September 2023 - Parks & Recreation - 46

CULTURALLY RESPONSIVE
An implicit bias may stem from
a real-life experience, but it is not
definitive or accurate for all similar
situations. Consider this: A person in
a purple shirt was rude to you, and
it made you very upset. Does that
mean that everyone in purple shirts
will be rude? No. However, your
brain may see a purple shirt, revert to
the feeling you felt during that experience,
and automatically form a bias
about people in purple shirts. But
you probably never would tell your
friends that you don't like people in
purple shirts, because that would
sound absurd.
It also is important to understand
why a bias may seem confirmed to
you and assess if systemic issues and
discrimination have played a factor.
In
Chimamanda
Adichie's TED
Talk, " The Danger of a Single Story "
(tinyurl.com/mv3nz7m7), she states,
" The single story creates stereotypes,
and the problem with stereotypes is
not that they are untrue, but that they
are incomplete. They make one story
become the only story. "
Implicit bias can serve as a founstereotypes,
dation
for
discrimination
and racism. Park and recreation
organizations
committed
to transformative DEI work must
self-analyze, determine and remediate
how bias impacts their work
environments, customer service
and programming.
Examples of Implicit Bias in
Parks and Recreation
Location of sports amenities - Have
you ever heard statements similar to,
" People in that area will never use tennis
courts " or " Those people will only play
basketball " ? If so, implicit bias and incomplete
information were involved,
and possibly were used in future
development decisions. This often
happens because an individual or
an organization predetermines and/
46 Parks & Recreation | SEP T EMBER 2 0 2 3
or assumes that certain sports won't
be played in a particular area, thus
an amenity won't be built based on
demographics, such as legal status,
income, location or race. A culturally
responsive organization will ask the
questions, " What is this belief founded
in? " " Is this my opinion or a proven
fact? " and " What can we do to change
that, if true? " Consider how historical
issues - such as racism - created
systemic,
discriminatory
impacts.
Often, the reason certain groups do
not have large representation in a
sport or activity is because of historical
lack of access due to race and
income disparities. Thus, many outdoor
activities and sports have historically
been underrepresented by
marginalized demographics.
Summer camps/Afterschool programs
- Although summer camps
and afterschool programs do not
exactly mirror school and classroom
environments, they do have similar
structures in that there are instructors,
participants and behavior policies.
As a practice, agencies should
evaluate their conduct codes and
behavior policies for these programs
and how discipline and redirection
are disseminated amongst participants.
This is important because research
has shown that children from
non-dominant groups,
particularly
African American boys, are targeted
when instructors and administrators
are looking for deviant and defiant
behavior over children from dominant
groups (tinyurl.com/2p92jbn5).
Such policies are written to
be facially neutral and provide
clear
instruction on rules for
all
participants. However, those rules
often are applied biasedly because
of implicit biases. Multiple studies
have concluded that Black and
Latino students are punished more
severely than white students in
school for the same infractions
| PARK S ANDRECRE AT ION . OR G
and more harshly than students
from dominant groups in the
criminal justice system for the same
offenses (tinyurl.com/3753bzfx).
In 2016, NPR released the article,
" Bias Isn't Just a Police Problem,
It's a Preschool Problem. " The
article included Walter Gilliam's
research from the Yale Child Study
Center, noting that
implicit
bias
caused preschool teachers to look
for disruptive behaviors in African
American boys at higher rates than
other preschool children.
With this research in mind, it is
imperative that departments train
park and recreation staff to be consistent
in the application of rules and
progressive discipline. Organizations
can follow up by auditing and evaluating
discipline statistics compared to
participant demographics. This practice
also is beneficial for workplace
personnel reviews. What's more,
implicit bias can factor into performance
evaluations, wage increases
and discipline determinations if the
practices are not done in an objective
and consistent manner.
Microaggressions
Implicit bias is evidenced through
microaggressive words and behaviors.
Microaggressions are defined
as subtle words or actions about a
member of a marginalized group
that are not intended to be offensive,
but nonetheless, have a negative
impact. It is important to note that
impact determines the effect, not
intent. Microaggressions often are
said regarding, or done to people related
to, protected categories, such as
race, age, gender, sexual orientation,
gender identity/expression, religion,
ability and socioeconomic class.
Microaggressions can impact our
work environments and the provided
customer service negatively. With
microaggressions, what might seem
http://tinyurl.com/3753bzfx http://tinyurl.com/mv3nz7m7 http://tinyurl.com/2p92jbn5
September 2023 - Parks & Recreation

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