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0 pointscatalogia6y ago0 comments

If somebody was being overtly racist, I would not feel better knowing that they've then been put through diversity training.

Why? Because I don't think it likely that diversity training would convince the racist to stop being a racist. It may teach the racist to conceal his racism, which from the corporation's perspective might well be good enough, but a crypto-racist is still a racist and would still make me feel uncomfortable.

Or to put this another way, how many sessions of diversity training would you need to put James Damore through before the women of google felt comfortable working with him?

0 comments

hnarn6y ago

Nobody puts anyone in diversity training to change their mind. It's a way of explaining very thoroughly how you are expected to act in the workplace, and if you choose to ignore it, there is a good foundation to let you go because you were very clearly informed of the rules.

catalogiaOP6y ago

I think that's my point. It's not about making people no longer be racists, it's about making them not overtly express their racism. Which from the perspective of the corporation is great because it reduces their liability. But from the perspective of a worker who feels unsafe because they know their coworker is a racist, knowing that coworker has been put through diversity training and now knows better than to overtly express their racism seems like little consolation.

It may even make the situation worse for the racist's [present and future] coworkers since now they have a wolf in sheep's clothing situation to contend with.

adventskalender6y ago

That's a completely different way to frame it. "Here is a course on how to avoid the legal pitfalls in the workplace" is something I might be able to accept.

Indoctrinating people on why they should behave in a certain way is a different matter. And again, the insult of assuming employees are in need of such training.

jrockway6y ago

> "Here is a course on how to avoid the legal pitfalls in the workplace" is something I might be able to accept.

That is the yearly manager training class. Even if you were only managing an intern, you had to take it every year.

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