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End ‘Inclusiveness’ Training Now
The only systemic racism of which I am personally aware involves diversity and inclusiveness training. These are mandatory programs within the federal government (and many if not all state governments) and federal contractors. I am old enough to have experienced some of the initial training back in the 1970s and 1980s. Well-intentioned no doubt, but over time it has become the province of the Karenwaffe — hectoring people over immutable characteristics or, in the case of gender fluidity, the belief in immutable characteristics.
Two stories highlight how malignant this has become: the Seattle “whiteness” training, and the Army’s “inclusiveness” initiative. This is politics, not human rights. This is raw power, not reasoned education.
Other than the employment of the trainers (the real reason these programs persist) these programs have exceeded their “sell by” dates. There are rules. State them, enforce them when necessary. But stop bully sessions.
Published in General
The only way they will stop is by people refusing to participate. That’s extremely easy to for me to say since I’ll never have to deal with one on a “mandatory” basis. But it’s true.
We’ll see how it goes this fall. I’ll be watching the line between team building activities and collaboration versus bullying and compelled speech.
I’m getting ready for a walkout. I pray I do not have to.
Good post. I have one disagreement:
I think that there is systemic racism in the admissions policies of many colleges and universities, against whites and orientals. I think that there is similar systemic racism in some hiring, in the same anti-white direction, though a system of “soft quotas” enforced through “diversity” goals. I’m not sure whether it extends to orientals in hiring.
Our government, corporations, schools, entertainment, and much else in our society are rife with racism, sexism, and other forms of unjust institutional discrimination by way of Affirmative Action and diversity programs. The propaganda is decades old. It will be difficult to untangle from culture and laws.
I agree with Hoyacon. It’s too deeply set to begin with legal wrangling. It must begin with civil disobedience. We must publicly condemn it at every turn and refuse to participate. The consequences today will not exceed the consequences if we let the corruption continue to fester.
One of the most insidious aspects to all this is that the more companies and cottage industries spring up to deal with these “diversity” issues, the more entrenched and difficult to eradicate it has become. So many companies have sprung up since 1990 when it all began that we now have way too many people and entities who have a stake in seeing to it that the problem never goes away.
Exactly so. You can imagine how many jobs are devoted to this in just federal employment alone. It’s a cottage industry.
I would like to think that if a company subjected me to this garbage, I would sue them for creating a hostile work environment. Or discriminating against ME. Fortunately these programs were started after I left corporate America and started my own business. I don’t know that I would have had the courage to stand up to a company back then. It’s horrible.
They’ve set it all up so that objecting makes you a racist, and they have also set it up so that being called that is the worst thing that can happen to you, and it can end your career and your potential for having a new one ever in your life. It’s what the Left does with every one of their agendas. They couch it in emotionally appealing terms so that anyone who objects is a heartless, evil monster and anything that happens to them as a result of stepping out of line is deserved.
Can you be fired for refusing to attend? I think this is something that is ripe for some form of federal legislation.
The Supreme Court just ruled that employers cannot discriminate on the basis of someone pretending to be something they are not — crossdressing and demanding to be addressed in ways contrary to reality. Government has abandoned us. The courts provide no avenue for justice.
That would be the way to go, depending on the substance of the program. It’s possible that parts of the program could reasonably offend you based on race, sex, or religion. However, the first several people to try this would probably lose, until the right plaintiff and an extreme program came along.
Hear! Hear!
I think they end up making people more biased and prejudiced. The upper management is basically passing their problems to the low man on the totem pole. Companies have had HR departments in place for decades who are supposed to be working on keeping them out of trouble like this, and yet, here we are, with every company I do business with letting me know they are still having problems with their own standard of diversity.
I am thinking we are living in failed state times. All our institutions are weak and unworthy of respect. And without respect, they lack authority. People are cynical enough to bite their tongues, go to the meeting and then seethe at home.
I’ve heard that in Michigan, health workers may have to take diversity training to renew their licenses. Because blacks have died at a higher rate than whites, it must be because health care workers do not care about them. A very large number of deaths occured in the Detroit area, which is heavily black, has the states highest percentage of Medicaid, and the poorest health outcomes in normal times, yet, it is the fault of health care workers. Aren’t many of them black? Do they have to take such classes also?
They actually said that?? Good grief . . .
I don’t think they actually said that, but something to that effect. Supposedly, blacks have a harder time getting a dr, which may be true, because in some parts of Michigan, especially the northeast, your dr, may be a PA. But
https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/michigan/2020/07/09/michigan-to-require-implicit-bias-training-for-health-professionals-to-address-racial-disparities/
The Federal Government and some state and local government have affirmative action on contracts to buy just about everything they buy. They give favored minorities a advantage. When I was selling cheese to the DOD the advantage was 10%. The affirmative action vendor also won all ties as well. The 10% was often near my gross profit. If you translated this to SAT/ACT a favored minority would need only 1440 to have a perfect score of 1600. Notice I say favored minority. Asians don’t receive an advantage in entrance exams, in fact they are penalized.
They’re actually trying to call Asians “white” because they give the lie to the mantra that minorities can’t possibly succeed in this horrible racist country. Also the Asians have always been successful, and have never needed a bunch of wine and cheese liberals with a White Savior Complex to deign to “help” them.
As a retired Federal employee, I got sick of the mandatory annual EEO training, which was nothing more than diversity indoctrination. I remember one year, even a couple of black women were complaining about it:
“I’m tired of this sh*t. I treat everyone fair, so why do I have to put up with it?”
Amen, sister . . .
I question their effectiveness. The media and Hollywood are among the most Woke institutions in our society but they were groping and harassing each other all the time. Is there any solid data that this stuff makes people less likely to be racist of handsy or what have you?
I think that approach is kinda racist as it treats blacks as lacking agency. Also, it fails to improve the lives of inner city blacks who are among our poorest and most benighted compatriots. We can’t improve a failing subculture if we don’t address the problems in that subculture. I don’t see any compassion in avoiding the the necessary and unpleasant discussions about the attitudes and habits that lead so many black-Americans to have poor health.
There’s been serious sexual harassment training in place for at least 25 years, probably more. Do you see any sign over the last couple of years that it’s had any effect?
In Marxist thought, the people who succeed always subjugate the people at the bottom. Ergo, Asian-Americans have to be bad because they succeed.
I totally called it earlier in a post that said, “Why the Woke Left will turn against Asian-Americans.”
Doesn’t really matter. There is always something that can be used as a legitimate basis for firing you.
The industry has thrived.
Well, if you are or were a Fed, you know that first-hand.
Well, where do you think “Gender Studies ” and “African American Studies” grads are going to get jobs? As Slow Joe would say,
“Come on, man!”
Indeed.
There was an interesting study done some years ago by military medical services. They studied maternal/fetal morbidity and mortality. Part of this was birth weight of infants. The study compared white, black and Hispanic women. All were military dependents and none had any limits on prenatal care. Blacks had the lowest birth weight babies and more morbidity (I forget what was measured), whites had medium results and Hispanics had the least morbidity and highest birth weight. No reason for the results with blacks could be identified. I am certain that no such study would be published now.
In 1992, while employed by the State of Minnesota, I challenged the “school-marm” diversity trainer type after she declined to answer a question about affirmative action from another mandated attendee. We went at it for awhile and when I asked what was the cost of the contract for this “training” that pretty much shut things down for that session.
I found out the cost later – $22K for four 3 hour sessions (no donuts, no coffee).