I’ve said in previous blogs that our head office is located next to a city with a high Asian population, so therefore we employ a disproportionate amount of Asians. There tends to be a lack of women applying to be software developers but we employ a lot of women testers, and managers.
A few years ago, we started some “working groups” with a woke agenda. We had one specifically for women, then for ethnic minorities, and then one for people of different sexualities.
I have no idea how many meetings were arranged or what came out of it, but then their groups were all merged under the umbrella of DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion).
I’ve always said I am fine with these groups as long as they are solving a problem. But what problem are they trying to solve? We don’t have any relevant problems as far as I am aware, but then often forming these groups and pursuing agendas causes the issues they claim to solve.
I remember someone made a point about not talking about politics, religion or sexuality at work because it can cause arguments, make people feel excluded or bullied. You mainly go to work to do your job, not discuss your private life, so I think this unwritten rule has mainly been abided by.
Now with this modern woke movement, people are being told that we need “diverse opinions” from “diverse backgrounds“. However, if you do attempt to talk about these topics, you soon find out that it’s completely the opposite mentality, and you actually need to align with the group-think. Political opinions are fine as long as it aligns with the left-wing. Talking about religion is great as long as it’s not the negative aspects of it, and talking about sexuality at work is normal now.
What happens if you just want to write some software?
Pride meeting
During Pride month, we had a meeting with a guest external speaker. Presumably paid them a lot of money to talk about their identity and sexuality at work; which is incredibly weird.
“Conforming means compromising your own identity.”
You could argue having to go to work “compromises your identity”. In a work situation, what part of your sexuality is required to be known? Why is gender really relevant?
The speaker was talking about being bisexual, gender-fluid and polyamorous. Do we need to know this? Did that ever impact her career? People like that seem to imply that you need to be different to stand out.
At the end of the month, a Director sent out a message:
Special thank you to all our colleagues in the LGBTQ+ community across our organisation. We are truly thankful for the talent and value that you bring to us every day. We Belong!
Imagine the outrage if they only praised straight colleagues. Targeting a group of people implies that the people outside that group are excluded and don’t bring value. If we really are equal then you don’t single groups out like that. A similar commendation was given during Black History Month.
Representatives
So they were looking to appoint some DEI Representatives to bolster their working groups:
“Our mission is to be a company that welcomes diversity amongst our workforce and provides
opportunities for everyone to be themselves and thrive at work.”
“The role involves identifying new and creative ways to raise awareness of key DEI topics and break down barriers through sharing educational content, organising webinars or other events and sharing experiences for others to learn from, helping us to become a more equitable, diverse and inclusive workplace.”
7 people volunteered: 1 Indian, 6 white. 5 women, 2 men
I would have thought it would be key that the leaders are diverse and I don’t think that is diverse, and far too skewed towards the women too.
One of the first posts they made contained one of those dramatic videos where each person takes it in turns saying a sentence and holding up a sign with a slogan like “I belong” with emotional music playing in the background.
"Wellbeing and inclusion are closely linked. The human brain is constantly assessing the environment for signs of rejection and social exclusion and adjusting our behaviour to keep us safe from threats and harm. When people are regularly reminded that they belong, they are likely to give their best, think clearly, feel safe to express their views and ideas and be happier, engaged and supportive of others, too. As such, we all have a responsibility and part to play in driving a culture (and beyond) of increased inclusion; one which boosts wellbeing and enables everyone the opportunity to apply their full potential.
For this campaign, we decided to create a video, involving individuals from across the business describing what an inclusive workplace means to them and characteristics that make them who they are.
Wow – trying to do this required openness and bravery and led to both tears and laughter.
We learned that who we are is different to what we are, or how we are perceived.
We questioned if people would treat us differently after they read our post.
We understood how hard this was to do but how powerful too.
As you will see, we all answered in our own way and felt bonded as a team.
Please watch with an open heart and an open mind."
This kinda sounds like propaganda that teaches people they are victims and people are out to put them down. Like I always say, DEI seems to create the problems it is trying to solve. They talk about diversity but then seem to imply that groups of people are targeting you. I wrote a blog about that recently.
DEI In Practice: Marketing
There’s been a big push over the years to show more ethnic minorities in marketing material. Ideally it should be representative of the country’s demographics, but it never is. I end up noticing when you’ve gone through many slides of a presentation and not seen a picture of a white man.
