DEI is apparently the new communist thought monitoring police.

[jinjuku]

Wife was asked to provide feedback on 10 minute presentations (she's leads an in house service group and and is also an associate Professor). This is a volunteer position.

First you had to attend implicit bias training.

So the panel sits through proposed sessions and provide feedback. What they didn't tell the panelist is that ALL feed back will go through a hired DEI firm and be provided 'feedback'.

Boiled down: Adopt any changes we deem necessary or we won't forward your feedback.

This didn't sit well with her from the jump and the realization only got worse as we talked about it and I brought up Stalin and German mid-century examples of control.

I even pointed out how Shostakovich had to outsmart the Communist party in Russia to get his works published.

This wouldn't have been bad if it was just an advisory board, but it's not even close to that. This is phucked.

 

[ski2xblack]

DEI bureaucrats are commisars of the prevailing identity politics orthodoxy, and we are in the Great American Cultural Revolution. Hope it works out better for us than it did for China.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Wife was asked to provide feedback on 10 minute presentations (she's leads an in house service group and and is also an associate Professor). This is a volunteer position.

First you had to attend implicit bias training.

So the panel sits through proposed sessions and provide feedback. What they didn't tell the panelist is that ALL feed back will go through a hired DEI firm and be provided 'feedback'.

Boiled down: Adopt any changes we deem necessary or we won't forward your feedback.

This didn't sit well with her from the jump and the realization only got worse as we talked about it and I brought up Stalin and German mid-century examples of control.

I even pointed out how Shostakovich had to outsmart the Communist party in Russia to get his works published.

This wouldn't have been bad if it was just an advisory board, but it's not even close to that. This is phucked.

I thought implicit bias training had been discredited anyway.

The Problem with Implicit Bias Training - Scientific American
12 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Common Claims About Implicit Bias | Psychology Today Canada

Still, I'm not so sure it's an example of dark forces at work, replicating the mind control efforts of totalitarian regimes. I think it's just another example of an organization trying to root out bias and racism in the workplace by downloading the responsibility onto individuals, grasping at pseudoscience straws in the process. And, more likely, a CYA policy to avoid responsibility for 'offences' committed in the workplace: "We gave that person implicit bias training, so we can't take responsibility for their actions." There is also classic capitalism at work - when there is an opportunity to profit, someone will. They bang on about the problem, but can also provide the 'cure'...for a price.

Regardless, if outside non-experts tell you - the expert - to modify your expert feedback, that's a red flag telling you to back out.

 

[ski2xblack]

The problem isn't rooting out biases, it's the fundamental assumption that those biases exist and their existence cannot be questioned. To question them is to commit heresy.

How much implicit bias do my friend's mixed race children have to atone for? 50% less than their non-mixed race classmates?

 

[jinjuku]

The short of it is that it is compelled thought and speech. The way I would handle it is express surprise at the abject failure to mention this tidbit, rescind my review, and not participate in the future.

The irony is the feed back was rife with grammatical errors and the wife pointed it out. Then the exchange became terse.

 

[GO-NAD!]

The problem isn't rooting out biases, it's the fundamental assumption that those biases exist and their existence cannot be questioned. To question them is to commit heresy.

I have no doubt that bias does exist in such settings. But, implementing training based on flawed science (Implicit Association Testing) is unlikely to be fruitful.

How much implicit bias do my friend's mixed race children have to atone for? 50% less than their non-mixed race classmates?

To be fair, I don't think the idea is expose the sin and seek atonement. It's to reveal to the self one's own inner biases. Then the training is provided to help one overcome those biases. That's the theory, as I understand it. But, when the testing is flawed, what good is the training?

Speaking of mixed race children, I read this column the other day:
Learning about systemic racism isn't a black-and-white issue for my brown-and-white children | CBC News

When you have children asking if they are good or bad, based on the amount of melanin in their skin, you're doing it wrong.

 

[jinjuku]

It's to reveal to the self one's own inner biases. Then the training is provided to help one overcome those biases. That's the theory, as I understand it. But, when the testing is flawed, what good is the training?

The presumption is that one has the biases that are being looked for in the first place. The feedback to my wife was that it 'could hurt their feelings'.

It's a DEI administrator with nothing better to do. The amount of power that someone has been given is unsettling.

 

[ski2xblack]

To be fair, I don't think the idea is expose the sin and seek atonement. It's to reveal to the self one's own inner biases. Then the training is provided to help one overcome those biases.

