OPINION It’s time to change our approach to diversity training industry

of diversity trainings is dubious: Some experts believe that DEI can exacerbate biases in workplace environments, accomplishing the opposite of its stated goals.

Diversity and unconscious bias training has been around for a while, and it’s now a major industry in the United States’ economy.

Part of the reason was the explosion of national consciousness about racism and bias during the protests and riots following the murder of George Floyd in the summer 2020. Suddenly, it became in vogue for a company to publicly and privately express its alliance with people of color across the United States.

Publicly, these expressions took the form of commercials expressing solidarity and support for racial tranquility. Privately, they looked like diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, trainings.

Whatever the cost of these trainings and advertisements, companies have by and large paid whatever price necessary – and will likely continue to do so. In 2020, according to Report Linker’s October 2022 market analysis, $7.5 billion was spent globally on DEI training, a figure that will increase to a projected $17.2 billion by 2027.

The curious thing about the enormous size of these figures, though, is that the effectiveness

As early as 2016, Harvard sociologist Frank Dobbin and Tel Aviv University anthropologist Alexandra Kalev suggested in the Harvard Business Review that diversity programs are doomed to “fail.” Motivated in large part to avoid class-action lawsuits and more minor litigation, large companies began to invest in company-wide sensitivity trainings to demonstrate their non-complicity in office-related sexual and racial harassment.

If a company brings in a diversity trainer, for instance, managers and workers are very likely to momentarily express the right words – only to go right back to their normal attitudes and practices surrounding things like race or gender once the training is over.

In short, Dobbin and Kalev say, “people often rebel against rules to assert their own autonomy. Try to coerce me to do X, Y, or Z, and I’ll do the opposite just to prove that I’m my own person.”

In another article, Dobbin and Kalev argue that “two common features of diversity training – mandatory participation and legal curriculum – will make participants feel that an external power is trying to control their behavior.”

Another problem with DEI training is the fact that many concepts taught in diversity trainings are based upon flawed data analyses.

One of these is that of “microaggressions,” which are common verbal, behavioral or environmental practices which carry an unknown psychological negative effect on minority groups and especially people of color.

As clinical psychologist Scott Lilienfield and journalist Jesse Singal have noted, though, the very concept of, let alone the practice of teaching about, microaggressions is a sketchy prospect.

Perhaps the best example of this is the argument that microaggressions carry negative psychological effects for minority groups. This conclusion, according to the fairly extensive “scholarly” literature on the subject, never controls its collected data for those who are predisposed to negative emotions.

“In other words,” Singal says, “just because people who report experiencing more microaggressions also report worse health and and psychological outcomes does not mean that there is a causal relationship between the two; correlation does not equal causation, as snooty statistics professors everywhere say.”

And so, the reports of the harmful effects of microaggressions or other, especially verbalbased, unconscious biases in professional or personal environments may be greatly exaggerated – which isn’t to suggest that harmful words do not exist, or that one should not be sensitive and kind to others with different opinions, but only that reports of literal workplace “violence” (remember: silence can also be violence) are probably overestimated in most cases.

This also isn’t to say that achieving harmony between different ethnic groups or the sexes isn’t a worthy goal: To be sure, it is. But we should probably be questioning the methods by which we seek to attain it.

More than likely, for private companies, this means defenestrating the over-priced diversity trainings. For public institutions like LSU, it probably means slashing funding to bureaucratic diversity trainings that don’t actually seem to accomplish their stated goals.

In fact, in the case of the latter group, it seems a responsibility of policy makers and school administrators to suspend wasting taxpayer dollars of faulty, ineffective trainings until we are surer of the utility of DEI sessions.

Reading is a healthy habit, but college leaves no time for it

BESKE’S BUZZ

KATE BESKE

@KateBeske

Reading has always been a hobby recommended to people of all ages, but the extent of its benefits isn’t always known.

Numerous studies have proven the benefits of reading both neurologically and mentally: reading regularly can significantly improve your brain function and mental health.

Brain scans showed that brain connectivity increased throughout the reading period and for days afterward, according to a Healthline article about the benefits of reading books.

These changes are most noticeable in the somatosensory cortex, which is the part of the

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brain that responds to physical sensations, according to Healthline.

A 2013 study focused on the long and short term effects of reading on the brain showed that the brain’s connectivity is elevated while reading and for a period of time after reading.

This shows neurologically that reading is a positive thing for people to partake in, but many other studies focus on different positive effects of reading habitually.

A 2013 study on how reading fiction improves theory of mind showed that reading literary fiction led to better theory of mind compared to reading any other genre, meaning they can better understand other people.

Reading is often recognized as beneficial because it helps people have a large and growing vocabu- lary.

In a 2015 study on the effects that reading has on vocabulary, researchers found that “the prediction that reading skill could be associated with rate of vocabulary growth is based on the premise that reading development could potentially have a significant effect on a child’s exposure to novel words.”

There’s no better feeling than being able to say exactly how you’re feeling at any given time with an array of words and descriptions at your disposal.

While all of these benefits show how good reading is as a hobby, as a full-time college student with multiple part-time jobs, I find little time to actually read. I love reading books, and I plan to read many each year, but realistically I struggle to find time to actually sit down with one giv- en my workload.

Other students have expressed the same feeling, such as Maia Moretto, a psychology senior.

“I have in the past used reading as a coping mechanism, I feel like reading things that I am interested in allows me to calm down and focus on solely the words of the book and not worry about outside factors,” Moretto said.

Moretto said she often turns to reading as a stress reliever.

She mainly enjoys reading romance novels, crime series or collections of poems.

“Sadly, with the course load of college at the moment I am not allowed as much time as I’d like to read,” Moretto said, “but I definitely look forward to my free days to enjoy a good book.”

Other students, while they enjoy reading, don’t use it to help with stress.

Patrick O’Neill, psychology junior, said while he finds reading to be relaxing, he does not read when he’s feeling stressed.

He typically enjoys dystopian fiction novels and informational books for fun, but unfortunately he struggles to find enough time out side of classes to enjoy the hobby.

It’s important to try to find time for reading and other hobbies, and I find comfort in knowing that there will be more time for them once I’m out of college.

Next time you find yourself bored with nothing to do or on a break from school, try picking up a book. It might help you more than you would think.

Kate Beske is a 20-year-old journalism sophomore from Destrehan.

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