Jennifer Eberhardt stresses the importance of knowledge on bias at Elon livestream

When it comes to navigating racial injustice, knowledge is important, Jennifer Eberhardt told the Elon University community in a livestream on Wednesday Sept. 9. 

Eberhardt is an author, psychologist, professor and social activist. She wrote Elon’s common reading book for this year: Biased: Uncovering the Hidden Prejudice That Shapes What We See, Think, and Do.

In line with her book that educates readers on bias, Eberhardt said that it is essential to learn about racial injustice. Kids need to learn about racism too, Eberhardt asserted.

At one point, she had been hesitant to discuss her work studying racial injustice with kids when asked to speak at an elementary school, Eberhardt said. But kids are not oblivious to the world around them, contributing to her decision to go and speak at the school.

Her realization and ultimate decision were made after an experience she had while in the car with her young son. She had been listening to a radio report recounting the aftermath of Freddie Gray’s death while in police custody in Baltimore, Maryland. From the backseat, her son began questioning why Baltimore was “burning.”

From this encounter, Eberhardt took away that kids absorb things too. And if adults won’t talk to kids about the things that they are seeing and hearing, then kids will be forced to process the information on their own.

Eberhardt shared another anecdote of when her other son had to grapple with observing racism at a young age. He had seen people avoiding a black man in a grocery store in a primarily white neighborhood and observed that it was like he had a “force field.”

Even at a young age, Eberhardt’s son was able to recognize the biases at play. “I think it's fear,” he told his mother.

Eberhardt argued that it is especially meaningful to educate kids about racial injustice because they are able to imagine a different world. Children can think in “wild crazy ways,” she said. This imagination is what you need to consider a world without racial disparity, Eberhardt added.

Moreover, staying informed is necessary to the security of young black people, she said, pointing to how many black parents have to have difficult conversations with their kids, about the police in particular. Being informed about bias and racial injustice though, has made Eberhardt feel safer, she said. After working with police and studying them, she said that she feels more secure in her interactions with police officers outside of her work.

“Knowledge is protection,” she said. “Knowledge is power.”

However, just knowledge has its limitations. Eberhardt stressed the importance of wanting to create change, not just spread knowledge.