The Person You Mean to Be: How Good People Fight Bias

Part 1, “Builders Activate a Growth Mindset,” centers on key themes that run throughout Chugh’s book, namely, cultivating a growth mindset and embracing mistakes as a learning opportunity. Chugh positions each of these themes as necessary goals of the self-improvement journey outlined in the book: moving from “believers” to “builders.” Chugh uses metaphor as rhetorical tool to explain how a growth mindset helps readers overcome bias and privilege, and to communicate tone. For example, Chapter 2 focuses on unconscious bias, a type of bias that can be measured with the IAT. Chugh uses the metaphor of smog to explain the concept, a figure of speech she borrowed from Beverly Daniel Tatum’s book, Why Are All the Black Kids Sitting Together in the Cafeteria? (Basic Books, 1997). Like Tatum, Chugh argues that unconscious associations are shaped by our myriad experiences, which we internalize without knowing, like smog: “We breathe in these cultural associations, whether we consciously believe in them or not” (52). The metaphor is effective because, like smog, unconscious bias is difficult, if not impossible to see: “What makes the cultural smog so damaging is its invisibility […] Smog surrounds even those of us who are in or care deeply about the stereotypes groups” (52-53). The comparison gives readers a concrete, memorable picture to understand how unconscious cultural associations can surround us while remaining unnoticed, even to individuals like Rick or Chugh herself, who explicitly believe in gender equality.

Chugh uses metaphor to similar ends in Chapter 3, comparing privilege and the lack of privilege to tailwinds and headwinds, respectively. Chugh borrows these terms from Debby Irving, an antiracist educator and author who used the metaphor to explain the invisibility of systemic, or group-level, differences. Chugh explains the first metaphor as follows: “Headwinds are the challenges—some big, some small, some visible, some invisible—that make life harder for some people, but not for all people” (65). By extension, readers can infer that tailwinds do the opposite, invisibly helping people advance: “When you have a tailwind pushing you, it is a force that propels you forward. It is consequential but easily unnoticed or forgotten” (65).

Building on this metaphor, Chugh compares the presence and absence of privilege to jogging with tailwinds and headwinds, using direct address to connect with readers:

If you are like me when I jog with a tailwind, you may glow with pride at your great running time that day, as if it were your own athletic prowess. When you have the tailwind, you will not notice that some runners are running into headwinds. They may be running as hard as, or even harder than, you, but they will appear lazier and slower to you. When some of them grow tired and stop trying, they will appear self-destructive to you (65).

These metaphors clarify that headwinds create resistance that impedes forward motion, making it harder for people (like runners) to move forward, and that tailwinds do the opposite, blowing from behind to propel people forward. Moreover, the metaphor conveys the invisibility of privilege: Like the wind, the forces it exerts are invisible, and those pushing against people (headwinds) are only felt by the people in their path.

Chugh’s direct and clear writing style makes complex ideas accessible to a wide range of readers. She relies heavily on anecdotes, some of which are drawn from her personal experiences, to engage readers, explain her ideas, and support her claims and recommendations. In Chapter 1, for instance, she highlights the difference between being a believer and being a builder by citing a conversation with Brittany, the Black director involved in Project Greenlight: “I asked Brittany what it was like to work in that context, on issues of race and gender” (29). Brittany replied: “As a woman of color, a part of me felt ‘I should’ve known this.’ I should have known how to ‘formally do diversity,’ but it is something you have to learn” (29). The example of Brittany shows that being a builder does not come naturally, not even for people with firsthand reasons to believe and do the work. It demonstrates that simply believing in social justice does not equip one with the skills to help bring about equity. In short, even educated Black women like Brittany must adopt a growth mindset.

Chugh interweaves anecdotes, studies, and experiments, using them in concert with each other to convince readers to become builders. Chapter 1 opens with the anecdotal example of Perrin, a white man who sought to increase diversity in films. After introducing readers to Perrin, including his background making a film about autism and his involvement with Project Greenlight, Chugh turns her attention to research studies and statistics that highlight the problem of underrepresentation in film, an industry that is predominantly white, male, and straight:

Female speaking characters are only 29 percent of those in film and 36 percent of those on television […] In a study of the top one hundred films of 2015, forty-eight did not include a single black character with a speaking part […] Seventy films did not include an Asian or Asian American character (26).

As Chugh observes, these statistics have not changed meaningfully in the last 50 years. Further, the problem extends beyond acting roles, impacting all aspects of the industry: “Across film and television, only 15 percent of directors are female and 29 percent of writers are female. In film, women are even harder to find in director’s chairs; about 4 percent of movies are directed by women” (26). By anchoring these studies and statistics in the anecdotal example of Perrin and Project Greenlight, the reader can immediately apply them to a specific, real-world situation. Chugh also cites studies to offer solutions to the problem of representation demonstrated by the anecdote. For example, research shows that members of underrepresented groups are more likely to apply for jobs when they see people like them in recruitment materials; thus, how minorities are represented matters. One study demonstrated that Black undergraduate students were more likely to apply for jobs that showed Black employees in the recruitment materials, particularly if these employees were in supervisory roles (27).

While some readers may struggle to stay engaged with statistics, academic studies, and experiments, Chugh staves off potential tedium by interweaving the material with anecdotes. However, these stories go beyond enlivening her writing and explaining important concepts, they also serve to assuage readers’ fears and mitigate defensive reactions to her material. Chugh’s stories feature imperfect people with good intentions, mirroring her readers and encouraging them to view mistakes as a learning opportunity. The mistakes the people in her stories make as they grow from believers to builders give readers license to make their own mistakes, or to stumble upward, as the chapter’s title conveys. The growth mindset—or work-in-progress mentality—stresses learning. Mistakes are an inevitable part of learning and growth.

The anecdote of Perrin and Brittany gives a simple, clear example of what it looks like to learn from mistakes: They “scoured Twitter feeds, read think pieces, and reflected on their role in unintentionally replicating the problem they were trying to address” (32). Perrin and Brittany later spoke to leaders of different communities to learn about their needs, sought out partners to increase diversity in film, and designed outreach efforts to reach new voices. As a result, they organized contests that were far more diverse than Project Greenlight, experimented with judging, outreach, mentorship, and selection.

The example of Colleen in Chapter 3 similarly presents a relatable model for readers that pre-empts unproductive, shame-driven emotions readers may initially feel when engaging with Chugh’s work. Colleen came to understand her privilege as a straight, white, middle-class woman only after she started teaching in an underprivileged school. She approached her lack of awareness not with shame, which is unproductive, but as an opportunity to learn. Colleen researched what her life might have been like if her grandparents had been Black and realized that a strong work ethic might not be enough to combat the headwinds of systemic discrimination in education and housing. Like Perrin and Brittany, Colleen serves as a model for Chugh’s readers, an example of an imperfect person willing to adopt a growth mindset and become an active participant in building a more equitable society.