Unraveling Bias: How Prejudice Has Shaped Children for Generations and Why It’s Time to Break the Cycle

By Christia Spears Brown

We need only scan the latestnews headlines to see how bias and prejudice harm adults and children alikeevery single day.

Police shootings that give rise to the Black Lives Matter revolution . . . rampant sexual harassment of women and the subsequent #MeToo movement . . . extreme violence toward trans men and women.

It would be easy to fix these problems if the examples stopped with a few racist or sexist individuals, but there are also biases embedded in our government policies, media, and institutions.

As a developmental psychologist and international expert on stereotypes and discrimination in children, Dr. Christia Spears Brown knows that biases and prejudice dont just develop as people become adults (or CEOs or politicians). They begin when children are young, slowly growing and exposed to prejudice in their classrooms, after-school activities, and, yes, even in their homes, no matter how enlightened their parents may consider themselves to be. The only way to have a more just and equitable worldnot to mention more broad-minded, empathetic childrenis for parents to closely examine biases beginning in childhood and how they infiltrate our kids lives.

In her new bookUnraveling Bias: How Prejudice Has Shaped Children for Generations and Why It’s Time to Break the Cycle, Dr. Brown will uncover what scientists have learned about how children are impacted by biases, and how we adults can help protect them from those biases. Part science, part history, part current events, and part call to arms,Unraveling Biasprovides readers with the answers to vital questions:

How do biased policies, schools, and media harm our children?
Where does childhood prejudice come from, and how do these prejudices shape childrens behavior, goals, relationships, and beliefs about themselves?
What can we learn from modern-day science to help us protect our children from these biases?

Few issues today are as critical as being aware of bias and prejudice all around us and making sure our kids dont succumb to them. To change lives and advance society, its time to unravel our biasesstarting with the future leaders of the world.

Paperback

Pages: 288

Published: 2021