I won’t say what company but it’s a fortune100.
An hour-long discussion on race, equity, and equality turned out to be an hour-long panel of liberal talking points and white shaming and how everything is unfair for black people. The tipping point for me was when I was being lectured by a young male on equity and why black people need to be overcompensated for now and given more simply because they are black and historically have been disadvantaged. At point point a panelist even mentioned how silence is complicity.
The ultimate irony is that this hour-long discussion was supposed to create an environment where people could speak about issues they face. If I were bold enough to raise my hand and say how this hyperfocus on one race over another actually is counterproductive and makes me less safe/secure, I would be fired immediately for being a bigot.
I genuinely do not understand how someone can simultaneously tell me I need to engage in a dialogue with them to understand their past/current challenges, while at the same time having my life story assumed for me and summarized solely on the color of my skin.
Idk if anyone’s gonna read this I just needed to vent. I live my life by two simple mantras: “do unto others as you would have done unto you” and “judge me for the content of my character, not the color of my skin.” Sadly both of those ideals are lost in the mud, and bringing them back up is now is me just using it as an excuse for my whiteness :(
Feels bad man
No - they really know that what that meeting was is the beginning inquisition. These people are cancer and they destroy every company they infect. Soon you will have affinity groups - angry and bitter blacks, women, gays, trans - who are all encouraged to hate any white male. Then you will be individually targeted with a whisper network. Then a precipitating event --- you saying the wrong thing -- becomes a reason to get rid of you. All of the whisper network tells HR at once that you are problematic. HR counsels you on your racism and either fires you outright or demands you bend the knee. If you bend the knee - you admit guilt and you will be marked forever as an evil racist.
If you do not bend the knee they might force you out or just make things more and more uncomfortable. They will spread rumors about you. Other teams will refuse to work with you. It becomes a shit show.
I have seen this shit blow up 30 or so companies in the last decade. Every single time it kills a significant amount of business, productivity drops to nothing, and people act terrified to interact. It kills company morale.
These people are never satisfied either. As soon as they get rid of some people - the new people they bring in will be more woke and they will try to use them as an attack against other upper management. Eventually it becomes a company wide civil war.
My very large global company is filled with affinity employee Networks. They don't look to see who belongs to them. They look to see who doesn't belong to them.
Mine too!