I think this podcast does a great job of illustrating exactly how implicit biases and stereotypes create a butterfly effect of harmful consequences. I am saddened to learn about the problematic origins and ineffectiveness of the D.A.R.E program, as I was the valedictorian of my DARE group in the fifth grade. Additionally, I see the power and pervasiveness of implicit biases enforced by the media and stereotypes from my own experience. I grew up in a rural and very non-affluent area that was relatively diverse, and yet the same implicit and harmful image of predominately persons of color as ‘drug abusers’ comes to my mind. As discussed in the podcast and in my previous blog post, that images such as these portrayed by the media are responsible for this.
That brings into question why the media is so set on perpetuating harmful images, and I think this podcast fills that information gap. People in power, like the First Lady attempting to stop drug abuse or the racist lawyer from the 1930’s who criminalized marijuana (forgot his name), have the means and ability to get their implicitly biased message out to the world. This makes it of the utmost important for everyone, especially those in power, to expose themselves to otherness and different opinions in order to diminish implicit biases to the best of their ability.
Your post makes me wonder did Nancy Raegan and the lawyer put out their implicit bias or their explicit biases? Did they believe drugs were a problem stemming from minority communities or did they have a bias against drugs that lead them to implicitly create an issue about race?
I definitely think that the media plays a huge part in how we make assumptions, and as we talked about last week, how stereotypes are formed. I think that the media likes to portray the “raw” images of drug use and drug abuse, but oftentimes, it’s just the perpetuation of stereotypes.