Jane Elliott: Diversity Training Pioneer
The National League and Policy Center (NLPC) released a 16-page report titled, “The Authoritarian Roots of Corporate Diversity Training,” (PDF) which traces the history of so-called diversity training in corporations.
We’re all used to the government using preferences to hire, contract, and admit. The private sector, while not mandated to use preferences, nevertheless is pressured to hire and contract based on race to achieve skin deep-only diversity, especially if they want to do business with the government. The pressure includes so-called diversity training.
The diversity training idea stems from a former teacher named Jane Elliott, who required her all-white class to participate in role-playing exercises. Groups were separated by eye color. The first day, the blues were treated well and the browns were treated badly. The next day, the treatment was reversed. The point was for whites to be on the receiving end of ill-treatment and empathize with blacks.
Elliott went on to lead diversity sessions at corporations, conducting similar role-playing exercises, commanding a fee of $6,000.
Diversity training isn’t an innocuous exercise. The premise is that whites are racists and collectively guilty (in perpetuity) for crimes their ancestors committed.
“The diversity industry has come along way,” writes Dr. Carl F. Horowitz, the report’s author. “But whether the trainees are children or childlike adults, the premise is the same: Whites must accept the fact that they are guilty until proven innocent, and thus need attitudinal rewiring. And training, Jane Elliott-style, means never having the opportunity to protest one’s innocence.”
With the pressure of potential disparate impact lawsuits hanging over their heads, not to mention fear of boycotts, corporations gladly “encourage” employees to attend diversity training sessions and hiring managers to take race into account when selecting and promoting employees.
The Department of Homeland Security has put out a call to the “diversity community” to come together and brainstorm how to hire/promote more racial minorities. (Hat tip: Roger Clegg at NRO)
