Please join M.S. 447’s parent-led Diversity Committee on March 22, 2018 at 6PM for a conversation about implicit bias with Professor Rachel Godsil, co-founder and director of research for the Perception Institute. The event will begin with a screening of a 30 minute excerpt from the Sundance Film Festival award-winner 3 1/2 MINUTES, TEN BULLETS, and will be followed by a presentation from Professor Godsil, who regularly leads talks with parents at public and independent schools about our role in addressing issues of race, ethnicity, and other identity within our schools, communities, and homes.
In 3½ minutes, two lives intersected and were forever altered. On Black Friday in 2012, two cars parked next to each other at a Florida gas station. A white middle-aged male and a black teenager exchanged angry words over the volume of the music in the boy’s car. A gun entered the exchange, and one of them was left dead. Michael Dunn fired 10 bullets at a car full of unarmed teenagers and then fled. Three of those bullets hit 17-year-old Jordan Davis, who died at the scene. Arrested the next day, Dunn claimed he shot in self-defense. Thus began the long journey of unravelling the truth.
Bio for Professor Rachel Godsil: Professor Godsil is a co-founder and director of research for the Perception Institute, a national consortium of social scientists, law professors, and advocates focusing on the role of the mind sciences in law, policy, and institutional practices. She collaborates with social scientists on empirical research to identify the efficacy of interventions to address implicit bias and racial anxiety. She regularly provides trainings and lectures to a wide range of private and public institutions seeking to address the role of bias and anxiety associated with race, ethnicity, religion, and gender.
Please Note: This event is open to the public. The film is unrated but contains some strong language and subject matter. Middle school and high school students are welcome at parents’ discretion.