Comments on: Egalitarianism, Implicit Bias, and Motivation

By: Maridie Niare

Maridie Niare — Thu, 14 Dec 2023 03:53:57 +0000

I think a step that someone can take in becoming anti-racist would be to first recognize that they may be exhibiting acts of racism. The only way to truly do this is to look at your actions objectively and ask yourself, “if someone else did what I did would I label them as a racist?” If the answer is yes, then it’s clear that there’s an underlying issue here, even if you didn’t mean for it to be that way. Going off of what Natalie said, this external motivation, fear of being “cancelled” can serve as motivation that turns intrinsic. I do want to point out, however, that sometimes external motivation in the form of peer pressure can also lead to people doubling down on their beliefs and being less open to change because they are being told to. So I feel that finding a balance in the extrinsic motivation, or the right form at least is where we’d need to start with that.

By: Chau

Chau — Sat, 09 Dec 2023 06:56:21 +0000

I think one way to become intrinsically motivated as a passer-by who often defends themselves by saying “I’m not racist! I have friends who are people of color!” is asking those friends about their experience as members of the racial minority, thinking about what they go through on a daily basis, and practicing your empathy if you truly care about them, so your first step towards anti-racism can be fighting for your loved ones.

By: Natalie

Natalie — Fri, 08 Dec 2023 17:28:52 +0000

I agree that internal motivation is crucial for anti-racist work, and I also think we should keep open the possibility that people can grow from external motivation into internal motivation. This would be throughout a process of self-determination, but it would still end up with intrinsic motivation by the end. One example I can think of regarding external to internal motivation is based off of what occurred during the summer of 2020. Young people supported the Black Lives Matter movement, BLM protests, information, etc. They did this through posting about recent things happening or even by reposting a black square. Although the black square was pointless and extremely performative, it might have been some people’s first experience with this issue. So although some people may have joined in on the “trend” of posting about Black Lives Matter because everyone else was doing it, this external motivation might have started a journey towards internal motivation. And that to me provides hope that more people can do the work to fight against their own implicit bias by growing.