JOHN BARNES and the term unconscious bias have been well debated this week. For those who work in jobs that involve communication, negotiation or any regular public facing work, you’re more than likely well versed in it by now.

It’s an educational tool that has afforded us all a great opportunity to discuss prejudice without – well, being bogged down by prejudice.

To understand it is to be aware it is in all of us, but there involuntarily, soaked up by our experiences. Nurture, rather than nature. You soon learn it’s not just about an understanding as how others treat you but also as you in turn treat others, with a realisation your behaviours have been learned through your own experiences.

Such a theory has been a wonderful way of opening the debate without blame being apportioned. An opportunity to understand we all suffer from unconscious bias is a starting point for us all to understand the prejudice we have inside us all, deep-seated and influenced from all our life experiences since childhood.

In or around 2010 I was working in West London with a local authority. I was training two members of staff both had come through the theory and were now putting into practice what they’d learned.

Both interview rooms from where they were gleaning information from their interviewees were glass fronted. As such I let them run with it and sat across the public reception area at a desk on my laptop and let them know if they needed help to come and ask. In the meantime I lifted my head intermittently and just observed what they were doing.

One in particular came to me on several times to ask for help, another on only a couple of occasions. By lunchtime they’d both dealt with four customers. One had pages of notes and the other only a few. When asked for feedback I noted for one there was a lot of writing and a lot of listening. For the other I pointed out that every time I raised my head or walked near the room, they were doing most of the talking.

I advised you had two ears and one mouth and that the purpose of the job was to get as much information from the individual as you could so as to help them. It was a concern therefore to see that individual doing the talking, that they couldn’t possibly be getting the information needed to assist.

In short if you are the one telling someone what to do or what you think, then you haven’t been listening to their point of view enough. Your unconscious bias is unlikely to be rewired if you aren’t taking in the other persons own experience, because you are talking at 100 miles an hour trying to verbalise your entire collection of thoughts.

One of the fastest talkers and therefore one who has the least attempt to compute the response is John Barnes. Indeed it could be argued someone who speaks so fast only pauses for breath to momentarily collate their next response, rather than adapting their response in a measured way to the new information they are about to receive. Like they know what is going to be said anyway, and what they have to say as a retort is far more important. That’s not a debate, its foisting opinion and its ignoring the value of the views of the person you are debating with. That is where argument replaces debate.

Therein lies a big issue for John Barnes. His own unconscious bias is just as wired by experience and prejudice as the rest of us, it is not something exclusive to white working class football supporters, it is something that effects everyone and influences all our opinions.

The fact it is unconscious means it is learned, entrenched behaviour and is excusable, it’s the whole point of opening the discussion. The way it is remedied is by listening to others, educating yourself and questioning your own slant. Barnes ironically will struggle to ever do that, as his own opinion and values is always worth more than the person he is in discussion with. That is evidenced by his inability or unwillingness to put listening ahead of what he wishes to espouse to others.

John Barnes premise to his argument was valid. Black managers do not get the same opportunities in football. He is correct in saying at all levels of coaching the number of successful coaches is not comparative to how many black players played the game and therefore have something to offer. He is also right in saying ethnic minorities are not afforded the same time in jobs as others, nor do they get as many opportunities to remedy that reputation, as and when they originally fall short. The statistics back all of that up.

Where John Barnes went wrong was he didn’t compute the value of the responses when he said unconscious bias was the reason he wasn’t afforded the time that others – and we assume he means white managers – would have been afforded. He got bogged down by those he thought were unwilling to see fault on the part of Celtic as a club and the supporters when it came to assessing his tenure, some of whom he is quite right, missed his point entirely.

There is unconscious bias in the Celtic support, unconscious bias exists everywhere. But what Barnes failed to listen to is that Celtic fans – borne of Irish discrimination – already have an unconscious bias that makes them aware of what discrimination has done to their family and how it impacts them today. Therefore the Celtic support are more capable than some of understanding what it is, how it feels to be discriminated against and how it can effect opportunities in life.