One example is the slides we were given for a new company values, each value had one or more people photographed in an office environment. I made a note of who they were:
| white | black | brown/mixed/other | Total | |
| men | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| women | 3 | 2 | 3 | 8 |
| Total | 3 | 3 | 5 | 11 |
Is that representative? Not at all.
DEI In Practice: Leader executive program
They recently announced a “Leader executive program” which sounded like a way to train senior leaders. Out of 44 people chosen for the scheme, only 5 were men.
Is that representative? Not at all.
Dartmouth Scar Experiment
If you see yourself as a victim, you'll be convinced that the world views you that way too. The Dartmouth Scar Experiment reveals that. Participants thought they'd be interviewed for jobs with a fake scar on their face, which they saw being applied by a makeup artist. However, during the touch up phase, unbeknownst to them the scar was removed. Those participants who believed that they still had a visible scar, reported a massively increased level of discrimination. They also "displayed heightened feelings of powerlessness, self-pity, and an increased tendency to blame others for their failures." They believed that they were discriminated against and thus internalized it in a negative way. The study essentially revealed that regardless of whether there's actual discrimination or not, when one believes themselves to be a victim it results in negative consequences.
North Face
Companies are going too far with virtue signaling and victim mindset. Like when Retailer @thenorthface are offering 20% off if you complete their “digital course in racial inclusion”.
Customers are told that “white privilege grants access to the outdoors” and warns others are “excluded” from the outdoors because of “racism”
James Esses
The irony is that North Face is implicitly acknowledging here that all its customers are white. After all, why would black customers need to take a course about ‘white privilege’ to get a 20% discount? But if all NF’s customers are white, shouldn’t it be examining the beam in its own eye?
Spotify & Diversity Fatigue
Spotify posted a blog about “Diversity Fatigue”, which sounded like some companies were abandoning the initiative.
"Organisations like Spotify, that are committed to DEI (and not ‘tired of it’) are increasing their focus on data-informed decision-making when setting global DEI strategies… Data provides a stronger evidence-based approach to executing DEI programs and inoculates against the ‘diversity fatigue’ virus, as you can see the progress"
"Conclusion: At Spotify, and amongst other DEI professionals, it is foreseen that we can be smarter with our work, embedding the results and changes deeper into the business so that they become the norm. So if you’re feeling frustrated, I ask you not to quit your DEI work. Instead, look to the HR Community as your support network. We need to band together and point-blank refuse the existence of such a thing as ‘Diversity Fatigue’. This way we are not giving each other and our leaders the permission to give up. Most of us already know from experience – it’s together and with community (and only then) that we can continue to make progress towards a more equitable future. "
One large critisicm of DEI that it’s just reverse discrimination. So there’s the idea that the workforce is too white or too male so then the hiring goes against them even if they were the best applicants for the role. In Spotify’s next blog, they show that they are intentionally doing it for race, although the apparent 50/50 split on gender you could say is more representative of the world.
Our internships help us to identify and nurture potential future employees, and we find that interns often bring new ideas, perspectives, and approaches to our work. Our interns’ fresh insights contribute to innovation and help us stay competitive. Diversity is also fostered through our internships by attracting candidates from different backgrounds, cultures, universities and organizations.
Offering a hybrid experience, provides us access to a broader pool of talent and reach into areas we likely would not have been able to hire from. As a result, we welcomed 161 interns from around the world with over 50% identifying as female globally and 60% of those in the US identifying as being part of an underrepresented group.
They keep saying “systematic racism”, but they don’t have a problem with systematic racism, they have a problem with meritocracy. You have to discriminate to hire more people of colour, and choose less qualified people (and that is systematic racism)
James Klug
When people make statements against DEI, it starts to sound racist. But I argue that DEI initiatives produces racism. Flip the scenario where whites are the minority…
Charlie Kirk made a great point, around 73% of NBA players are black, and around 17% are white, with the rest of other races like Latino and Asian. Assuming these metrics have happened based on a meritocracy, if diversity quotas were enforced, and there had to be 50% white; would you expect the quality of the league to go up or down? Everyone he asked reluctantly admits it would go down.
Conclusion
So what does the phrase “Seeking Diversity, Equity & Inclusion” actually mean? It’s seeking to create a culture of systematic sexism, and racism, and gaslighting people into thinking it’s acceptable.
Stranger Coding Tings 