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November 28, 2001 :: "Adversity Training"
Yesterday afternoon Tamity and I had to undergo Diversity Training. No we weren’t being insensitive; everyone had to go through it. This consisted of sitting in a cramped auditorium in movie-style seats sized for tarsiers while five ill-prepared speakers muddled through speeches they neither believed in nor truly understood.
The presentation stated with a three minute video with possibly the stupidest analogy I have ever encountered. It talked about the importation of the potato into Ireland. Ireland kept breeding the potato strains together. Eventually only one strain existed which was wiped out during the Potato Famine in the 1840s. They contrasted this with the clever Incas, who grew over 100 strains of potato. This kept the strains diverse and genetically stronger and therefore they never saw a blight.
Presumably the moral is that people are vegetables. Or that if we have 100 varieties of employees we will never suffer a famine. But if those Incas were so damn clever, how come they’re all dead and the Irish are still around and well-fed? Riddle me that Batman...
It’s a joke. Put down the brick.
It only got worse. The speaker, head of our company’s diversity initiative, didn’t know the difference between ethnicity and race. [cough cough] She then used the phrase “Women and other minorities...” Last I heard, women have always been 3/5 of the population making them a definite MAJORITY. But who’s counting?
Now I know this seems all very well and good to make us aware of differences in cultural mores, ethnicity, gender bias, age discrimination and people with disablities. I’m all for learning, and for eliminating any biases I have. But I couldn’t shake the feeling that they have other motives for this. The entire presentation was peppered with phrases like, “Hispanics are the fastest-growing segment and that’s a market we should really be tapping...”
OK so diversity means increasing profits and marketshare through exploitation? Boy was my Mom wrong.
I've always disliked the PC patrol simply because it insists on bludgeoning us over the head with our differences. You are defined by what you aren't. And instead of equality, there seems to be a need to "make things up to the oppressed minorities" by giving them special privileges. I don't see how squishing one segment of the population makes them like the previously squished but now un-squished segment any better. So...most diversity training I've seen seems to breed resentment rather and emphasize differences rather than move towards a true equality.
That was dead-on. One thing [of many] they neglected to touch on was the reverse discrimination which has arisen since politically correct behavior become popular. As a white male I am personally responsible for every ill in the world. Darn.
Living in South Florida, where the Hispanic population is quickly becoming the majority and everyone needs to learn to speak Spanish (I don't, and it's greatly affected my career as an advertising writer), it's amazing to me that they want to claim all the minority benefits. It's getting to the point where the non-Hispanics (hate that term!) are being discriminated against.
While it has nothing to do with racism, my first thought here was, if GM employees have ever suffered a devastating blight, it came directly from corporate headquarters. I know, I know. I'll clean out my desk.
I had *ETHICS* training yesterday. For an hour, they quized us on Ethics Compliance using the Who Wants To Be A Millionaire gameshow model. Someone in corporate made a computerized game complete with sound effects. The moral of the story is, why be unethical and surf the web on company time when the company will pay you extra to dork around making a gameshow.
Reeses Pieces all around!
That’s why I said, “Hey man nice shot.”
Good shot, man.
I'm about to go through similar training courses. Since I now work in the Personnel department for a charity for blind people, we not only have to be very very careful about ethnicity monitoring and equal opportunities based on race and ethnicity, but immensely careful about disability discrimination. Not to mention, because it's a charity *for* blind people, there's a sort of positive action thing going on where if a visually impaired person and a normal person have the same qualifications, the VI person will get the job.
He said. She said. There’s 9 Comments
Yes, I know I'm woman. But I don't need a hand up because of it. My abilities and skills are just as good as the next persons. (Well, better if you're talking about art and design, worse if you're talking cooking, astrophysics, or driving. You know what I mean. People are people.) They have strong points; they have weak points, and we pretty much look all the same on the inside. (Unless you are me again, and have ulcerations along your tummy lining from all that paranoia.)
I'm rambling. Point: I'm not fond of diversity training. I think it aggravates the problem. Unfortunately, I know there are a lot of racist-sexist-whateverist dinks who still play by the old boys club rules and who still look down on everybody. But I'm tired of people trying to tell me how to think and act and behave because they think we should all be PC-perfect. Rant done.
PixelFish :: 28 November, 2001 05:40 AM
A few months ago I held the door for a woman who was five feet behind me. She went ballistic. “I don’t need a MAN’S help that thank you. Don’t patronize me.” I was stunned. I was being polite; not patronizing. My parents raised me to ALWAYS hold the door for the person behind you, male or female. Politeness is no longer in vogue.
Davezilla :: 28 November, 2001 06:37 AM
Second point: I'm Jewish, and you know that Jews make up only about 2% of the entire U.S. population. Ever notice how we don't qualify for minority-type preferences? No affirmative action for us, baby. And we seem to do OK.
I believe that everyone is responsible for his/her own success and the key to that success is education and hard work.
leslier :: 28 November, 2001 09:43 AM
Phineas :: 28 November, 2001 10:31 AM
Who new?
ilsalacious :: 28 November, 2001 11:38 AM
Tami Jo :: 28 November, 2001 08:02 PM
Davezilla :: 28 November, 2001 08:08 PM
Tami Jo :: 28 November, 2001 08:10 PM
It certainly makes life interesting. The huge difference is of course, that they really are interested in getting the balance right. They're not just doing it for bullshit brownie points and money. Before I worked here I would probably have rolled my eyes when someone mentioned "positive action" but it's amazing how your perspectives can be changed when you get to sit in on the top level meetings (even if it's only to take the minutes).
ann :: 29 November, 2001 03:52 PM
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