I considered myself to be a good person. Certainly not a racist.
After the death of George Floyd, and witnessing the unspeakable pain of so many people in the Black community, I felt shook up. I wanted to learn more about racism. And as I started learning, I realized that I would never be able to contribute anything positive unless I stopped viewing myself as good.
In a book I recently read, The Person You Mean to Be, professor Dolly Chugh talks about the downsides to believing in our own fundamental goodness.
To start with, we become victims of our own blind-spots. When confronted with evidence that we didn’t meet our own high moral standards, we push back, get defensive and shut down. We turn conversations about racism and bias into an opportunity for self-affirmation. We become self-righteous. And we don’t learn.
It turns out that to become kinder, more generous human beings, we need to stop thinking of ourselves as good people.
Drawing on the research of Stanford psychologist Carol Dweck, Chugh says that “good-ish” people have a “growth mindset” and can improve with time, effort, and feedback. “Good people” have a “fixed mindset.” They assume their character has already been shaped and that…
