Implicit Biases And Implicit Biases

People are responsible for the actions they commit due to implicit biases if and only if they know that they harbor such biases and if they have been given recommendations as to how to eliminate them. If a person only knows that they harbor implicit biases, that is not enough to consider one responsible for their actions, since the said person does not know how to fix their implicit biases. It also is not enough for someone to only know how to eliminate implicit biases, since they don’t have obvious implicit biases to be responsible for. Implicit biases and explicit biases are not the same concept, and there are major differences between the two. Implicit biases are unconscious and automatic reactions to situations that show prejudiced judgement

Consider the following hypothetical case. Randall Brown is a 35-year-old white male that is carrying a concealed Glock 19. He is on a train car heading out of town. Three 20-year-olds come up to him unarmed, and they say “Give me a dollar,” in an intimidating and reckless way. Randall then pulls out his gun. The three children back off, and said “Don’t shoot, we didn’t know you were armed.” Randall then shoots the first person dead, and keeps doing so until there is only one person left. He then stops shooting. By the argument that I made previously, Randall would be innocent of all charges, and if he harmed anyone again, he would be charged since he knows of his implicit biases. That however, is not the case. Firstly, they backed down, so they were not in direct threat to Randall’s right to life or property. Secondly, Randall’s intent clearly was not to defend himself, since he only killed 2 of the 3 people. Since Randall’s right to life was not threatened and he was not trying to defend himself, he was responsible for his actions even though he was unsure he had implicit biases against people that mugged