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
Not too long ago there was a zoom meeting at my work similar to that. Not mandatory, but encouraged.
I logged on, saw the host was a 25 year old white blue hair with "the glasses" and listed pronouns (she/her, because no shit). She talked about 5 minutes about microaggressions before I left the meeting knowing if would be useless
At the end of it the key takeaway I heard from others? I kid you not, "look out for people unmuting their microphone, especially minorites, as they may be too shy to speak over others".
And here I am, being one of two white Americans in a group of 20 Indian H1Bs. The nice thing is the Indians don't give a shit about liberal PC crap.