Bicycle Friendly America Summer 2018 - 8

them alive and well. While these ideas
are very uncomfortable, as long as we are
willing to work towards doing better, this
does not make us bad people.
In early March, I was given the opportunity to present a workshop on representation of diversity in content creation
at the 2018 National Bike Summit. My
main goal was to convince the folks in
the room to think twice about if and how
they are representing people of color in
the things they are creating. I wanted
them to think about it, and talk about it
with the other folks in the room. Then, I
wanted them to take those thoughts and
discussions back to their places of work
and continue thinking and talking about
it with co-workers and friends. It seems
my plan is working, and now I've been
given the opportunity to write this follow
up to my workshop. Let's give meaning
to those core terms so we have a base for
our future discussions about representation.
IMPLICIT BIAS
Let's start with implicit bias. In our
workshop we agreed that implicit biases
were the socially ingrained stereotypes
and concepts that affect our ideas of the
people around us, even when we don't
know it. Implicit bias is subconscious
and sneaky. Everyone has implicit biases,
white folks, black folks, all folks.
PRIVILEGE
Now let's tackle privilege. Privilege
might as well be a four letter word as far
as most are concerned. In our workshop
we agreed that privilege could be defined
as certain advantages afforded to specific
groups of people. These advantages give
members of these specific groups an upper hand over folks in other groups.
For some, even suggesting that they
might be more privileged than others
is a one way ticket to Shut Down City.
Unfortunately, privilege is very real.
White privilege is very real, as is gender
privilege, heterosexual privilege, socioeconomic privilege, and more. Within
my own community I also have what is
referred to as "light-skinned privilege".
This means that I'm afforded opportuni8 BICYCLE FRIENDLY AMERICA

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Bicycle Friendly America Summer 2018