Discrimination is more than just racism, more than just the colour of your skin. It is cultural, it is sexism, sectarianism and everything in between. Ownership of offence or understanding the effects of discrimination isn’t exclusive to those trying to make their way in football management, have black skin, or both.

Celtic fans unconscious bias is already influenced by discrimination and that should be taken on board if you are having a two way argument, and wish not only to have a debate but to help rewire the unconscious bias of those you are discussing with, rather than just trying to force your opinion on the person you are talking to. Or in the case of John Barnes rewrite history as something it is not, not entirely anyway.

The sad thing is Barnes had a point about managerial appointments, but using himself as the example falls down. He was given chances in management and failed, chances often not afforded to other black managers.

Perhaps his own failures as a pioneering black manager, means his lack of success bears heavy on him. He had an opportunity to be an example that shone. One that would influence club owners and chairmen to have their own unconscious bias rewired by experience and employ more black managers.

Barnes was afforded the same sort of chance that Steven Gerrard or Frank Lampard have had, starting out at relatively big clubs due to their success as footballers of great experience. Yet he failed and not just at Celtic but also Tranmere and Jamaica. He was given a big opportunity and he was afforded further chances to rebuild his managerial reputation. He simply did not succeed.

If there are genuine issues around appointments, time afforded and second chances for ethnic minorities then have that debate, but to blame unconscious bias amongst a Celtic support who welcomed him with open arms is incredibly disappointing, it’s also self-serving.

Barnes was unlucky with injuries to key players and perhaps he went in at too high a level to begin with, but he lost the dressing room. Players refused to come out for the second half against Inverness and Celtic lost to a first division side at home in the Scottish Cup.

It was one of the worst results in Celtic’s history. That is why the fans turned. It was an issue weighted far more heavily to his competency than his colour. To say any different ends up hijacking the debate for reasons of ego, a chance to rewrite history by deliberately skewing a very public debate to suit his own ends.

Opportunity was afforded to John Barnes. There are others who certainly don’t get that, and it may well be due to their colour, of that I have no doubt whatsoever. Sadly with this selfish appropriating of the debate, those voices that could be heard through Barnes – if that was what he really wanted – won’t be, as he got too bogged down driving his own personal agenda.

And really that was what it was all about. If I really need to debate the unconscious bias of the Celtic support I would need to go elsewhere. Two ears and one mouth is not something John Barnes appears to have an understanding of. He is clearly unwilling to consider his own unconscious bias is having an impact on his own viewpoint. There is a certain irony then when he is trying to influence others to understand their own.

The sad thing is, with the way John Barnes approached the debate he let slip an opportunity for genuine debate. The premise of his point was correct. Black coaches and managers are not only underrepresented in football, they are also not afforded as many opportunities to learn their trade as others from a different ethnic background. Sadly to make it about his own ego when the actual debate began – or to avoid those who didn’t understand what that debate actually was – was an opportunity lost.

"I’ve never seen love like it" Ian Wright's words proves Barnes is wrong about Celtic Supporters…https://t.co/VhLxbXZ7Ic

— The Celtic Star Editor – INVINCIBLE (@CelticStarMag) June 11, 2020

Instead for Barnes it became about rewriting his own managerial history. With that the opportunity for a constructive debate was lost, and alongside it the opportunity to have ours and his own unconscious bias influenced.

It’s a shame really as now his reputation amongst the Celtic support is damaged. There could have been a real opportunity to hear both sides of that story, for both parties to learn some lessons and implement change going forward. Sadly that takes both sides to do a lot more listening than talking.

Unconscious bias and learning to understand it means blame is not the game, fault is not attached. It is about learning how to change what you have already been taught without even realising you had. It’s not something to weaponise as a convenient excuse for your own failings while disregarding the point of view of others.

John Barnes had something important to say. When he made it all about himself everyone stopped listening and an opportunity was lost.

Niall J

Barnes loses the plot further, shows ignorance & forgets welcome, whilst black trio collect all Awards at Celtic Park "Where A Man Is Judged By Football Alone" | The Celtic Star https://t.co/IUefP4dWnt

— The Celtic Star Editor – INVINCIBLE (@CelticStarMag) June 11, 2020