Kansas City employees to get special training to combat unconscious racism
Kansas City will soon put its employees through implicit bias training to combat unconscious stereotypes they may not be aware they have, the council decided Thursday.
City Council members voted unanimously in favor of legislation offered by Councilwoman Melissa Robinson, 3rd District, to ask the city manager to come up with a plan for the training within 60 days. It passed the Finance, Governance and Public Safety Committee on Wednesday.
The training targets feelings someone might have toward other racial, ethnic or social groups that are unconscious but might affect behavior or attitudes. Implicit bias is different from overt acts of conscious racism.
The training was recommended by the KC Blueprint, a report put together by the city’s Health Department, the Health Commission and the Violence Free KC Committee, a group appointed by former Mayor Sly James.
“Implicit bias does connect to our strategy to make sure we have a healthy community,” Robinson said.
Because of the various services city government provides, Robinson said it’s important city staffers who interact with the public make them feel welcome. The move comes as the U.S. faces a reckoning over its racist history following the killing of George Floyd by a white Minneapolis police officer, Derek Chauvin.
Before she joined the City Council, Robinson was president of the Kansas City Public Schools school board. That district and several others in the area have already provided similar bias training for teachers, staff and board members to help ensure students and others are treated fairly.
