Studies show people can be consciously committed to egalitarianism, and deliberately work to behave without prejudice, yet still possess hidden negative prejudices or stereotypes.

So even though we believe we see and treat people as equals, hidden biases may still influence our perceptions and actions.

Psychologists at Harvard, the University of Virginia and the University of Washington created "Project Implicit" to develop Hidden Bias Tests — called Implicit Association Tests, or IATs, in the academic world — to measure unconscious bias.

Here in Portland, Maine we plan to talk in detail about these hidden biases that exist. At 6:00pm on May 9th, in the Community Televeison Building at 516 Congress Street (in the meeting room located just after you walk in the front door) we're going to have a public forum about a new video documentary coming up called "Bias in the Unbiased." We all know bias exists in the right wing groups. Well, this is a music video documentary where people give examples of how they were censored or discriminated by the clergy, progressive activissts or progressive media...you know, people allegedly unbiased. You're welcome to come and feel free to invite friends!

Schedule

6:00pm -May 9th, at 516 Congress Street in the meeting room (located just after you walk in the front door) -public forum about the new music video documentary. There will not be a camera recording during the public forum. This will just be a casual chat with some nice snacks and juice between 6:00pm and 7:00pm. If you choose not to be a part of the future recording, you need not get involved. You do not need to bring any food, but if you do, thanks! This can be a wonderful POTLUCK! Yummy! (Bring any type of dish but please write down all the ingredients of your dish on a small sheet of paper for the consideration of vegans and vegetarians, thanks.)

7:00pm - May 9th, at 516 Congress Street in the Studio (located down the hall in the middle of the building) -We begin filimimg new music video documentary. Each person will only talk (or read poetry, peform a song or a skit, etc.,) about bias which exists in people and groups who are llegedly unbiased.

8:15pm - May 9th, The documentary is finished, and everyone goes home. The fnal copy of the video documentary will be anti-copyrighted, copyleft and placed on line and give to Community Public Television Stations nationwide to air.

You're welcome to come and feel free to invite friends! . And then at 7:30pm we'll walk into the studio and film the real thing for 60 minuts to see what ideas folks have for making the progressive movement less oppressive to marginalized people.

Ever been a victim of...

ageism?
sexism?
homophobia?
classism?
ableism?
censorship?
racism?

Now is your time to sound off! Solidarity! WooooHooooo!

Even if you have never been the victim of discrimination you are welcome to share your thoughts on "bias from the unbiased."

A few topics you may want to discuss if you have never been a victim of bias are...

ageism?
- How can we get more attention paid to the plight that the elderly are facing while living in abominable, understaffed and deadly multinational corporate nursing homes... even though youth rarely see the insides of them until they are old and visitors and cameras are strictly prohibited?

sexism?
- Do you think it is fair that so few activist groups and progressive businesses refuse to allow several weeks of paid maternity leave when activist groups and progressive businesses with lower budgets in the UK and other industrialized countries have over twice as many paid weeks of maternity leave?

homophobia?
- Why do so few activist groups refuse to mention homophobia in their statement of discrimination?

classism?
- Is a Co-Op business, based on buying plans and purchasing clubs, blatantly discriminating against the poorest classes of people who cannot afford such plans and cannot afford co-op membership fees?

ableism?
- African-American Americans had to struggle through slavery, a civil war and a civil rights movement for the right to use the front door and the right to sit in the front of a bus or a business. Do you think it is fair for so many activist groups and progressive businesses (especially in the Northeast where 'building preservation' is the rational) to deny wheelchair users the right to use the front door? Do you think it eats away at the dignity and the self-esteem of wheelchair users on a daily basis when they are told that they must go to the rear... and use the side door or the back door?

racism?
- When taking into consideration that many minorities and marginalized people are denied access to a quality education and are disproportionately exposed to more crime than non-minorities and thus have a different, often aggressive-style of talking, do you think it is fair for people of color, or any marginalized individual to be banned from a progressive activist group without a written advance warning and without a written advance notice based simply on words that were found offensive by non-minoritiy staff members?

Come share your thoughts!

No fees, no donations, no money and no hateful rhetoric please. This will be an anti-copyrighted documentary. Poetry sound offs are welcome. No fiction please. This is a non-fiction documentary which is created in music video style. The Community Television Network staff will prepare a special stage/set which will be used during this production which will consist of a couch and sofa chairs in order to create a conversation stayle documentary. No scripts are needed. Come as you are. People of all ages, genders, physical abilities (the meeting room and the studio are all 100% wheelchair accessible), races, sexual orientations and backgrounds are greatly welcome!

"Many in our movements preach the value of free speech, open dialogue, and debate, yet as soon as somebody challenges our most basic assumptions, or dares to level a public criticism at the liberal powers-that-be, they are barked down and accused of creating a "circular firing squad." It seems to me that when you're simultaneously losing on nearly every one of our so-called "issues" -- abortion, civil rights, the environment, the economy, foreign policy -- questioning everything should no longer be our right, it should be our responsibility."

-Adam Werbach, Former president of the Sierra Club, from the controversial speech "Is Environtalism Dead?". Adam Werbach resigned from the Sierra Club, and decided to stop calling himself an 'environmentalist', shortly after determining that the Sierra Club chose to remain 'neutral' in regards to the growing number of anti-immigrant environmental 'activists' within the Sierra Club who were supporting anti-immigration laws and using 'over-population' and 'protection of the environment' as their rational for their extreme racism and bias.

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