Producer Norman Lear's opening remarks at "Reading Between The Lines: Uncovering Unconscious Bias" on September 30, 2009. The event was presented by WGAw, SAG, Americans for American Values, the Kirwan Institute and the Equal Justice Society.

Thank you for that nice introduction.  As old and presumably as experienced as I am I never hear such lovely words without thinking of my mother and wishing she could have heard them, too.  Of course I know what her response would have been.  I called her many years ago to tell her that the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences was starting a Hall of Fame -- and that the first inductees would be Bill Paley, and General Sarnoff, Edward R. Murrow, Paddy Chayefsky, Milton Berle, Lucille Ball and me.  And my mother said -- “If that’s what they want to do, who am I to say?”

Tonight’s subject could not be more important.  Its complexity illustrates a problem at the core of our humanity.  We are born with the capacity for selfishness and greed, along with a capacity for generosity and equal justice. 

We can’t begin to make choices, let alone the proper choices until we accept that aspect of our own humanity -- put succinctly,  our capacities for good and for evil.  How does that translate to tonight’s subject?

When my daughter Ellen, now 60, was 11 or 12 years old, she came home from school raving about an art teacher she had.  There was no one in her young life that engaged and inspired her more than this teacher.  Some months after hearing all about her -- my wife and I went to a parent’s night at Ellen’s school.  I met her art teacher and she was black.  I was thunderstruck.  Ellen had never mentioned that this woman, so vital to her young life, was black.

I don’t know how long after that it occurred to me: Why was I so surprised?  Why should the child have any need to tell me that her teacher was black?  The most I could allow myself – by way of forgiving myself -- was the belief that I was trapped in my generation.  But I knew I could not afford to live there any longer.

Was I able to make the journey?  Did I make it?  Is it indeed possible to get from there to there?  And if not possible – what then?

Our culture has come a long way since the 1950’s when I came in to television.  And since the ‘70’s when we attempted to deal squarely with the stereotypical thoughts our brains and imaginations often harbor about Native Americans, Jews, Gays and Lesbians, Latinos, and other minority groups. 

The Equal Justice Society and the Writers Guild West have brought together this amazing panel of scholars and experts to bring the concept of unconscious bias into our conscious mind.  I can’t imagine our not being entertained, informed and inspired by it.  And if so, it is hoped this evening will result in our acting in ways that reflect that deeper understanding.  If we in the media get it, that great audience we reach will get it.  A consummation devoutly to be wished.

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