BOWLING with BARBARIANS An Exploration of Implicit Bias By Jennie Bricker T he use of gutter guards at the bowling alley is consid- ered unsporting unless you are six years old. That is un- fortunate, because few sports moments cause greater mortification than throwing a gutter ball. It could be worse: Imagine you are playing the “game of bowls,” on a bowl- ing green instead of in an alley, with ditches instead of gutters. The balls are not perfectly round but misshapen. They are also weighted unevenly. Consequently, they swerve. They are said to have bias. The game of bowls dates back to the 13th century, but the word bias entered the English lexicon in the 16th century, as a technical term to refer to the swerving of lawn bowls. About 50 years later, the word took on a figurative meaning, to describe what people do when they act like lawn bowls, when they exhibit a predisposi- tion or a prejudice; when they swerve in a predictable direction. Bias (in its figurative sense) is usually bad, especially when it makes us behave unfairly. New provisions of the Oregon Rules of Professional Conduct took effect in February 2015, including an amendment to RPC 8.4 that makes it professional misconduct for a lawyer to “in the course of representing a client, knowingly in- timidate or harass a person because of that person’s race, color, national origin, religion, age, sex, gender identity, gender expres- sion, sexual orientation, marital status, or disability.” MAY 2016 • OREGON STATE BAR BULLETIN 17