How White People Handle Diversity Training in the Workplace

[MrScorpio]

Confronted with their own shortcomings, white employees often shut down the dialogue—or frame themselves as victims

Robin DiAngelo

As a former professor and current facilitator and consultant, I am in a position to give white people feedback on how their unintentional racism is manifesting itself. In this position, I have observed countless enactments of white fragility. One of the most common is outrage: “How dare you suggest that I could have said or done something racist!” Although these are unpleasant moments for me, they are also rather amusing. The reason I’m there in the first place is because I have been hired specifically to do just that; I have been asked to help the members of the organization understand why their workplace continues to remain white, why they are having so much trouble recruiting people of color, and/or why the people of color they hire don’t stay. They want to know what they are doing that is unsupportive to people of color.

At this point in my career, I rarely encounter the kind of open hostility that I was met with in my early days as a facilitator. I attribute this change to the years of experience behind my pedagogy. Of course, I am also white, which makes other white people much more receptive to the message. I am often amazed at what I can say to groups of primarily white people. I can describe our culture as white supremacist and say things like, “All white people are invested in and collude with the system of racism,” without my fellow white people running from the room or reeling from trauma. Naturally, I don’t walk in and lead with those statements; I strategically guide people to a shared understanding of what I mean by those claims. Still, white people tend to be more receptive to my presentation as long as it remains abstract. The moment I name some racially problematic dynamic or action happening in the room in the moment — for example, “Sharon, may I give you some feedback? While I understand it wasn’t intentional, your response to Jason’s story invalidates his experience as a black man” — white fragility erupts. Sharon defensively explains that she was misunderstood and then angrily withdraws, while others run in to defend her by reexplaining “what she really meant.” The point of the feedback is now lost, and hours must be spent repairing this perceived breach. And, of course, no one appears concerned about Jason. Shaking my head, I think to myself, “You asked me here to help you see your racism, but by god, I’d better not actually help you see your racism.”

The goal of my work is to make visible the inevitable racist assumptions held, and patterns displayed, by white people conditioned from living in a white supremacist culture. When these patterns are named or questioned, we have predictable responses. The responses begin with a set of unexamined assumptions, which, when questioned, trigger various emotions, which activate some expected behaviors. These behaviors are then justified by numerous claims. These responses, emotions, behaviors, and claims are illustrated in the following example of a recent eruption of white fragility.

I was co-leading a community workshop. Because an employer had not sponsored it, the participants had all voluntarily signed up and paid a fee to attend. For this reason, we could assume that they were open and interested in the content. I was working with a small group of white participants when a woman I will refer to as Eva stated that because she grew up in Germany, where she said there were no black people, she had learned nothing about race and held no racism. I pushed back on this claim by asking her to reflect on the messages she had received from her childhood about people who lived in Africa. Surely she was aware of Africa and had some impressions of the people there? Had she ever watched American films? If so, what impression did she get about African Americans? I also asked her to reflect on what she had absorbed from living in the U.S. for the last 23 years, whether she had any relationships with African Americans here, and if not, then why not.

https://medium.com/s/story/how-white-people-handle-diversity-training-in-the-workplace-e8408d2519f

[lunasun]

1. Kick

[ismnotwasm]

2. K&R

We get diversity training once a year, but it being a teaching hospital, the population of employees is also quite diverse—not as much as it should be though.

[bullwinkle428]

3. I never went through diversity training in my 30+ years in the (same) workplace, but

we did have a presentation on confirmation bias a few years ago, and the skepticism on the part of the nearly all-white audience that day was quite palpable. That was rather depressing.

[mythology]

4. This author makes a really poor case in my opinion

I find it telling that she talks about how when she says something to somebody else that they get defensive and nobody is thinking of the victim. But she herself isn't thinking of how it feels that she lumps every white person in with the ludicrous notion that we all collude with racism and have inevitable racist assumptions. It's a silly victim mentality. Instead of saying you made a victim out of him/her because you're racist, instead give people a chance to discuss what is racism, what is poorly worded, what is genuine misunderstanding and what is whining.

Her example with Eva is amusing. I never called her racist, I just said she held racist beliefs, not really a major distinction. She presumes she can't invalidate people's feelings and that it must be the other person's fault. And yet doesn't see the irony that she uses that exact language toward others in her own article.

The author starts with a conclusion and works backwards to justify it. Frankly, she's a blithering idiot. She proves, through her own words, that she is just as guilty of being incapable of accepting blame as she proclaims everybody else.

You can't hold that minority groups are this precious little delicate flower incapable of handling things just because they are a minority and actually think of them as equals. It's blatantly saying they aren't strong enough to handle it and that's okay, but white people aren't strong enough to handle it and that's wrong.

I can't imagine how she can honestly include this quote “If privilege is defined as a legitimization of one’s entitlement to resources, it can also be defined as permission to escape or avoid any challenges to this entitlement.” and not realize that she is doing exactly that. Self-awareness is not her strong suit.

She literally frames her entire argument that if you disagree with her, it's because you are fragile. She is inherently delegitimizing any other viewpoint to her entitlement.

Diversity training fails because it's not a discussion, it's a lecture. You can't verbally beat people into liking minorities (or anything else for that matter). You can put into place legal protections that can address issues, but racism ends when people realize that hey that person is a lot like me. To quote Daryl Davis, who has done a lot more to reduce racism than this nitwit "Establish dialogue. When two enemies are talking, they're not fighting."

When you presume one side is inherently acting in bad faith, and one side is inherently purely a victim, you are setting up a conflict. People dig in during conflict. That's true if you're talking about race, gender, religion, politics, sports etc. She thinks of it as a zero sum game, where white people have to lose for minorities to gain and unsurprisingly she gets push back. But she's too fragile to handle that.

[RobinA]

6. Well Said! nt

X

[MrScorpio]

7. Well, I don't agree

But, there it is.

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Exactly right.

[lostnfound]

5. My company wins awards and does a GREAT job

People LIKE the diversity training and embrace it.. I learned from it. For example, the goal is definitely not “tolerance”. Diversity is a real strength because ideas will be generated by a diverse group that could not arise in a homogenous one.

We have tens of thousands go through it every year. Plus we have diversity groups to help network or showcase and develop talent or educate others.. race/ethnicity, age, LGBT, veterans...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

8. Yep, if they're not burning an actual cross and wearing a hood, they figure they're good.