Implicit Bias and Cultivating Cross-Cultural Competence in Legal Practice

1. Implicit Bias and Cultivating Cross-Cultural Competence in Legal Practice Sameera Hafiz and Lillian M. Moy, N-LAAN Language Access Pre-Conference, Denver 2009

2. Cultural Competence • Awareness of the Role Culture Plays • Knowledge about Cultural Concepts specific and general • Motivation & Commitment • Skills • Analytical to see & problem solve issues • Communication to bridge differences • Reflection to learn from the experience

3. Our Agenda • Define Cultural Competence • Check out the Stroop Test • Introduce the concept of Implicit Bias-- • Expose you to 10 Commandments of Cultural Competency • Apply the cultural lens to your program’s practice

4. Cultural Competence • a commitment to antidiscrimination - professional and moral duty. • Access to Justice • Individual Justice • Community Justice

5. Implicit Bias: Our Subconscious Affecting Our Thoughts REDBLUEGREEN

6. The Stroop Test • Directions: As the colored words flash on the screen, yell out the color that the word is printed in as quickly as you can. • Do not read the word, pronounce the color. • For Example: “GREEN” = Red “Blue” = Green

7. RED

8. White

9. Green

10. Brown

11. White

12. Brown

13. Green

14. Red

15. Red

16. White

17. Green

18. Brown

19. Brown

20. White

21. Green

22. White

23. Brown

24. Red

25. Red

26. Brown

27. Green

28. White

29. Let’s Try one More • Same directions. Do not read the word. Just say the color the word is printed. • Remember, go as fast as you can.

30. Green

31. RED

32. Brown

33. Brown

34. Brown

35. White

36. White

37. Which one was easier? • Thoughts on why?

38. Project Implicit

39. Project Implicit Let’s try the Project Implicit evaluation on Race: https://implicit.harvard.edu/implicit/Study?tid=2 Race ('Black - White' IAT). This Implicit Association Test (IAT)requires the ability to distinguish faces of European and African origin. It indicates that most Americans have an automatic preference for white over black.

40. European American African American

41. African American European American

42. BAD GOOD Laughter

43. Good Bad Agony

44. African American Or Bad European American Or Good Laughter

45. So What Did the Implicit Project show? • After evaluating 732,881 IAT scores for the race task completed between July 2000 and May 2006… Can anyone guess the outcome? (Which group was favored and by what % of the participants?)

46. Project Implicit • Race AIT Study Results:

47. Ten Commandments of Cultural Competence The Guiding Principles of Client Service By Lillian Moy The Legal Aid Society of Northeastern New York

48. THANK YOU SUE BRYANT! • The Ten Commandments are taken from “The Five Habits: Building Cross-Cultural Competence in Lawyers” By Professor Susan Bryant of CUNY Law School 8 Clinical L.Rev. 1 (2001).

49. IKnow Thyself … as a Cultural Being • Cultural Identities • Subject to change and contradictions • Culture is like the air we breathe • Similarities and differences

50. IIListen, Listen, Listen • Deeply • Focus on content, not style • On words and non-words • Non-verbal behavior