1. How is BIAS created & how do we overcome it?
Annie Luzum

2. How is it CREATED?
I believe that bias is created from past experiences. When one thing happens, good or bad, people automatically make assumptions. We, as people, set our minds on things. When we have a certain mindset, it is very hard to change that mindset. You are focused on one specific assumption, and the person’s mind is not open to other variables. Lets say that someone gets in an elevator, and it gets stuck. Many times, that person is afraid of elevators from that point forward. This may not seem like bias, but in a way it is. On a bigger note, if a company hires a male employee and he is not what they expected, and he is not a good person. He steals money from the company. From then on, the company may be nervous to hire male employees, because of the past, bad experience. The first impressions and the past experiences often outweigh the other impressions and the current experiences at hand.
Current experiences/2nd impressions
Past experiences/1st impressions

3. Video-Jane Elliot
"According to Frontline website, Jane Elliot spoke these words, ”After you do this exercise, when the debriefing starts, when the pain is over and they're all back together, you find out how society could be if we really believed all this stuff that we preach, if we really acted that way, you could feel as good about one another as those kids feel about one another after this exercise is over.”
This is significant because it tells you the point of the overall experiment. She is explaining that bias can lead to many things, including friendship. Elliot is keeping the people from reaching their full potential. The people do not know what’s going on and are confused as to the point of the experiment. This is all to show bias can be overcome.

4. Dumb Blonde Play
People automatically think this because of past experiences. It goes way back when the first “dumb blondes” were here on Earth. In our play as soon as Lily, who was the blonde, walked in the room, she had an assumption made against her. It was assumed that she was dumb, when she truly was a bright individual. Lily (Brittany) also turned out to be a very kind person. What we can take away from all of this, is that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover. In this case it happens to be more like, you can’t judge a person by what’s on the outside, because it’s what’s on the inside that really matters.
“Everybody automatically thinks that blonde hair and a girly voice makes you dumb!

5. Ordinary Grace
Everyday people have to live being treated like Jake gets treated sometimes. Many times, the things people are treated with bias for, are things they can’t help. In Ordinary Grace, Jake cannot help that he has a stutter, yet he gets made fun of for it.
“How’s it g-g-g-going retard?”(7). Mr.Engdahl says this imitating Jake because he has a stutter when he speaks sometimes.
This is not the main bias in this book, but it is certainly bias. There is bias everywhere. Everyone has bias, and it can come in many different ways. You can find bias in the littlest things, and in almost everything. What we can take out of this, is to realize that people can’t chose many things about them, and that each and every person is an unique individual.

6. 12 Angry Men
This play, 12 Angry Men, consisted of many different bias happenings. This one in particular is a stereotype as well. The man put the bias into words. One can interpret that the man who identified "them", didn't trust "them". Most likely, this bias originated from past experiences. That brings me to the conclusion that bias is
One of the 12 jurors spoke bias when saying, "weren't you telling us just a minute or two ago that you can't trust them? That you can't believe them... How come you believed her? She's one of them, too, isn't she" (Act I, p. 19)?
created from past experiences. It is a recurring thing in 12 Angry Men that the men are basing their votes and thoughts on past experiences. It is very hard, almost impossible to have a completely unbiased jury because, like I said, everybody has some type of bias. Crime cases are tough situations because people are going to believe what they think is true, and they won't open up their minds to other possibilities. This taught me to realize that I'm not always right, and bias is a big reason why we think we are never wrong.

7. Overcoming Bias In order to overcome bias you need to:
Identify your own personal bias.
In our world, it is very important that we take this extreme step of overcoming bias. Bias is a rapidly spreading thing that has increased greatly in the past years. You cannot overcome bias if you don’t know what your personal bias is.
Put aside the negative bias thoughts.
If we take a step back, and see people and things in a new, fresh perspective, life can change in an instant. Instead of always thinking that for example, blondes are dumb, erase that from your mind and give it a fresh new look. This is easier said than done, I think many people can vouch for that.
Witty Parrot explains on February 25th, 2015, “avoiding bias is easier said than done when most split-second impressions are subconscious.” Without a doubt this is a very well written sentence. We don’t realize we are even making these quick impressions.
Accept people for who they are.