Confirmation Bias

 

The news about the Washington Football Team parting ways with quarterback Duane Haskins led to the following discussion between my cellie and me.  Apparently, former NFL player and current sports analyst Booger MacFarland (who happens to be Black – adding an extra dimension to this whole thing) claimed that Haskins was just another example of young Black athletes being more concerned with image and branding than with getting the job done.

 

My cellie felt this proved that, as he believes, Black people are lazy:   “I mean, even another Black guy said it!”  Thus began our discussion of the term “confirmation bias.”

 

I asked him if failed quarterbacks Johnny Manziel and Ryan Leaf represented all White athletes.  “Of course not,” he replied.  So then, why would you think Haskins stands in for all Black people?  Or even Black quarterbacks?  Just getting started, I offered the sterling examples of Russell Wilson, Patrick Mahomes, Lamar Jackson, and Jalen Hurts.  And you know what, I actually had him thinking.

 

Stepping away from pro football, I asked him to also consider the prison library lady. Yesterday, she and her co-worker – both Black – came by and handed out book request forms, which she came back to collect, saying, “I’ll bring your books tomorrow.”  Well, by the 4 pm count, still no books!  Books are basically our only form of diversion in lockdown, so as the afternoon dragged on, our disappointment evolved into ranting up and down the hall.

 

“See, I told you those library workers are all lazy!”

“Did it on purpose, lying to us, see they’re all spiteful!”

 

I counted five different guys sharing these complaints, all having their bias confirmed.  The truth most likely during the Covid crisis is that they weren’t allowed back onto our ward. That said, I find this thinking runs rampant in prison, generalizing from the particular, as in “I told you, all ______ are ______, just look at _______!”  But as we talked, it seemed that my cellie was gradually coming around to my point.  I told him that before coming to prison, I didn’t know anyone from Tennessee and assumed they must all be meth-addled hillbillies cursed with marginal grammar, missing teeth, and closets full of Sudafed (of course, I knew that wasn’t true, figuring that a few of those preppy Vandy students must in fact be native Tennesseans).  And, wouldn’t you know it, having now met my cellie and his homeboys, my bias has been confirmed!  He laughed at that one, and admitted I may have a point.

 

From the Far Right to Antifa to BLM to the police, all we hear about are the few bad apples, so folks end up branding the whole based on the few who confirm their preconceived biases.  Which brings me back to the library lady.  I tried to explain that the only FACT we had was that the books had not been delivered, as promised.  Why, though, must we pass judgment and personalize everything?  The block went quiet for a minute, and then the guys all loudly agreed that I was crazy.  Oh well.  I tried.  It works for me.  But seriously isn’t it better to err on the side of open-mindedness than on the closed door of prejudice?