Professor Puja Kapai, Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, The University of Hong Kong, was invited to speak to faculty, staff and students at HKUST on March 21, 2003, International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Professor Kapai is the author of a comprehensive report: Doing Equality Consciously: Understanding Unconscious Bias and its Role and Implications in the Achievement of Equality in Hong Kong and Asia. Find the report here.

This is a long but important report about unconscious bias in Hong Kong. The report builds on ideas such as the following: 

• 1. When we lack opportunities for personal experience or interaction with groups outside of our social network, we tend to be heavily influenced by media stereotypes.

 

• 2. Unconscious bias not only forms the foundational subtext for institutional or systemic discrimination but also serves as the springboard from which discriminatory conduct at the individual level manifests.