Friday, April 29, 2022

Time Is a Semi-Circle

It's the "Satanic Panic" of the '80's all over again. Or deja vu, all over again. I forget which. But we've been down this road once or twice before. 

What, you thought the Salem witch-trials had nothing to do with the present? That wasn't a blind, superstitious hysteria.  That was the establishment of power by using fear-mongering to demonize people so the targets could be marginalized and declared "other". With that anything done to take their property, even their liberty, was perfectly legitimate.  Been down this road once or twice before, in other words.  It's really as American as violence and cherry pie.  One step forward is always accompanied by three steps back.  That's the American Way, too.

Alternatively to the claims the world is coming to an end and the Republic is done for because Democrats are not on Twitter 25/8 refuting anything a Republican says anywhere ever: Remind me, how many state primaries have we had so far? And how many yet to go? Personally, I think the general electorate is tired of the crazy, and not inclined to let it in by default anymore.  I'm of the opinion the real crazy actually draws out the rational to be sure the crazy loses.  We'll see.  I could worry about the future; or I could wait to see what it brings when it gets here.  Maybe that's because the older I get the more I realize the future is the past we were afraid of day before yesterday. Last I looked, "you and me" get to vote (well, I don't until November. I've already voted in the Texas Primaries and in the primary runoff.) And Trump's rallies aren't exactly star-studded attractions drawing crowds to fill football stadia. If anything, the attendance is dropping like a stone and Trump fears tomatoes. "Cult mind control"? From this guy? Over people who think Jackie O and Princess Diana are still alive, and Biden is dead? I think that's a level of crazy even Trump doesn't control. He attracts it, makes it leave the house occasionally, but control? It’s more like he makes it easier to know where the crazies are.

Speaking of "control": First, "diversity training" sux, and that's not because of the topic or what it attempts to do. Pedagogically it's a joke.  It’s practically designed for failure. That aside, you can't educate people out of their culture:  not without concerted effort over years, and with their acquiescence.  I knew as a young child that racism was wrong, but I didn't really understand racism, or my own racism, until my encounters with a black seminary student (the only one in the school for most of the time I was there).  She taught me things no "training" could, that even the seminary couldn't do (try as it did).  I'm still a creature of my culture, but I know that now.  That took some combination of life experiences and various graduate programs to achieve, along with no small effort on my part.  Do I still suck at "diversity"?  Yeah, probably.  Not intentionally, but rare, I think, is the person who doesn't suck at it.

But I don't think the alternative is "Fuck it, it can't be done!" Although it certainly can’t be done in a few hours taken from the work week.

Does diversity training really suck?  Don't take my word for it:

Diversity training doesn’t extinguish prejudice. It promotes it.

At first glance, the first training — the one that outlined what people could and couldn’t say — didn’t seem to hurt. But on further inspection, it turns out it did.

The scenarios quickly became the butt of participant jokes. And, while the information was sound, it gave people a false sense of confidence since it couldn’t possibly cover every single situation.

The second training — the one that categorized people — was worse. Just like the first training, it was ridiculed, ironically in ways that clearly violated the recommendations from the first training. And rather than changing attitudes of prejudice and bias, it solidified them.

This organization’s experience is not an exception. It’s the norm.
I can understand that.  Groups form especially quickly around a common experience, and when that experience is learning something that is presented poorly and challenges you to do the hard work of self-examination, the first response is going to be:  fuck this!  Which is something the group (the class) can rally 'round. And it can go quickly downhill from there.

So much for "training."  I've been through this, not in classroom settings, but with on-line programs.  I know the law generally related to workplace harassment and civil rights, so I can do those "trainings" with one eye on the screen and one ear barely listening (if you haven't done them, you have to answer questions correctly to "pass" and get credit for each section of the whole course.  Annually.  You get to where you remember the answers, rather than "know" them.)  Truthfully, most of the training I've been subjected to comes down to:  "Treat people the way your Mama (especially if she was a Southern Mama) taught you to:  with respect."  But yeah, that's a damned hard lesson to learn, or we'd all have learned it in the first grade.

Obviously we didn't.

I just saved you from reading the rest of the HBJ article:

The solution? Instead of seeing people as categories, we need to see people as people. Stop training people to be more accepting of diversity. It’s too conceptual, and it doesn’t work.

Instead, train them to do their work with a diverse set of individuals. Not categories of people. People.

Teach them how to have difficult conversations with a range of individuals. Teach them how to manage the variety of employees who report to them. Teach them how to develop the skills of their various employees.
Something tells me most organizations don’t see their primary purpose to be teaching employees “how to have difficult conversations with a range of individuals.” The only place that ever tried to teach me to do that expressly was seminary, and that’s a large part of the reason I was there. It was also the express purpose of the education there.

Back to the drawing board.

Where we find FoxNews, which probably doesn't remember writing this chyron:
In fact, they deny writing it at all. If you ask them about it, they’ll say you’re lying and ask you why you want to lie on television. (Irony!)
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