Posts tagged Cognitive Dissonance
White Paralysis: How Racial Stress and Cognitive Dissonance can lead to Inaction

Consider the following scenario: Kathy manages a team of ten, she is white, nine of her teammates are white and one is black. Several teammates, including her black colleague, are often late to work. She addresses the attendance issue with her white colleagues but never addresses it with her black colleague despite thinking she should. Now, let's consider Mr. Joe a white male English teacher at a diverse high school.  As a high school teacher he frequently redirects students in class when they are off task. Reflecting on his practice, he admits that he is quicker to redirect his white students when they are off task allowing his students of color to remain unengaged in class learning.


What do both of these scenarios have in common besides the soft bigotry of low expectations… Privilege…

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