Biases. Happy Saturday.

By Lupita Peimbert.

Racial and other biases often are imperceptible. They show up when people feel threatened. We are triggered. We judge quickly. We let racial and other certain filters be the only source of information. It happens to all of us more often than we would like to admit.

We judge people because of color, appearance, and perceived wealth –or the lack of it. We do it to others: Whites to blacks, African-Americans to Latinos, Latinos to Asians; third generation immigrants to new Americans; fit people to fat people, poor to rich, so-called classy-people to those who seem vulgar, so-called educated to so-called uneducated. We judge people because of color, appearance, and perceived wealth –or the lack of it.

It is a personal battle. Every day. Every moment. Very few people are free from it, most of us must make it a choice to be aware of them, racial and other biases, because they can show up any minute, specially in our thoughts and even when we do not express them verbally.

Happy Saturday.