What if Diversity Training Is Doing More Harm Than Good?
In an opinion piece, Jesse Singal writes that “the specific type of diversity training that is currently in vogue — mandatory training that blames dominant groups for D.E.I. problems — may well have a net negative effect on the outcomes managers claim to care about…”
“Many popular contemporary D.E.I. approaches…seem geared more toward sparking a revolutionary reunderstanding of race relations than solving organizations’ specific problems,” he writese. “And they often blame white people — or their culture — for harming people of color… Many of these training sessions run counter to the views of most Americans — of any color — on race and equality. And they’re generating exactly the sort of backlash that research predicts.”
In the end, Singal concludes, it’s possible that “organizations will grow tired of throwing time and money at training sessions for which the upside is mostly theoretical and the potential downsides include unhappy employees, public embarrassment and even lawsuits. It’s possible they will realize that a true commitment to D.E.I. does not lend itself to easy solutions.”
Related:
Robin DiAngelo and the next frontier of DEI (FAIR Substack, 3/14/23)
