I think, in the context of ‘Diversity Training’, Lewis’s words are putting it very mildly indeed. Particularly when many of those who are being subjected to it are being dishonestly demonized from a blatantly hateful and extreme left wing perspective.

If you want to perpetuate division, resentment and loathing between people - demand, under threat, that they must not harbor such feelings. And tell lies about certain members of the human race in the process.

At one point we were broken up into groups and given resumes about who we were to hire among a diverse group of resumes. After we reported the reasons of why we chose our specific candidate, we were ripped for our preconcieved notions regarding the failed candidates.

At this point I stopped the facilitator and mentioned her error. We were given a task with the tools she supplied. We performed that task in the discussion group she assigned. We disqualified people as we were instructed to do. In other words, she criticized us for playing her game her way. The resumes were disqualified not because of the people, but because of the qualifications. We never met the people, never talked to previous employers, and never knew more than the bare information presented in a sparse resume. Please don’t suggest I’m a bigot because you rigged the game.

At this point I mentioned that if there were only the two facilitators applying for the job they would both be disqualified. The pregnant woman because she could not commit to a minimum 90 day obligatory attendance training period and the other because her accent was so strong mistakes could be made in verbal communications. If the women came back and could commit to the training period and the other took language lessons then I would definitely reconsider.

Then the pregnant facilitator tried telling us she could do anything any of us could do. Of course, she couldn’t work on the factory floor but she could do anything in an office. Someone else asked if she could run a photocopier all day. After she said yes, she would, it was pointed out that photocopiers often emit fumes potentially hazardous to a fetus’s health with long exposures.

Somehow they did not accept they would not be hired, even though technically qualified, because they could not do the job. It had nothing to do with their being women or black. It was at this point my being a white male became an issue.

At lunch I complained about being harassed because of my color to HR. There wasn’t an afternoon session.

Yeah, and phrenology was an excellent tool until all those underqualified hacks took over.

Some fads in professions are really dumb ideas no matter who employes them. It often takes the reductio ad absurdum of seeing people who cannot obscure their obtuse and useless methods behind fine words before the fads are blow apart.

Corporations know such training is crap. It is simply insurance against Jesse Jackson-style shakedowns of large corporations.

When it comes to any social science-spawned activity like therapy, diversity training, etc., I always ask if you can in any way measure the alleged positive outcome. My rule is if people promoting the activity cannot provide me a reasonably sane *measurable* indicator of social improvement resulting from their activity, they are probably charlatans looking for a paycheck.*

* That rule has a codicil for people who take it to the point of getting killed to demonstrate their committment to their suggested program (e.g., Ghandi, Jesus, MLK Jr.).