intensely focused on humanizing our virtual spaces. We focus on interactivity and connection (these workshops are not webinars), frequent screen and body breaks, and attending to learning, practice, and healing in community with people around the world.

    • People who are new to equity leadership and want to dip their toes in before registering for a course

    • Seasoned practitioners of equity and rebel leadership who are looking to connect with other leaders outside of their organizations

    • People who have attended or are currently attending a Center for Equity Leadership course and want to supplement their course work

  • We provide an advance draft of our slide deck 24 hours before the session and enable live transcription and closed caption during the live Zoom session. Our sessions are recorded (absent any technical difficulties) and can be accessed for up to 30 days after the course concludes.

  • Because our trainings include attention to building a learning community and interaction with other folks in small groups, we encourage full participation for the duration of the training. However, we understand that our homes and workspaces are commingling in this time. We hope participants can fully engage during sessions, but support participants to attend to their own unique needs.

  • Workshop fee: $200/registration

    You will receive a password-protected Zoom link and any other pre-reads and resources prior to the event via email.

    Registration by credit card is our preferred method. We are a small (but mighty) organization and processing and collecting check payments for our events has a high administrative impact.

    Click here for information on paying by check or purchase order.

  • Information about cancellations and registration transfers can be viewed here.

  • Reach out to us at events@nationalequityproject.org

Related Content

“Fish did not discover water. In fact, because they are completely immersed in it, they live unaware of its existence. Similarly, when a conduct is normalized by a dominant cultural environment, it becomes invisible.”

— Marshall McLuhan