February 11, 2023

CNN reports how Florida governor Ron DeSantis “proposes banning diversity and inclusion initiatives at Florida universities.”  The mental image of the heel of DeSantis’s boot slamming into the collective face of the anti-Semitic boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement is another strong argument for making him the Republican presidential nominee in 2024.  His desire to ban the use of taxpayer money to fund educational quackery such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), which consists primarily of the racist talking point “people of color good, white people bad” to a chorus of bleating Orwellian sheep, is yet another, and he has none of Trump’s weaknesses.

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Now, let’s return to the first talking point by exposing diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) for what it really is: Divisiveness, Exclusion, and Othering (DEO).  Othering, the antonym of inclusion, means “the act of treating someone as though they are not part of a group and are different in some way.”  This is a major focus of most DIE training.  I say “most” rather than “all” because many organizations have merely applied the popular label of DIE to traditional equal opportunity activities that deserve unequivocal support.

DIE: Three Lies for the Price of One

DIE programs have actually resulted in Title VII complaints and lawsuits.  “The lawsuits may serve as cautionary reminders for why Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives must comply with the letter of the law when it comes to workplace anti-discrimination.”  The New York Times reports, meanwhile, “[Plaintiff] said he was asked to join a conversation about a ‘white affinity group’ at New 42, and said the organization had designated a ‘white-identifying breakout room’ at an online town hall.”  The event was online, but that should not have stopped them from adding virtual “White” and “Colored” rest rooms and drinking fountains to which the participants could send Caucasian and Black avatars, along with a virtual bus in which they could take turns sitting in the back to avoid contact with avatars of the opposite color.  Brooklyn College, meanwhile, scheduled anti-bias training on Yom Kippur, which is as sacred to observant Jews as Easter is to observant Christians.  That’s mighty diverse and inclusive of them, isn’t it?

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Hans Bader alleges, meanwhile, at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, “For example, Glenn Singleton, a wealthy ‘diversity’ trainer, teaches that ‘white talk’ is ‘impersonal, intellectual, verbal’ and ‘task-oriented,’ while ‘color commentary’ is ’emotional.'”  One would normally expect to hear this sort of thing from a white supremacist, but Singleton is black.  The same goes for the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture, which proclaims, among other things, that emphasis on the scientific method, delayed gratification, planning for the future, and the Protestant work ethic are “white” characteristics.  Ben Shapiro says this is identical to what David Duke (KKK) would say, and a keyword search on this material and the Stormfront White Nationalist website found the Smithsonian’s material quoted (favorably, as I expected) there as well.

The Oklahoma Council of Public Affairs (OCPA) opines, meanwhile, “The University of Oklahoma may be flirting with lawsuits alleging that they have created a hostile work environment with mandated diversity training material if that material blames white males for most of society’s injustices, according to an attorney who specializes in labor and employment law.”  An opinion piece in Newsweek reports credibly, “Antisemitism is a Growing Problem Among College Diversity Administrators.”  Charlie Chaplin portrayed one of these DIE “professionals” (or whatever) roughly eighty years ago.  The New York Post says that the Heritage Foundation found “proof that US university DEI staffers are overwhelmingly anti-Israel — and pro the government of China.”  As Israel is the only country in the Middle East with equal rights for women and LGBT people, and Communist China is an infamous human rights–abuser with apartheid treatment of ethnic and religious minorities, this suggests quite frankly that a lot of these DIE people are nothing more than opportunistic quacks, frauds, and parasites who draw high salaries from credulous employers.

Butzel Attorneys and Counselors cites training by Disney that “purportedly provided a ‘white privilege‘ checklist for white employees to complete.”  I can’t give legal advice, but I would call that a hostile work environment right there, and Disney did try to distance itself from this controversial material.  I am not sure the Mouse can distance himself from the animated series The Proud Family, in which black teenagers talk about how slaves built the country and how they are owed reparations — all while talking in accents well suited to blackface minstrel shows and similar entertainments.  Star Trek‘s Uhura does not talk that way, Felix Leiter in Casino Royale does not talk that way, and Iron Man’s friend Colonel Rhodes does not talk that way.  They talk like everybody else.  Then again, Disney has a long history of interjecting racial stereotypes into its movies, so maybe this is just more of the same.  A Change.org petition, meanwhile, calls for Disney to “Cancel ‘Proud Family: Louder and Prouder’ for Racist Portrayal of Darkskin Black Girls.”

Allyship = Othering

Suppose a workplace that wants to display its progressive credentials has men and women, including Caucasians, African-Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and so on, who have worked together for years without paying much attention to racial, ethnic, religious, sex, or sexual preference differences.  In walks DIE trainer James Corvid, who separates them into Caucasian and “colored” affinity groups, and tells the Caucasians to be better “allies” to their non-white counterparts.

An alliance is an often temporary arrangement of convenience as shown by, for example, the fact that Italy was allied to the Central Powers in 1914 and at war with them shortly afterward.  The ally might be a necessary evil, like what the USSR became in 1941, or share almost all our values, like the U.K., but it is still “somebody else” and not “us.”  That, folks, exemplifies “the act of treating someone as though they are not part of a group and are different in some way,” which is the exact definition of othering.