Elk Grove school hosts Smithsonian exhibit to explore, counter bias

A traveling Smithsonian exhibit is making its only visit to a U.S. school, stopping at Elizabeth Pinkerton Middle in Elk Grove.

The Bias Inside Us offers an interactive experience for viewers to challenge inherent, implicit, and confirmation biases, while exploring techniques to retrain their brains.

The exhibit began in 2021, has already been to over 10 states and is scheduled to end in 2026.

Lysette Lemay is the director of family and community engagement for the Elk Grove Unified School District. Walking into the exhibit, she pointed out how even the logo for the exhibit has a message.

“It’s very colorful, abstract,” she said. “But if you look at it closely, it actually says bias.”

High schooler Summer Silvera says the exhibit validates some of her own experiences.

“I think it's interesting that it's saying bias can be like almost undetected or sometimes it could be yelling in your face because that's true,” Silvera said. “I'm queer and when I came out to a couple people they were very against it. I felt bias towards me, but also I felt bias towards them.”

First: Community members walk through the exhibit at Pinkerton Middle School. Second: Visitors of the exhibit participate in a reflection exercise on how they are perceived and their own biases.Srishti Prabha/CapRadio

The exhibit isn’t just for students. UC Davis employee Fred Stevenson helps researchers diversify clinical trials. He said it was an important exhibit for community members to attend.

“There's patterns that we have in our brain, biased patterns,” he said. “Coming to these exhibits allow us to kind of break up those patterns and those things that we think are natural and normal.”

Every attendee departed with their own distinct takeaway. For Stevenson, it was the bias associated with face shape.

“Probably the most fascinating of the exhibit was how a certain shape of eyes or shape of face can compel us to believe that someone is smarter,” he said. “We’re all guilty of that.”

And for Silvera, it was the science behind bias.

“I thought bias was more of a thing we learned growing up, but I didn't know it was a part of your chemical brain reactions,” she said.

The Bias Inside Us is at Elizabeth Pinkerton Middle School from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. until July 12.