The NYT: The Stupidest, Most-Ill-Educated Group In America -- the Corporate Leadership Class -- Begins to Realize That "Diversity Training," Far From Healing Racial Rifts, Actually Causes Racial Division

But of course that's the whole point! Diversity Grifter cause the problems of racial hatred, and then collect millions as they're hired to solve the problem they created!

They are both the arsonists -- and the lavishly-compensated "firefighters" who take millions to save us all from the fire!

Why Some Companies Are Saying 'Diversity and Belonging' Instead of 'Diversity and Inclusion' The changing terminology reflects new thinking among some consultants, who say traditional D.E.I. strategies haven't worked out as planned.

Now, don't get too excited. As I said, the corporate leadership class is the weakest-minded and most craven group of "leaders" in the world. Don't expect them to openly denounce DEI.

Mostly they're changing the terminology and emphasis, away from constant divisiveness to more talk about "belonging."

And they're increasingly paying a different set of race-grifters to be their Diversity Gurus, walking away from the grifters who preached racial hatred, towards grifters who preach that through our differences, we just become more alike.

Or crap like that.

They're still wasting millions of shareholder dollars on race grifters, but a slightly less disgusting group of grifters.

That's progress, at least as much of it as we can expect from our corporate class.

By Jennifer Miller

Woodward is a 153-year-old aerospace company that required its male employees to wear bow ties into the 1990s.

So Paul Benson, the company's chief human resources officer, knew that creating a companywide diversity, equity and inclusion program would require a seismic shift. "Look at our org chart online, and we're a lily-white leadership team of old males," he said. But employees were eager for a more inclusive culture.

"People want to feel like they belong," Mr. Benson said. "They want to come to work and not feel like they have to check themselves at the door."

Last summer, Mr. Benson started searching for a diversity consultant who was up to the task. He hoped to find a relatable former executive "who had seen the light."
Instead, a Google search led him to a Black comedian and former media personality named Karith Foster. She is the chief executive of Inversity Solutions, a consultancy that rethinks traditional diversity programming.

Ms. Foster said companies must address racism, sexism, homophobia and antisemitism in the workplace. But she believes that an overemphasis on identity groups and a tendency to reduce people to "victim or villain" can strip agency from and alienate everyone -- including employees of color. She says her approach allows everyone "to make mistakes, say the wrong thing sometimes and be able to correct it."

Mr. Benson was convinced. He hired Ms. Foster to give the keynote address at Woodward's leadership summit last October.

Shortly after taking the stage, she asked everyone to close their eyes and raise their hands in response to a series of provocative questions: Had they ever locked the car when a Black man walked by? Had they thought, yes, Jewish people really are good with money? Had they questioned the intelligence of someone with a thick Southern accent?

Audience members raising their hands in response to a series of questions during Karith Foster's presentation.

People raised their hands tentatively, even fearfully. By the time Ms. Foster finished, nearly every hand -- including her own -- was up.

"Congratulations. You're certified human beings," she said. "It's not about being right or wrong but understanding when bias comes into play."

Mr. Benson was relieved. "I was at a table with somebody who started the whole thing with his arms folded," he recalled. "His body language said this dude's not a believer. Halfway through, he's laughing and clapping."

Ms. Foster, he said, helped people "feel OK with themselves, like maybe you haven't been an activist or on this journey in your past, but let's see how we can move forward."

In other words, she helped them feel that they belonged in the conversation.

The question of belonging has become the latest focus in the evolving world of corporate diversity, equity and inclusion programming.

...

Now, nearly three years since [the Mostly Peaceful George Floyd riots unleashed an invasion of DEI hucksters on the world], some companies are amending their approach to D.E.I., even renaming their departments to include "belonging." It's the age of D.E.I.-B.

One of the Old School Diversity Grifters doesn't like these phoney-baloney jobs going to the New School Diversity Grifters.

Some critics worry it's about making white people comfortable rather than addressing systemic inequality, or that it simply allows companies to prioritize getting along over necessary change.

"Belonging is a way to help people who aren't marginalized feel like they're part of the conversation," said Stephanie Creary, assistant professor of management at the Wharton School of Business who studies corporate strategies for diversity and inclusion.

