Chief Diversity Officer,
I just completed the massive 6-hour block of Diversity, Inclusion, Privilege, Unconscious Bias, and Allyship training.
My Bottom-Line-Up-Front analysis of the training is that today’s social justice, anti-racism movements are steeped in Marxist critical theory and aim to redistribute justice to certain societal groups, with no consideration for individuals. As a Retired Army combat soldier and company employee, I found that perspective in the training incredibly oppressive and offensive. I spent too long patrolling the Iron Curtain and in Iraq witnessing true hatred and evil to not be offended by our company’s six hours of D&I oppression.
I love working at our company, the things we do for customers, and our CEO’s mission that our company ‘Empower every person on the planet.’ Yet, the ‘Diversity’ training pressed people toward a collectivist vision of average and I believe, consumes our creativity and productivity at a time when societal malaise from COVID and all the rest should goad us toward renewed excellence shaped by imagination and innovation. Even the statement on one of the slides that “Individualism is the claim…” At that point, I saw this statement as a denial of individualism. The reality is that from conception, every person has unique DNA that expresses across life with imagination and innovation. That was created in us and every life from conception is precious.
There are real problems. There’s real racism. There’s real evil. There’s real hatred. There’s real injustice. I strive against these things but in the rising collective of our national culture, the answer now is, somehow you have to do penance. It’s been interesting to watch scenes of white people in various main stream media channels, and even a preacher I once greatly respected, literally kneeling and bowing and genuflecting, in repentance, of their sin of white privilege. Or, bias. Or conscious bias. Or unconscious bias. Or whatever else covered in the Diversity Training. Stepping back a moment, this is actually part of the foundational drive in Cultural Marxism to create the false images of an oppressed class and the oppressor class. Frankly, as a Christ following individual who loves my family, country, and values of our nation, who served 20 years in the Army in multiple combat tours in Iraq and the Horn of Africa, I felt VERY oppressed after enduring the D&I training. Not because I am some sort of evil person who does those things but because, for me, professionalism across 20 years in the Army and almost 15 years at our company, is loving my neighbor as myself. That means valuing their individuality, imagination, and creativity because the Image of God exists in each person. That training was incredibly insulting and offensive, especially because it denied the sacred nature of imagination and innovation created by God in each of us and that our company once thrived on.
I get it that in today’s world, our company, and so many corporate and government institutions, are following the collectivist herd and widening the gap between my worldview and their world view. Yet, I found the training oppressive to my world view that values EVERY life no matter what their ethnicity, beliefs, or cultural differences are. As an example, my wife and I disagree with the choices and lifestyle of our LGBTQI+ son but have told him on numerous occasions that he cannot make us stop loving him. Because we value life, we proclaim life to him, embrace him, and love him, while vibrantly keeping him engaged with family and friends. What we have found is that no matter our differences with our son and LGBTQ folks, loving them as our neighbors and valuing their imagination and innovation gives us the room to lovingly and respectfully agree to disagree.
I have an idea for replacing our oppressive Diversity training. The most important cultural document in American History is the Declaration of Independence. The most important sentence is – We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That sentence is unique to our Declaration and formed the cultural heart of the Constitution that was written almost a decade after the American Revolution. That statement in our Declaration of Independence should be how we frame professionalism and our corporate culture in a world otherwise going mad in a collectivist frenzy of Marxist Culturalism more focused on the false images of oppressor and oppressed than the sacred nature of life.
RECCOMENDATION: Rather than follow the herd, cramming collectivist and Marxist culturalism down our throats, step away from the rest of the industry and return our company to being about life. That would maximize our creativity and productivity (and I believe profits), in a world otherwise filled with malaise, as we ‘Empower every person on the planet.’
Thank-you,
A proud American who works at Our Company
Jay Inman