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Implicit Bias and Microaggressions: What are they, and how should Christians approach them?

Updated: Apr 6, 2021





Introduction


The year is 2020, it has been a year of turmoil for everyone, forced on us by the civil government and global aristocrats, especially coming for the media propagation of Coronavirus and the mass rise of the Black Lives Matter movement. The BLM have caused much turmoil by stirring up racial tensions that were not that prevalent before. The BLM is a Socialist organization that seeks to destroy the family, as you can see here before they deleted it in late September: We disrupt the Western-prescribed nuclear family structure requirement by supporting each other as extended families and “villages” that collectively care for one another, especially our children, to the degree that mothers, parents, and children are comfortable (Law Officer). It is clear that the organization does not care about the community that they say they are advocating for, they also promote the LGBTQ, Feminism, and Totalitarian government rule. This shows what their own, “Implicit Bias” as they call it are, which is defined as cognitive categorical prejudicial shortcuts of viewing the world and people, based on their identity (Godsil 5). Everyone has biases, this is part of being man, as in the image of God (Genesis 1:26). Man, after the fall is only bias towards sinning because that is his natural essence as a slave to sin, but when God makes a man born again, He changes man’s nature into a somewhat freed nature towards righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:17). However, this is not what the term implicit bias means, it means that people are racists without even evidence that they are racist. It sees racism not as an action, thought, or word actively brought forth, but as a gnostical phenomenon that only people of color have the secret knowledge about what is racists.


Results and Discourse on Implicit Bias


IAT stands for Implicit Association Test, and it is to show you where you are prejudice, and you can see the many test here in the link. As for the results of the IAT test, my results were that I had a “slight preference towards African Americans”. The results for the other participant were that they have a higher preference towards white people. I am not at all surprised by these results because I know myself and the other participant very well, so I know how she responds to people. Also, I figured out the algorithm of the test, so I saw how it was easily manipulated by the producers, and the results do not show a real bias, but what the algorithm wants you to have, unless you understand the presuppositional procedures of its makers and the test itself. I also participated in a few other bias tests on this website to see if my hypothesis was true regarding this algorithm, and it was verified by how much time I took to answer and by which letter I pushed, or the one I did not push and tried to move on without it. Also, the results depend greatly on how a person answers the first few questions before the other visual test, and those questions and answers have much more “implicit bias” ground than the visual test. It is for these reasons that I do not think the results are trustworthy. Secondly, the notion of implicit bias and microaggression is without evidence of sin, but for the most part presumption of racism or degradation, as seen by this example from the reading:


It’s very difficult for me to go up to a professor and ask him questions. I see all the White students just going up to him and asking questions. And it’s so simple for them. And when I try to do it, they usually, I know, I feel uncomfortable, and I think [the faculty] do too.

This student has sinned against this professor by presuming that he or she is “uncomfortable” with this Latino asking questions. This Latino does not have a basis for this accusation because nothing has been said or done to them, but is an assumption. To assume a sin upon someone is great lie, unless there is direct evidence, if not that person breaks the 9th Commandment, and as part of that Commandment it is an act of: slander (1 Peter 3:10), gossip (Exodus 23:1), and a misconstruction of a man’s intentions, words and actions (Romans 3:8). Pastor Jerry Bridges says this about slander, "Slander is making a false statement or misrepresentation about another person that defames or damages the person's reputation "(Bridges 161). Pastor and Dr. Voddie Baucham, has taught on this subject in voluminous amounts, and here is a video from a conference on Social Justice and God's Word:





Microaggressions and Biases


As far as the term is defined (Implicit Bias), along with the term microaggression, these are supposedly “unconscious” prejudices towards people of color. The way these terms are used are, as Scripture states “filthy communication” (Colossians 3:7), and Scripture also specifies this talk as having false presuppositions or talk, thus breaking the 9th Commandment (Exodus 20:16). I do not like the terms microaggression and implicit bias because they come from Critical Theory, and specifically Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA). CDA is a methodology of critiquing linguistic discourses, as seen here:


In sum: CDA can be defined as being fundamentally interested in analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language. In other words, CDA aims to investigate critically social inequality as it is expressed, constituted, legitimized, and so on, by language use (or in discourse). (Wodak 10)

From this definition and the way microaggression is defined, Christians should stay far away from this Neo-Marxist ideology. These critical methods of Atheistic ideology are not here to help reconcile people, but to overthrow “power and control”. These methodologies are for the destruction of a nation and church, rather than building it up. The things that have influenced my results are my study of God’s Word, living overseas, and most importantly being born again by the Holy Spirit (John 3:3). The difference between these, and the implicit bias, microaggressions, and CDA, is that the Word of God is the standard and the only and complete means by which the sins of lying, filthy communication, and other corrupt speech is revealed and reconciliation brought, while the three former methodologies seek to cause class wars between the “oppressed” and the “powerful oppressor”. The IAT has not changed the way that I view race relations in my community, in the sense of that it gives a factual account of racism because I reject that as from what I have written above. It changes it in the sense of that I fear there are now higher racial tensions in the nation that were brought about by the BLM with no basis of racism, but simply promoting the Marxist ideology ever more intrinsically into every aspect of society, especially everything that happened this year following the fallacious George Floyd case. Here are some recourses regarding Marxism and the other Social Justice movements from a Biblical perspective:








