Diversity Training
ray a
5,703 Posts
A friend joined the Coast Guard Auxilary and they recently had diversity training which included these questions and many more like them. I give her credit, she refused to take the test and walked out.
Have I ended my affiliation with organizations which are racist, sexist or ageist in their membership requirements? Yes or No
Have I realized that White Americans are trapped by their own schools, homes, media, government, families etc. even when they chosoe not to be openly racist or sexist? Yes or No
Have I spent some time recently looking at my own racist attitudes and behaviors as they contribute to or combat racism around and within me? Yes or No.
Have I been investigating and evaluating political candidates at all levels in terms of their stance and activity against racism, sexism and ageism? Yes or No
Have I become seriously dissatisfied with my own level of activity in combating racism, sexism and ageism? yes or No
Here's some questions from the second questionaire. First, here are the instructions for filling it out:
Put an "X" before those statements that represents your present beliefs or an "O" before those that represent previously held beliefs.
I'm not racist, but when it comes right down to it, I wouldn't marry a Black person.
Racism exists only where minorities exist. Remove the minorities and we won't have these problems.
Have I ended my affiliation with organizations which are racist, sexist or ageist in their membership requirements? Yes or No
Have I realized that White Americans are trapped by their own schools, homes, media, government, families etc. even when they chosoe not to be openly racist or sexist? Yes or No
Have I spent some time recently looking at my own racist attitudes and behaviors as they contribute to or combat racism around and within me? Yes or No.
Have I been investigating and evaluating political candidates at all levels in terms of their stance and activity against racism, sexism and ageism? Yes or No
Have I become seriously dissatisfied with my own level of activity in combating racism, sexism and ageism? yes or No
Here's some questions from the second questionaire. First, here are the instructions for filling it out:
Put an "X" before those statements that represents your present beliefs or an "O" before those that represent previously held beliefs.
I'm not racist, but when it comes right down to it, I wouldn't marry a Black person.
Racism exists only where minorities exist. Remove the minorities and we won't have these problems.
Comments
Ray, do you have any real evidence this is true, or was this just another thinly-veiled attack on our sensibilities?
What I said above is true, it came from a trusted friend who went through the actual training and these questions came off the test. If you check out this link, you will see it is used by the military and by many schools. [url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jane_Elliott[/url]
(It did, however, let me know that Elliot is still active... I thought she had been passe for at least 20 years.)
So, did your friend copy down the questions before she walked out on the test? Or did she take the test booklet with her? I find it curious that she can quote the test so well.
Here is a quote from the Wikipedia article that is revelatory.
[i]At seminars given at U.S. federal agencies such as the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), white males were verbally abused by black peers and then forced to walk a gauntlet to be touched by female workers.[10] Jane herself states “When we have multicultural diversity training, one of the first things they have is a dinner where they serve foods from all different lands. Except white. We don’t study white culture ‘cause that’s the right culture’. We already know white culture. We don’t call it white culture, we call it reality.â€[3] This has lead to accusations that she demonizes white people.[/i]
And this quote mirrors my friend's experience.
[i]Another criticism of such these training programs is that they do not permit genuine debate or discussion about the issues to be addressed. A diversity program that has been used by AT&T, Chevron, and Nabisco asked employees to sit in circle and response with a “thumbs up†or a “thumbs down†sign to a series of questions about affirmative action, interracial marriage, AIDS, etc asked by the trainer while employees are at their worksite. The purpose of this is to allow the trainer to determine the participant’s political and social views to see who is most deviant from the workshop’s objectives. In addition, those who espouse such beliefs are pressured to admit that such are harmful or face possible negative consequences to their careers.[1] A more recent example of such tactics occurred at the University of Delaware. When dormitory residents were required to attend diversity training sessions, students complained about being silenced when they objected to the notion that “all people of European descent are racistâ€.[8] The idea that whites are automatically considered to be racist (whether stated or implied) with the inability for participants to present opposing points of view have lead Elliott-inspired diversity training sessions to be compared to Mao re-education camps and show trials.[/i]
The key is that the training assumes white's are racist. And notice the names of the major corporations that have availed themselves of this service.
Amazing.
I agree that it is suprising that so many large employers are still utilizing Elliot, but why are my questions a diversion? Perhaps if I understood what the purpose of your post was, I would know what response you would find more appropriate.
P.S. - Elliot is a professional writer too. So is Jack Kelley. So is Jayson Blair. I'm just an HR guy, but I still value accuracy and truth.
Do you think those are valid questions to ask?
Is this a valid test?
Would you even consider using something of this nature with your employees?
How would it make you feel if you were expected to answer questions like that?
What is the basis for such a test?
Edit: Not that it really matters where, but my friend lives in St. Louis. Your back yard.
No.
No.
No.
Don't know.
Don't know.
So, that was your point? That the Coast Guard Auxiliary has bad diversity training?
(And thanks for typing slow... Does that mean you only used one finger instead of two?)
IF it is true (and thats a big if because my baloney radar went off just like Franks) then its idiotic and laughable.
Hey Ray, remember the Diversity training we took on HERO about a year ago? I think Frank sat in on it too. It was mandatory if I recall.
Although I of course have no way of knowing whether the particular Coast Guard outfit Ray's friend joined offers this test, I note the following:
1) Ray tells us he heard this first hand from a trustworthy friend;
2) Jane Elliott's website currently includes a questionnaire and a checklist that includes the questions Ray's friend said she encountered at the Coast Guard, so apparently Ms. Elliott currently advocates this sort of training;
3) It's likely that at least some people use Ms. Elliott's training methods. Even if it seems incredulous that any company would actually choose to do their training that way when there are so many options currently available, lots of places use third-party diversity trainers to conduct their training and really have little idea what kind of program that trainer is using.
So, let's give Ray the benefit of the doubt with respect to his Coast Guard friend.
With respect to some of the other claims on the wikipedia site, and some of the outrage concerning "major corporations that have availed themselves of this service," I'm inclined to be a little more skeptical. It's not clear how many or which organizations are still utilizing her training verbatim. The Wikipedia article doesn't offer much help - for example, the quote cited by Ray states, "A diversity program that has been used by AT&T, Chevron, and Nabisco asked employees to sit in circle and response with a “thumbs up†or a “thumbs down†sign to a series of questions about affirmative action, interracial marriage, AIDS, etc asked by the trainer while employees are at their worksite," which only tells us that AT&T, Chevron and Nabisco have used the program at some time in history; it does not say (or even suggest) that those companies currently use that model. Remember that Jane Elliott was pretty much the founder of diversity training, so the fact that anyone used her model at a given time isn't particularly damning, in my opinion - initially, people were just desperate for anything that would help curb the rash of discrimination suits that they were experiencing, and they needed outside guidance badly.
The quote about a seminar at the FAA where whites were abused by blacks and men were forced to "walk a gauntlet" cites to a 2007 article at FrontPage Magazine, an online magazine published by the David Horowitz Freedom Center, and that article does not include a first-hand account of that seminar - instead, it cites to another frontpagemag.com article dated 2003 (which does not appear to be readily available), so we can't verify how long ago the seminar actually occurred. Also, David Horowitz is well-known as a conservative activist who is pretty quick to play the "liberals are racist against whites" card (see his book, "Hating Whitey and Other Progressive Causes"), and his "freedom center" is concerned with such issues as well (among others), so it's hard to know how to take that description.
Then other parts of the site talk about trainings "based on" Elliott's methods. It's unclear how much those trainings resemble Elliott's extreme methods. Hopefully not much!
Oh wait, no I agree with that. Carry on.