Note: This essay is a lightly edited version of an email I sent to some colleagues of mine, who suggested I post it as a blog for others to read. I hope you find it useful
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First of all, implicit bias is a very very American theory. America was founded on the principle that all men were created equal, yet the Constitution had a provision that African Americans were only 3/5 of a person. American history is also characterized by both racist antipathy (Jim Crow, lynchings) and strivings toward equality (the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil Rights Movement).
In many ways, the theory of implicit bias is a manifestation of both these tendencies, just turned inward toward the individual person: both the antipathy (automatic stereotypic associations) and the strivings (egalitarian values).
