Book #11: Sway by Pragya Agarwal
Sway: Unravelling Unconscious Bias by Pragya Agarwal
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Near to the end of her book, Asian writer Pragya Agarwal tells a story of how a white elderly couple berated her and her partner for not keeping their children under control, and wonders whether they would have reacted the same if she had been white herself.
This book addresses the amount of inequality in society created by peoples' unconscious biases. It felt like a sobering read at times, particularly as it became clear that in most cases women and people of colour are being discriminated against because of stereotyping, and also gender and racial profiling. As feminist writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie once said: "The problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete". Considering that there has been a lot of coverage given to the ever-present gender pay gap (mentioned in this book), it definitely felt very topical.
At times while reading this book, I would think that some of the information I was reading was stuff I knew already, which was one of the things that stopped me giving the book 5 stars. I would argue that women aren't necessarily the only ones who suffer from unconscious bias, thinking about comments MP Andrea Leadsom has previously said about male nannies.
Other things mentioned in the book were quite surprising, including a whole chapter about how certain modern technology often discriminate against people of colour, and seem to reflect the biases of people who created them (one example mentioned is automatic taps not working when people of some races try to use them). The book also mentions discrimination against people due to social class, masculine or feminine appearance, and even height. Reading this made me realise just how far we have to go before society can be completely equal.
As the author concludes, "unconscious bias is never an excuse for discriminatory behaviour. Not every bias is unconscious and outside the control of the person. There are biases that we can control once we are aware of the way they influence our decisions. Unconscious bias training does not exonerate an individual from taking responsibility for their actions and their role in creating inequities and amplifying injustice".
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