Push-Back

I have done a lot of diversity training and I have had some that didn’t want to be there, the worst time was when I was called to do training for a college’s athletic department. As the guys sat there with legs apart and arms folded and the never asked a question, you could just see it in their body language.

Can I refuse to attend my company’s diversity training? Ask HR
USA Today
By Johnny C. Taylor Jr.
December 18, 2020


Taylor: I’m glad to hear your company is providing diversity training. In a year full of difficult conversations, it’s more important than ever for employers and employees to come together to create more diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces.

You’re also right about your other point – 2020 has been a contentious year. In fact, 44% of HR professionals report intensified political volatility at work in 2020 compared to previous years.

I understand your hesitancy to participate in a program you fear could be politically charged. For us in HR, your response isn’t surprising. After all, we’ve actually been socialized not to talk about politics, religion, or race at work. But in today’s changing landscape, diversity, equity, and inclusion training is one important step to bridging this divide. If the training is done well, these conversations create productive workplace cultures of inclusivity – not incivility.

Whether you opt out of diversity training depends on your company and its requirements– but I strongly encourage your attendance. I’m of the firm belief that change requires us to learn from one another and grow in order to create progress in our workplaces –and in the world around us.

Then we had Trump's edict.

Trump diversity training ban challenged by Elizabeth Warren; Democrats call executive order a 'political stunt'

USA Today

By Jessica Guynn

December 17, 2020

Democrats called on the federal government to back off President Donald Trump's executive order restricting federal agencies and government contractors from offering diversity training programs.

Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio; Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.; and 18 other senators sent a letter Thursday opposing the implementation of the executive order, saying it stifles "much-needed efforts in our states to reduce racial and sex-based discrimination."

"There is widespread uncertainty regarding the scope of the Executive Order, and some entities have cancelled their diversity and inclusion trainings altogether out of fear of losing federal funding,” they wrote to Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought. “Given that the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has exposed our nation’s stark racial inequities and other health disparities, the Administration should focus on reducing racial and sex-based discrimination rather than engaging in ill-informed political stunts."

And his reason for it…

The executive order's stated goal is "to combat offensive and anti-American race and sex stereotyping and scapegoating." According to the Labor Department, eliminating such "stereotyping" in employment is "a key civil rights priority of the Trump Administration."

[…]

Asked about his executive order during his first presidential debate with Biden on Sept. 29, Trump said, "They were teaching people that our country is a horrible place, it’s a racist place. And they were teaching people to hate our country. And I’m not gonna allow that to happen."

Biden responded: “Nobody’s doing that.”

“The fact is that there is racial insensitivity," he told Trump.

When I get asked “Why are we here?” “Why do I need this training? I don’t discriminate.”

My answer is that it is all about etiquette, personal behavior in polite society, and respect. In knowing what to do or say and what not to do or say.

At one of the trainings for staff at homeless shelters we had one shelter manger get into a shouting match with us, well not really he was doing all the shouting. He actually wrote his senators and congressperson (this was before Trump) and they just replied, “Obey the law.”

One time in grad school we were talking about diversity and my answer was “Diversity is what makes us great.” Think about it. In Europe for centuries you married a person in your town or someone from probably within ten miles of your village, but in America people came from all over Europe, Africa, the Middle East and Asia.

My father’s parents came from a small town in Italy and on my mother’s side she is part English, German, and Austrian. Our gene pool is vast compared to Europe.

I think that is what gives us an edge over other countries.