The diversity training disaster

All big American companies now require DEI training: diversity, equity and inclusion.

All big companies!

Really.

It sounds responsible. But it turns out DEI courses are often useless and sometimes racist.

First comes groveling.

A video about DEI shows a conference that begins with a “land acknowledgement.”

A Microsoft employee apologizes for taking land from “the Sammamish, the Duwamish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Muckleshoot” and more.

I guess it’s a nice gesture. But they aren’t giving the land back!

Companies go through the motions.

“They feel like they have to,” says York College professor Erec Smith. “They have to signal to the world that they’re doing something.”

They hope it will protect them from the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and lawsuits.

Smith was once a diversity officer. He left the position because he thought it was “useless.”

Or worse. “It makes people less likely to interact with people unlike them,” he says. “It’s a minefield now.”

At diversity trainings, employees learn about “microaggressions,” speech that’s subtly biased.

“If you ask somebody what they do for a living, somehow that’s racist,” says Smith. “If you learn that, then why would you take a chance? ... ‘I’m going to silence myself’ ... not talk to Black people.”

A Coca-Cola diversity training tells employees, “Be less white.” “Being white” includes being “oppressive, arrogant, defensive, ignorant.”

“That is by no means a white thing,” says Smith. “The point is to demonize the other side.”

Worst of all, despite the $3 billion spent on DEI training by American companies today, DEI trainings don’t do what they’re supposed to do.

A Harvard professor analyzed studies of them and says, “Sadly enough, I did not find one single study which found that diversity training leads to more diversity.”

A different Harvard Business Review study analyzed data from 800 companies and found that five years after diversity training, the share of Black women managers decreased by 9%.

“It is not about data,” says Smith. “It’s about a n See StoSSel, page A5

Guest Column

Letters to the Editor

Hospice and first responders

EDITOR:

On a recent Saturday night, the Battle of the Badges 911 Chili Cook-off pitted fire, law enforcement and associated organizations in competition in support of Snowline Hospice to prepare the best chili and present the best booth. I took a moment in that reverie to compare the efforts of our first responders, and though it may seem counter-intuitive, with the work of Snowline in end-of-life care, noting they exhibit significant similarities.

As an emergency manager with a fire and EMS background (26 years as an EMT), I am acutely aware that most of the population purposely ignores the existence of emergency services until it is desperately needed. That is a perfectly natural perspective. We build protections around ourselves in our everyday lives. When events occur and those protections falter, we turn to those with a badge to make the situation better or at least make things “not worse.”

In those circumstances, the first responders know their actions must be “done, done right and done right now!” It takes a certain type of person, both professionals and volunteers, to enter that uncontrolled environment to help those in their time of need, often at risk of their own safety.

So too with hospice. Our society tries to ignore end-of-life matters. As the time comes, as it will for all of us, many are unprepared or unwilling to accept the outcome. Snowline personnel and volunteers provide care wherever it takes them. It takes a certain type of person, both professionals and volunteers, to provide care for those in their most trying of times.

In both settings the people impacted are often terrified and confused. Emergency and hospice providers subject themselves willingly to emotionally traumatic circumstances to ease pain and ensure comfort. Whether it is a structure or wildland fire, an accident or violence or the loss of a loved one, there is a toll for all involved. For those surrounding the subjects of the event grief often follows.

I am biased. Having previously served on the Snowline Board of Directors for seven years, with two terms as president, I am in constant awe of the work of that nonprofit organization. While the for-profit hospice industry has been subject to justifiable criticism, Snowline has for over 43 years been a stalwart beacon of compassion in our community at no cost to patients or families. The grants, thrift store revenues and fundraising such as the Battle of the Badges (thanks Laurie and Dion and all the BoB volunteers) support the efforts that public and private insurance do not cover.

Hospice workers do not carry a badge or drive through the community with lights and sirens. Nonetheless, like emergency responders, they carry the weight of the community when our families, friends and neighbors need it the most.

PAUL PENN Diamond Springs

Trump’s COVID crime

EDITOR:

On July 17, 1983, at the height of the AIDS epidemic, Bulgaria’s Intelligence Services planted a story in an Indonesian newspaper, alleging that the AIDS virus had escaped from Fort Dietrick, Md., the U.S. Army’s biological warfare center. “The Times” of India picked up the story and Indira Ghandi, India’s prime minister and America-skeptic, glommed onto that story and rattled our cage, an American humiliation that did not go unnoticed by other nations. This is probably the most successful Soviet propaganda coup of the Cold War.

The story confirms Mark Twain’s admonition: “A rumor has gone around the world twice before truth has put its pants on.”

Concerning COVID-19, reputable scientists say that we may never know the origin of the virus. Nevertheless, the GOP is wasting congressional time and dollars trying to prove the unprovable: that COVID-19 is a Chinese plot.

Dr. Deborah Brix, Trump’s head of the COVID Task Force, wrote in her memoirs that on Nov. 2, 2019, she sent a memo to Trump, warning him that it was past time to take drastic actions to stop the spread. Dr. Brix was rebuffed because, she was told: “... bad news would negatively affect Trump’s re-election campaign.” Trump’s misinformation and disinformation campaign kicked into high gear, touting bleach, Mr. Clean, Ivermectin and other chimeras as cures that likely killed some people. If the GOP were truly trying to get to the truth, n See letterS, page A5