Character witness. A Life of Fighting Injustice

• Author: Dale Minami
• Pages: 12-14

Inter Alia | CHARACTER WITNESS

system through hiring, how career-

enhancing work is assigned and how

lawyers are evaluated and compensat-

ed. The report suggests organizational

changes to reduce the impact of uncon-

scious bias.

But there is also recent research on

how individuals can uncover their im-

plicit bias through meditative practices

—which can lead to systemic change.

Facing unconscious bias

It caught me by surprise when I rst

took the Harvard Implicit Association

Test, which measures unconscious bias.

The test revealed I had many common

biases: preferring younger people over

older; people with lighter skin; and

white people over black people.

My initial reaction was surprise,

then denial. After all, I’m a person of

color and a woman. Surely I couldn’t

have bias against other minoritized

groups? But this is actually a common

phenomenon.

Certain types of mindfulness and

meditation practices can impact implicit

bias. Much of the research in this area

focuses on a specic meditation called

loving-kindness meditation. LKM has

been shown to increase a person’s ca-

pacity to be compassionate.

LKM appears to strengthen our com-

passion toward people who are outside

of our circle of trust.

A 2013 Yale study examined the

impact of LKM on improving implicit

attitudes toward members of stigma-

tized groups.

The researchers used Harvard’s test

to measure implicit bias, concluding

that actively practicing loving-kind-

ness meditation signicantly decreased

implicit bias as opposed to merely

discussing the concept. A 2012 study

out of Stanford University demonstrat-

ed that compassion cultivation train-

ing, which utilizes LKM, signicantly

increased empathy.

Practice makes perfect

According to the Stanford study, com-

passion is a multidimensional process

through four stages: the awareness of

suffering, an affective concern for oth-

ers, a wish to relieve that suffering and

a readiness to relieve that suffering.

The six steps of loving-kindness

mediation are: (1) settling the mind

through mindfulness meditation; (2)

bringing to mind someone you care

about, noticing the feeling of compas-

sion, offering words and thoughts of

well-wishes; (3) extending this sense of

caring and compassion toward yourself;

(4) offering compassion toward others;

(5) bringing compassion toward all

beings; and (6) imagining taking away

the suffering of others.

During LKM, you repeat phrases of

well wishes toward the individuals or

groups such as: “May you be happy,

may you be healthy, may you live with

ease, may you be free from suffering.”

I had the opportunity to take the

CCT course at Stanford and found

myself having to look at, examine and

contend with my own blind spots.

I looked at the people I surrounded

myself with and the content I consumed

more critically. I examined the books I

read, the podcasts I listen to, the people

I follow on Twitter. What surprised me

was how homogeneous this population

tended to be. I noticed a bias toward

consuming media created by well-ed-

ucated white males. Perhaps this is the

part of implicit bias that is so insidious

and difcult to change—the favoritism.

It is not overt racism, sexism or age-

ism I struggled with, but rather that I

favored those voices who were in the

majority and therefore more familiar.

The legal profession is contending

with the question of how to address

implicit bias. Some states now mandate

CLE on the topic. What is clear is that

it is not enough to simply understand

what implicit bias is. We need a tool

like LKM to interrupt and acknowl-

edge our own implicit bias—and more

important, see how it harms minoritized

groups. Only then can we create a more

diverse and inclusive profession. Q

Jeena Cho consults with law rms on

stress management and mindfulness.

She co-wrote The Anxious Lawyer and

practices bankruptcy law with the JC

Law Group in San Francisco.

CHARACTER WITNESS

A Life of

Fighting

Injustice

BY DALE MINAMI

Character Witness explores legal and

societal issues through the rst-person

lens of attorneys in the trenches who

are, inter alia, on a mission to defend

liberty and pursue justice.

I

am a third-generation Japanese

American. My grandparents

emigrated from Southern Japan

in the early 1900s seeking “streets

of gold” and eeing deteriorating

conditions in their home country. My

parents were born in California, citizens

by birth. But they were incarcerated

with their families during World War

II, solely because of their ancestry: rst

in fetid horse stalls, and later in dismal

prisons in the Arkansas swamplands.

I was born at the Japanese Hospital in

East Los Angeles, the only hospital that

admitted Japanese doctors then. My

father was a farmer, a gardener and the

owner of a small sporting goods store.

My mother worked there and at home.

I have two older brothers who taught

me lessons involving books, sports and

unwanted violence upon my person—

all valuable lessons later in life.

My parents rarely talked about their

degrading incarceration experience, but

by their example I was taught to honor

the Founding Fathers’ prescription

that all Americans are created equal

and should be treated accordingly.

But watching the civil rights move-

ment unfold on television in the early

1960s, when peaceful African American

demonstrators were attacked by vicious

dogs and water cannons just because

they wanted to eat at a restaurant,

utterly confused me. As did the Watts

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