What role does race play in how a person is perceived in certain situations? To help answer that question, the Clinton PTA and Henry Carter Hull Library are holding a free online lecture on implicit bias on Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m.

Up for discussion at this event is the pervasiveness of implicit bias. Implicit bias is described as a “blind spot” that people may subconsciously hold against groups of people that can lead to troublesome actions or views based on racist, sexist, or other unwarranted viewpoints. The event will cover why implicit bias occurs, what role people play in identifying it, and how it can be corrected.

Though the meeting is free, interested parties must register by Tuesday, March 9. The event is aimed at people high school aged and older. Upon registering attendees will be given a link to a short series of videos that must be watched prior to the meeting to participate in the discussion.

The event will be led by Elijah Manning, an education activist who originally grew up in Old Saybrook and now facilitates workshops that aim to bring awareness to issues connected to race. To sign up and receive the meeting link, email ahwatrous@gmail.com.

Abby Roccapriore, the vice president of the Clinton PTA and event organizer, said that so far, the event has received interest from registered attendees across a wide age range and across the shoreline.

“We really want high school kids, parents, and teachers and caregivers to be on the call, too,” Roccapriore said. “I’ve gotten a lot of people from Guilford so far, too.”

According to Roccapriore, the call will last approximately an hour and will feature discussions led by Manning on topics covered by the videos that attendees are sent after the registered.

“It’s a very adult conversation. It’s educating adults to understand what implicit bias is and how it weaves its way into decisions we make,” Roccapriore said.

Roccapriore said attendees can expect to gain “a better understanding on how implicit bias is a part of our every day and most don’t realize what they’re doing.”

Henry Carter Hull Library Adult Programming Coordinator Sarah Borgnis–Tobin, one of the event organizers, said she hopes that attendees will actively participate in the discussions.

“I hope that they get a chance to have a conversation and ask questions that have been on their minds,” she said.

The Clinton PTA has a tradition of holding lectures throughout the school year on issues that affect the community or school age children. This event will serve as a kickoff of sorts, as Roccapriore said the PTA is interested in holding more events focused on race in the community.

“One of the goals of Clinton PTA this school year was to bring social justice issues in our community and in our schools more to the forefront,” Roccapriore explained.

Roccapriore sad the topic of implicit bias education seemed like a good place to start on such a wide reaching and important topic.

“We want to focus on broad race issues and then talk about people in our own community,” Roccapriore said.

“We’re always interested in partnering with the PTA about topics they’re interested in and providing people with the tools to be a better community,” Borgnis-Tobin said.

Both Borgnis-Tobin and Roccapriore were familiar with the work that Manning had done locally and after they reached out to him and he said he was on board, the event was scheduled.

Since COVID-19 can make it difficult to hold in-person meetings where important topics like this can better be discussed, Roccapriore said the PTA will likely hold one social-justice-themed meeting during the school year and then possibly one over the summer.

Discussions on race can prove to be very controversial and uncomfortable to some people, though Roccapriore said she has not received any negative feedback thus far about the PTA holding events focused on race. In fact, thus far the only feedback received has been positive.

“I think it’s time our community should start conversations about race,” said Roccapriore.