Biblical Reconciliation


To begin, Christians are under the authority of Christ as their King, and He as the King is the one who has given Commands for His subjects to follow, and to follow anything other than what He has said is a violation of His edicts (Deuteronomy 4:2). As stated above, the philosophy that implicit bias comes from is that of Marxist Atheism, so it must be rejected on the account of it being an ungodly and non-Biblical philosophy. God’s way of reducing filthy speech and other sins of partiality and speech, is through the act of Him making His Covenant of Grace to His people with the gospel (Genesis 3:15, Mark 1:15). So, the Christian if he wants to see a change in a sinful nation must chiefly preach the gospel regularly, everywhere, and to everyone (Matthew 3:8). Pastor John Colquhoun in his sermon on this verse declares this:


True repentance, in whomsoever it is, produces not merely desire, but vehement desire to depart from all iniquity, to exercise all spiritual graces, and to perform all commanded duties, as well as to advance daily in conformity to Jesus Christ, and in communion with him.

With the preaching of the gospel, men and women are brought to repentance from their turning away from the Lord’s Law, and then seek to perform everything that He has Commanded. The second way of reducing filthy speech is to call someone out, when they say something derogatory or untrue towards someone, and that in any form of communication (written or spoken), for God tells Christians how they are to approach someone who is sinning or has sinned (Matthew 18:15-20). To sin is always an action, whether through: thought, word, or deed, and along these lines, most accounts of students bringing accusations of microaggressions is sin as I stated above. Further, those who do make racist and derogatory remarks should be disciplined in the confrontation of their evil and hurtful remarks, as Matthew 18:15-20 give the directory on how to do so. Thirdly, I would recommend Christians to study the works of (Kimberly Crenshaw, Robin DiAngilo, Eric Mason, Jemar Tisby, and William Edward Burghardt (“W. E. B.”) Du Bois), who are well known BLM activist, and compare their works to God’s Word because they all come promote Marxist ideology and Black Liberation Theology. Their philosophies differ in the specifics, but they all teach from an unbiblical philosophy mixed with many misinterpretations of Scripture. The Christian is to only have the philosophy of God and His Word (Colossians 2:8). The fourth recommendation is that Christians should learn at least one other language than their primary language, and this is so that they can proclaim the gospel to more than one ethnolinguistic group (Matthew 28:18-20). With learning a second language, the Christian also gains understanding into the host culture of that language. One will also better understand God’s Word by learning another language, especially other Romantic and Middle Eastern languages. The chief point of recommendation is that the Christian do all things for the glory of God and the advancement of the Kingdom of Christ, for by doing so, he turns from viewing himself, his ethnicity, his nation, and his cultural traditions as vanity compared to the glory, advancement, and obedience to God upon the earth as in heaven (Matthew 6:9-10). In this manner, he will seek to study God’s Word to know exactly what God’s will and Commands are for him, his family, his church, his city, and finally to the whole world.





Works Cited


Bible, Trinitarian. Westminster Reference Bible Leather Cover. London, England, Trinitarian Bible, 2020.


Bridges, Jerry, and Stephen Sorenson. Respectable Sins Discussion Guide: Confronting the Sins We Tolerate. Colorado Springs, Colorado, NavPress, 2007.


Colquhoun, John. “View of Evangelical Repentance, From the Sacred Records / : Colquhoun, John, 1748-1827 : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming :” Internet Archive, Thomas Brothers, 1825, archive.org/details/viewofevangelica00colq/page/n9/mode/2up.


Godsil, Rachel, and Brianna Goodale. “TELLING OUR OWN STORY: The Role of Narrative in Racial Healing.” Perception.Org, America Healing, June 2013, perception.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Telling-Our-Own-Story.pdf.


Law Officer. “Access Denied | Www.Lawofficer.Com Used Cloudflare to Restrict Access.” Law Officer, 21 Sept. 2020, www.lawofficer.com/after-being-unmasked-blm-removes-what-we-believe-from-website.


Wodak, Ruth, and Michael Meyer. “Critical Discourse Analysis: History, Agenda, Theory, and Methodology.” Corwin.Com, 29 Sept. 2008, www.corwin.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/24615_01_Wodak_Ch_01.pdf.


Yosso, Tara, et al. “Critical Race Theory, Racial Microaggressions, and Campus Racial Climate for Latina/o Undergraduates.” Harvard Educational Review, vol. 79, no. 4, 2009, pp. 659–91. Crossref, doi:10.17763/haer.79.4.m6867014157m707l.



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