On October 30th, behind the Regina A. Quick Center of the Arts here at Bonaventure, we had a group from CEO Action here to allow students and anyone to check some unknown biases they might have also known as a blind spot.
CEO Action is currently touring U.S. campuses and spaces spreading diversity and inclusion along the way, stopping by our humble abode of St. Bonaventure University. Many on campus are aware of a bias incident that occurred on campus in the beginning of the semester. This incident caused a stir of emotions to occur on campus and several conversations to be formulated in the Bonnies Nation.
Faculty, assisted by campus clubs and students, helped bring in speakers to talk about why these issues need to be addressed, stopped and prevented in our community. Not only did it help our community heal, but it allowed for the issue to get resolved, multiple conversations to form and the issue to not be forgotten but learned from.
St. Bonaventure is a growing community that will be an example of prosperity and positivity, not an example of what shouldn’t happen on a university campus.
These issues that occur everywhere at any time could’ve been prevented if we checked our blind spots.
Checking our blind spots include:
1. Acknowledging
Acknowledge everyone has biases towards issues, people, race groups, ethnic groups, etc. no matter how much we deny it. The first step of anything is realization and understanding why it is a problem.
2. Do Some Research
By doing research on why these blind spots are problematic it allows you to: Understand the root of why you have them, where you got them, why society has them, what they can potentially lead to and understand these blind spots as a whole instead of thinking, “It doesn’t affect me so why should I care?”
3. Check-it
Now that you’ve came to terms with acknowledging that you have these biases and did your research, remember you don’t need to act on them and shouldn’t allow others to, even if “it’s just a joke, chill.”
REMINDER: It is never okay to express these bias remarks in any way, even if they are “Just jokes” or “No one said anything so, if it didn’t offend anyone it’s okay.”