Came across this unbelievably cursed exercise from a diversity training in the 1980s www.wintersgroup.com/corporate-di... - ThreadSky

michaelhobbes.bsky.social • 454 days ago

Came across this unbelievably cursed exercise from a diversity training in the 1980s
https://www.wintersgroup.com/corporate-diversity-training-1964-to-present.pdf

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Comments

richburroughs.dev•454 days ago

Absolutely diabolical.

grahammoliver.bsky.social•454 days ago

90% sure I did this in a university classroom around 2003, but the professor wrote stereotypes on a card and we had to tape them to our forehead I think

matthewdownhour.bsky.social•454 days ago

Michael Scott DEI training

stefinitely.cool•454 days ago

Omg, that's so gross

bressansar.bsky.social•454 days ago

Not far from some of the stories I‘ve heard about *current* DEI trainings here in Europe this past year. Small orgs, big public sector institutions… It’s so bad!

shalahowell.bsky.social•454 days ago

*cries in Gen X*

beijingpalmer.bsky.social•454 days ago

oh this was being practiced right through to at least the early 2000s, I've seen references to it in plenty of lit

dsquareddigest.bsky.social•454 days ago

are you sure those were references to it happening or references to the episode of The Office that something similar was in?

beijingpalmer.bsky.social•454 days ago

actual references, though of course there's a memory lag so people could well have been talking about stuff they encountered previously.

maruku25.bsky.social•454 days ago

The training facilitators:

ablum.bsky.social•454 days ago

Feel like the "Privilege Walk" is a modern cousin of this.

serenyx.bsky.social•454 days ago

This exact thing still happens, it's just queer/trans and mental health stuff instead. Loved nothing more than sitting around with a bunch of cishet people discussing whether or not to use terms like tranny, while I, a trans person, is sitting right there not even being acknowledged.

serenyx.bsky.social•454 days ago

All because that was the only way they'd let me have the little rainbow icon on my profile that would indicate to students that I get it and if they need to talk there's someone in the dept.

wagatwe.com•454 days ago

one of my elementary school teachers did the eye color exercise 😬

lrshagerty.bsky.social•454 days ago

My 5th grade teacher did this. It was... not great!

wagatwe.com•454 days ago

yeah we had to end it early because one kid was so distraught and confused

kristinmuh.bsky.social•454 days ago

According to my sister they had a lesson in Grade 7 religion class about not being racist, and the textbook included an incredibly exhaustive list of racial slurs (presumably with the admonition not to say them). I did not have this class when i got to grade 7 but who knows, maybe i was sick thatday

kristinmuh.bsky.social•454 days ago

our hometown was then (the early 1990s) and is now pretty racist, so I guess it's nice they were trying, but I feel like teaching a bunch of 11 and 12 year olds new racial slurs is a bad idea

jennystrath.bsky.social•454 days ago

Literally this 30 Rock scene.

CW: transphobic and homophobic slurs. Slurs in general actually.

https://youtu.be/aGCaleTKXrM?si=HQodBxHitmcuu1ld

michaelhobbes.bsky.social•454 days ago

I think about the “I guess if you say it like that” joke all the time

disdyakis.bsky.social•453 days ago

I'm still not over the yearly toxic workplace/harassment training I took one year while working at Google where a guy was called "maricón" in one of the hypothetical scenarios

discosaurus.bsky.social•454 days ago

The idea behind diversity training is admirable. But it's not an act of social benevolence. It's a checkbox used to shield a company from liability.

Whatever it takes to avoid the phrase "culture of ingrained and systemic discrimination" appearing in a ruling.

discosaurus.bsky.social•454 days ago

If a company could take all their employees and send them to juggling class for 4 hours and avoid "culture of systemic discrimination", they would.

Doesn't matter if it works. Doesn't matter if it is positive or negative socially. Just has to be on the balance sheet and check the liability box.

lindaholmes.bsky.social•454 days ago

Literally Michael Scott did this.

sammie.gay•454 days ago

I was like "wait, isn't this literally a plotline of an episode of The Office?" thank you for confirming I'm not making that up!

jsulbyrne.bsky.social•454 days ago

Thank you, Brazil.

reverendjesus.com•454 days ago

Oh my god, it’s the Museum of Tolerance all over again

https://youtu.be/p-V6-CsOdmo?si=mtPU-XER9vSjVJ7S

plumicorns.bsky.social•454 days ago

I had a high school teacher do something like this ("before we read 'Ceremony,' let's list some prejudices people might have against Native Americans"), and when we couldn't come up with enough stereotypes she started suggesting ones I'd never even heard of

anxioustortoise.bsky.social•454 days ago

That seems suspicious 😯

haredurer.bsky.social•454 days ago

A lot of DEI stuff is not good!

michaelhobbes.bsky.social•454 days ago

Refresh your podcast app in mid-January to hear more!

kybard.com•454 days ago

I enjoy how much following you on social media is kind of like getting sneak previews into your upcoming podcast episodes

onemillionbc.bsky.social•454 days ago

Oh, yeah, I feel like White Fragility would make for a good ep

askingforafriend.bsky.social•454 days ago

Old here: These types of exercises were very popular when I was trained as a teacher in the 80s. The Blue/Brown Eye lesson was on Frontline!

I'm waiting for the Privilege Walk to join this. As one colleague said about it, "my trauma is not your lesson."

cmrann.bsky.social•454 days ago

I was strongly encouraged to do the privilege walk with my 9th grade students in ultra-liberal Montgomery County, MD in 2016-2017. We also watched parts of that Frontline episode during the same training.

askingforafriend.bsky.social•454 days ago

I showed students a video of a privilege walk with the narrator explaining what it was. I wasn't going to do it with my students, though.

My wife did it with other teachers at inservice. She was one of three "left behind"--she came home really angry at her peers.

mtrkdjoyce.bsky.social•454 days ago

We spend so much time seeing the right wing make bad faith accusations that DEI trainings are “racist” against white people that it’s sometimes easy to miss how actually-racist and otherwise horrible they very often actually are

This is part of one I had to do once

anniegirl.bsky.social•454 days ago

Did anyone point out that this is not how heart transplant recipients are chosen?

worms-and-snakes.bsky.social•454 days ago

This is so bad but I'm cracking up about "white supremacist about to discover the cure for AIDS." Each line is such a rollercoaster.

mtrkdjoyce.bsky.social•454 days ago

TRULY

seenadsgo.bsky.social•453 days ago

Honestly I’m impressed by the sheer density of offensive shit they managed to pack into such a small space

mtrkdjoyce.bsky.social•454 days ago

In the year of our Lord 2018!

rjelevi.bsky.social•454 days ago

Hoooooly shit.

pershing48.bsky.social•454 days ago

Philosophy, not even once

elviereads.bsky.social•454 days ago

a few years ago my husband did one where they each had to write a poem of stereotypes. not about themselves or their own experience of being stereotyped; just listing stereotypes about others in poem form. "roses are red, women be shopping, [redacted]"

michaelhobbes.bsky.social•454 days ago

can't believe writing down racist stereotypes in the workplace led to some negative outcomes for companies