She believes an abstract focus on belonging allows companies to avoid the tough conversations about power -- and the resistance those conversations often generate. "The concern is that we are just creating new terms like belonging as a way to manage that resistance," Ms. Creary said.

Corporations are just figuring out that constantly pitting one race against another tends to, get this, pit one race against another.

The nonpartisan nonprofit Business for America recently interviewed more than two dozen executives at 18 companies and found this to be a common theme. "The way they've rolled out D.E.I. has exacerbated divides even while addressing valuable issues," said Sarah Bonk, BFA's founder and chief executive. "It has created some hostility, resentment."

It's why companies like Woodward are now hiring consultants who specialize in "belonging" and "bridge building." They are coming to the aid of executives who fear that national divisions are penetrating the workplace, threatening to drive a wedge between colleagues and making everyone feel anxious and defensive.

Professor Creary agrees these are real problems. "I can see that corporations want to have a structured conversation around how allowing all of us to thrive will help us all collectively," she said. But she worries "belonging" gives cover to people who would rather maintain the status quo. "There's still a large percentage of people who have a zero sum mind-set," she said. "If I support you, I am going to lose."

The belonging obsession is the result of a now-widespread corporate standard: Bring your whole self to work. If you have the flexibility to work wherever you want, and the freedom to discuss the social and political issues that matter to you, then ideally, you'll feel that you belong at your company.

Bring your whole self to work emerged before the pandemic but became something of a mandate at its height, as companies tried to stanch a wave of resignations.

Why are people bringing "their whole selves" to work? All that is required or wanted is your work self, your professional self.

But now leftwingers are being told to bring in their insane, insipid politics.

Notice that Christians are not being invited to bring their whole Christian selves to work.

You're not allowed to have "tough conversations" about race on social media -- but you're encouraged to have them all day long at work.

Does that sound right to anyone?

...

Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist and professor at N.Y.U.'s Stern School of Business, wishes we weren't having this conversation about identity and belonging. "At a time of rising political polarization, many people's whole selves don't fit with the whole selves of their colleagues," Mr. Haidt, a self-described centrist, said. "I've heard from so many managers. They can't stand it anymore -- the constant conflict over people's identities."

Malignant narcissists gonna malignate.

In 2017, he and a colleague, Caroline Mehl, started the Constructive Dialogue Institute, whose main product is an educational platform called Perspectives. The tool uses online modules and workshops...

Don't call her a "tool," New York Times. I mean she is, obviously, but it's unprofessional to say out loud.

Let subtext do your work for you.

... to help users explore where their values come from and why people from different backgrounds might have opposing values.

...

Already, the platform has helped the company navigate some complex political situations. Last June, a 26-year-old human resources coordinator named Shakara Worrell was in a meeting when she learned that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade. "The entire meeting stopped," Ms. Worrell said. "That's when I realized, I'm not the only one whose heart just dropped."

The workplace -- the perfect place for debating Roe v. Wade, obviously.

Except, of course, debate is not permitted. You can "bring your whole self to work" only if "your whole self" mouths all the leftwing positions on every issue.

Ms. Worrell, who is mixed race, said she came to Allegis partly because the company prioritized belonging. She recalls reading news of police brutality at her previous job and feeling that she had to suppress her feelings.

"I just remember sitting in my cube and not being able to just voice my opinions," Ms. Worrell said. She remembered thinking: "I don't really belong."

Conservatives aren't allowed to voice their opinions anywhere.

But we should have a pity party because toxic leftwingers aren't allowed to bring up divisive leftwing politics at work whenever they want.

...

Irshad Manji, founder of the consultancy Moral Courage College, says an "almost offensive focus on group labels" is a big problem with mainstream diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. "It all but compels people to stereotype each other. I happen to be Muslim and a faithful Muslim," she said. "But that does not mean I interpret Islam like every other Muslim out there."

Ms. Manji believes that people now use "belonging" as a "tacit acknowledgment that traditional D.E.I. hasn't worked well."

Via Breaking Points. I stole the observation that corporations have just traded one group of race grifters for another group of slightly-less-divisive race grifters from, if you can believe it, leftwing Bernie Girl Krystal Ball.

posted by Ace at 03:17 PM

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