Letter: You cannot check your biases at the door

Dear Editor:

In his recent guest commentary in this paper, Police Chief Ken Berkowitz said a lot about working against bias in the Police Department and acknowledged that they still needed to make progress. Some things in his commentary were commendable, and the respect shown by him and his fellow officers at the stand-in on Saturday shows a genuine desire to improve his department. However, his commentary also showed a very common mentality that is problematic. He said that it is “important for officers to check [biases] at the door,” and that in his department, officers “don’t care what color you are.” But bias is not something that can be taken off like a hat; it is a deeply ingrained part of us.

We all grew up in a society that has conditioned prejudice into us. Whether it be in the news, in movies, on TV, or from the mouths of our families, we have been taught to view the world through a prejudicial lens. For every white person, including myself, it is not a question of whether we are prejudiced, it is a question of how much we fight it, because every single one of us is prejudiced. If we think that our biases can be left at the door, then we will not question things like why we instinctively trust white people and distrust black people. If we don’t care about race then we won’t work against systemic racism, both in our country and in our community.

To try to heal centuries of hate, we need to see the world in full color. To quote Audre Lorde, “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.”

Kyra Fichman

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Posted by Guest on Jun 19 2020. Filed under Featured Content, From One Citizen to Another, Opinion. Both comments and pings are currently closed.