That still assumes the existence of bias as defined by identitarian ideology, which goes to great lengths to make everything about race, gender, and power struggles between such identified groups. DEI statements are a pledge of allegiance to that epistemic world view, where refusal to engage or failing to tow the party line results in punishment, by not getting the promotion, not getting hired in the first place, not getting admitted to that university, etc. It's an insidious means of control and forced conformity.

 

[GO-NAD!]

That still assumes the existence of bias as defined by identitarian ideology, which goes to great lengths to make everything about race and gender.

Assumes the existence of bias within specific individuals? An entire group? Or, if you are white, by default? I've taken the IAT, just out of curiosity. My result was "unbiased"*. So, it doesn't assume bias. Implicit Bias training would be given to an entire group, rather than just those who performed poorly on the IAT.

*Not that I put much stock in the test. We all harbour biases to some degree. We wouldn't be human if we didn't.

DEI statements are a pledge of allegiance to that epistemic world view, where refusal to engage or failing to tow the party line results in punishment, by not getting the promotion, not getting hired in the first place, not getting admitted to that university, etc. It's an insidious means of control and forced conformity.

Have you, or anyone you know, been negatively impacted as you describe?

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

The presumption is that one has the biases that are being looked for in the first place. The feedback to my wife was that it 'could hurt their feelings'.

It's a DEI administrator with nothing better to do. The amount of power that someone has been given is unsettling.

That somewhat reminds me of Ben and Jerry's/BDS/Israel icecream boycott fiasco.

 

[Trell]

Not that I put much stock in the test. We all harbour biases to some degree. We wouldn't be human if we didn't.

Thus the invention double blind tests that is used so much in various science fields. We even want that when testing audio.

 

[jinjuku]

Have you, or anyone you know, been negatively impacted as you describe?

Look up Novant $10 million dollar lawsuit.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Look up Novant $10 million dollar lawsuit.

Interesting. He won his lawsuit.

 

[ski2xblack]

Have you, or anyone you know, been negatively impacted as you describe?

Yes, the aforementioned interracial couple, my girlfriend (she's a PhD prof and somewhat well known virology researcher at CSU), coworkers at the hospital, some teacher friends who don't drink the identitarian koolaid...

This affects all of us, directly or indirectly. This is about the values born from the Enlightenment (primacy of the individual, freedom, and self determination; secular liberalism; the scientific method; capitalism; democracy...) vs. postmodernism (with the explicit goal to tear all that down).

Personally, I'm old enough and well off enough that I will never have to write a DEI statement. If I did, it would be short, something like "Kiss my liberal ass, you Maoist authoritarian asshole."

 

[mtrycrafts]

Thus the invention double blind tests that is used so much in various science fields. We even want that when testing audio.

And, even in wine tasting or tap water vs name branded water.

 

[GO-NAD!]

Yes, the aforementioned interracial couple, my girlfriend (she's a PhD prof and somewhat well known virology researcher at CSU), coworkers at the hospital, some teacher friends who don't drink the identitarian koolaid...

I think it could be argued that identity politics started with those who held power - straight white men - assigning (generally negative) categories to various marginalized demographics. Can you blame those groups for claiming ownership and fighting back?

This affects all of us, directly or indirectly. This is about the values born from the Enlightenment (primacy of the individual, freedom, and self determination; secular liberalism; the scientific method; capitalism; democracy...) vs. postmodernism (with the explicit goal to tear all that down).

Personally, I'm old enough and well off enough that I will never have to write a DEI statement. If I did, it would be short, something like "Kiss my liberal ass, you Maoist authoritarian asshole."

If all who espouse(d) Enlightenment principles actually practiced what they preached, we probably wouldn't be in a situation where social justice activism was necessary. Implicit bias training and DEI wouldn't be "things", since it wouldn't occur to anyone that they were required.

 

[Trell]

I think it could be argued that identity politics started with those who held power - straight white men - assigning (generally negative) categories to various marginalized demographics. Can you blame those groups for claiming ownership and fighting back?

What is MAGA if not white identity politics with white Evangelical "Christians" at the centre?

 

[cpp]

When I first saw this thread title, I went WTF, DEI, Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

Anyway carry on.

 

[highfigh]

When I first saw this thread title, I went WTF, DEI, Dale Earnhardt, Inc.

Anyway carry on.

I worked in car audio & security for a long time, so my first thought was "Directed Electronics, Inc?" (Viper alarms).

 

[jinjuku]

I think it could be argued that identity politics started with those who held power - straight white men - assigning (generally negative) categories to various marginalized demographics. Can you blame those groups for claiming ownership and fighting back?

So it wasn't ok for the U.S. white hegemony but it is ok for the U.S. minority groups?