2.1 Moral perception
Moral perception is being aware of what you perceive – seeing what you see – and what you fail to perceive. According to Ladkin (2015), moral perception is shaped by what a person finds salient, which in turn can be shaped by their own experiences and knowledge. The example she uses is of an asylum seeker, who may be able to identify someone’s pain more readily than other people because they have experienced pain more acutely than most.
In discussing moral perception, Blum (1994) identifies two steps people can take to sharpen their practice. The first is correctly identifying the features of a situation. The second is recognising the ethical features of a situation, aspects of it that require intervention or judgments based on right and wrong.
The difficulty with perception is that we don’t know what we don’t know. It is possible for otherwise perfectly pleasant and kind people to ignore situations of ethical difficulty because they do not register the ethics in front of them. This is a key problem with the operation of racism in societies, and it is why courses and training on anti-racism are important – they can train people to see what they would otherwise have missed. For example, if you have grown up in a society, you can easily understand what is going on, complete friends/colleagues’ sentences and not necessarily realise that you are excluding other people who don’t share your backgrounds. It is also the case that, although certain forms of humour and ways of talking (e.g. so-called ‘banter’) have always been deeply problematic and hurtful to those at the receiving end, it has taken longer for some perpetrators to realise the hurt that they cause.
Most people want to learn and grow, and will welcome the opportunity for improving awareness. However, some people do respond defensively when challenged. For example, people can be shocked when they are called out by family members or peers after making what in their view is simply a joke – as with all behaviour that is learnt over years, it can take time to resolve. It is important in leadership practice that people work together and help one another see what they may be missing.
You can train yourself to follow through on signals you receive from your own body about the presence of an ethical issue. When you are in a situation that seems to be acceptable at face value, your body can give away hidden problems and aspects of prejudice that are not immediately obvious. You can start to feel tense, ill at ease, suspicious, defensive and so on. Consider public transport, for example. Not too many people will ask themselves questions in this setting, but it is common to be on a bus or train where people are standing while there are empty seats beside ethnic minority passengers. How do you think those people may be feeling in such a situation? As another example, consider the gender and diversity composition of events, panels and television shows. Not so long ago it seemed normal for them to be dominated by white and male people, but over time society has been trained to perceive male dominance as odd, out of place and ethically wrong. We have been trained to see differently by the determined and patient work of feminists, disability campaigners and anti-racists.
Of course, some people can be defensive when challenged on racism. It hits hard at their identity or even sense of privilege to be accused of acting in ways that overlook or cause ethically troubling situations. This is where the notion of a moral imagination becomes important.