Process Note

The main ideas in this information are: - Implicit bias is subconscious and contradicts our stated beliefs. - Implicit bias is triggered by association. - Ways to combat implicit bias include being vulnerable, opening up about feelings, and writing down subconscious thoughts. - The guest speaker, Lieutenant Colonel Travis Caldwell, is an engaging and knowledgeable 16-year infantry officer. - The podcast audience is a group of future leaders who need to understand racism and implicit bias. - The podcast is titled "Inside the Army" and the episode is titled "Unconsciously Racist." - The script was helpful in focusing the podcast, but the guest speaker spoke more than intended. - The creator's passion for the subject is inspiring and critical analysis would explore why he is so passionate. - The most difficult part of the assignment was choosing a subject that appealed to the audience, but the creator prioritized educating them instead. Good morning, sir. This is Jackson Mayo, and this is my process note discussion. So, first question. Some of the key takeaways from my podcast are that implicit bias is subconscious. Implicit bias runs counter to our orally stated beliefs. So, it's when you state one thing, but then you act in a way that doesn't reflect that statement. And the third thing about implicit bias is that it's triggered by association. So, those are the three main points about implicit bias that were brought up in my podcast by my guest speaker, Lieutenant Colonel Travis Caldwell. And he also touched on some ways that we can combat implicit bias as leaders and just as people. And they all kind of stuck out as just being vulnerable. Being vulnerable to open up about your feelings to yourself. He said you can open up to others. And also, one of the big things was he talked about writing on a notepad for 20 minutes every morning. And while it might seem like a simple task, he said once you get past that first kind of two minutes, three, and you get to that three minutes of writing for 20 minutes, you start to uncover subconscious thoughts. And when you write those down, it kind of frees your mind of those subconscious implicit bias you may have and reveals them to the conscious level. So, these were very educational points for the listener, obviously. And there was a lot to learn from the points that Lieutenant Colonel Travis Caldwell made. So, the second question, most entertaining or engaging element of my podcast, definitely my guest speaker. He's a 16-year infantry officer in the Army. He's currently at grad school at Duke, which is pretty amazing. He was a good friend of mine. He lived close to us when we lived in Hawaii. And there's just a lot to learn from him. He's a really engaging guy. He's very educated. And so, for that reason, he was pretty entertaining and engaging. Recall the question used from your survey. So, the two questions that seemed the most critical for the development of my podcast was, quote, have you ever consciously thought of implicit bias you may have? And I think this question was important because the answers that I got from it revealed how uneducated and unaware a good amount of people in this class, which is representative of a lot more people, are on these very important topics that I'm very passionate about. So, I think that further made me want to talk about this topic, seeing that many people are uneducated on the subject. The second question that was important is, what do you think the, quote, it is hard to hit up close, end quote, means? This quote and understanding this concept is a vital basic knowledge in understanding the concept that Lieutenant Colonel Codwell preaches. I think to combat racism and implicit bias, we must overcome that barrier and bridge the gap between different races. It's hard to hate when you interact with others and when you talk to them, but as you stand far away it's easy to say bad things against them or act in a prejudiced way. So, that was a very important question as well. So, the response to the question, how did I get the information I needed and how did it influence my research? So, I was very lucky to have my guest speaker, who's very knowledgeable on the subject. I learned a lot from him in talking to him before the recording of the podcast, which contributed to me just wanting to hear from him and thinking that he's the best route to getting this podcast information across to the listener. So, question four, consider your relationship with your intended audience. So, the decisions that I made understanding the intended audience, I understood that they are a group aspiring to be future leaders in our country and racism slash implicit bias is an important concept that we all need to understand and is one that I'm very passionate about our generation being the ones to change in this country. So, instead of using this platform to give a comedy routine or something that may entertain more of an audience, I wanted to use this platform to get across some information that I believe is very helpful to our generation as future leaders and specifically us at West Point. So, some of the defining characteristics of my audience is young age, which often is associated with uneducated and the fact that we're inspired to be the next leaders of this country. So, bringing in a current leader of this country is a way that I decided to attack these audience characteristics. Question five, the name and title of my podcast. Why did I choose these names? So, the name is Inside the Army. Being someone with so many connections to the Army, I've known a lot of people in the Army and therefore I have an advantage in that I can know a lot about the real Army. So, I feel like I could use this advantage of mine to share with others some knowledge that they might want to know. Everyone wants to know about what their future job is going to be and this is a great way to do that while also educating people on another aspect of their future job that they might not know is as important. So, the episode title, I titled this one Unconsciously Racist and this is similar to my essay that I wrote. It introduces the general topic that me and my guest speaker will be talking about and it also just captures the attention of the audience. They might not know what this means necessarily. They might know what the two words individually mean, but put together they probably don't understand the concept I'm trying to hit at. So, I think it hooks the reader into wanting to hear more about what I have to say about this topic. So, question six. Yes, I did include a guest speaker as I've already mentioned. Lieutenant Colonel Trivis Caldwell. He's currently at grad school at Duke University studying black identity. He's 16 years in the Army, Infantry Officer. I had the privilege of living near him in our time in Hawaii. Very influential man and obviously perfect fit for this subject. African American guy who's studying black identity right now. He puts to biases all of his wheelhouse. He grew up in a rough home. He has done speakings on this topic and actually has videos on YouTube about him, about his story and how he came to be in the Army and just his whole career. So, he was really the perfect person for this podcast and so when I reached out to him and let him know that I would like him to join this podcast, he was very enthusiastic and was excited to join. Question seven. Did I find the script helpful? I very much did find the script helpful. I think it allowed me to narrow my thoughts. It allowed me to ensure that I was focusing on the right thing throughout my podcast and kind of kept me from deviating from what I wanted to talk about. I did deviate from the script a lot in the fact that I had a lot more said from my guest speaker than I intended, which was incredible. I'm not complaining about that. That was awesome. He's very knowledgeable on the subject and I, once he started going, I just wanted to hear him speak and realized it would be more educational for the listener to hear from him instead of hear from my less experienced knowledge on the subject. So, I did deviate from the script in that I spoke less, but the content was very similar. So, question eight. If I were to connect a critical analysis of the essay, I would ask the creator why he's so passionate about all this and ask him, if he had more time to speak on this, what would be some other areas he would go into on this subject. I think it's a very important subject and so the passion behind his knowledge is something that would inspire me to listen more. And so, as a critical analyzer of the podcast, that is something that I would ask the creator. And question nine, what was the most difficult part of this assignment? I think initially the most difficult part was thinking of a subject that appealed to the audience. I know audience members might want to be entertained in a way that I don't necessarily deem entertaining, but ultimately I went away from this as I thought more about what would appeal to the audience. And I was like, I would rather speak on something that I think is more important to them instead of appealing to them. And if I take the loss for that to their entertainment level, I'm happy with my decision because I feel confident that I educated them in a manner that they needed to be educated in. So, it was difficult to think of a subject that appeals to the audience, but ultimately that appeal, I lost care for that appeal and thought it was more important to choose a subject that I'm passionate about and that I believe they should be passionate about learning about. So, that was pretty hard for me, but I overcame that. And with that, that is the conclusion of my process note. I hope you enjoyed the subject and excited to listen to the rest of the podcast and learn some more things. Thank you very much. Jackson Mayo.