Homogeneous v. Diverse (Or the case for DEI)

[Editorial]

The “War” on “Woke”

I used to do diversity training and every once in a while I got asked why is diversity important?

I don’t know if you remember the IBM of the 60s,and 70s you could tell an IBM salesman a mile off and I do mean “man.” Not women. That was unheard of back then, it was a man’s club or more precisely a “white” man’s club.

They had a uniform… a “Flattop” haircut and I don’t mean the current “Flattop” haircuts I mean the “Flattops” of the fifites. You know the type I’m talking about, you see them in the movie Apollo 13 in the scene of NASA Flight Control room.

The other parts of the IBM uniform was a blue sports jacket, a thin blue tie, and a white shirt with a pocket protector. Yup you could spot them a mile off.

In walks two hippies, we got this get idea… a little desktop computer. Now these to long hair types wanted to sell their little desktop computer to a mainframe company! The two long hair hippie type freaks got the bum rush out of IBM and they went on to form Apple Computer.

Then there was the case of a trans woman at IBM… No Way! She was shown the door so fast! She worked on a team developing a super computer back in the 70s. While there she developed along with another colleague away to speed up computers that went on to be the basis for all computers today. She went on to be awarded the Computer Pioneer Award of the IEEE Computer Society,

Lynn Conway was born in Mount Vernon, N.Y., in 1938. After studying physics at M.I.T., and earning a B.S. (1962) and M.S.E.E. (1963) at Columbia University, Lynn joined IBM Research in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. Working on IBM's Advanced Computing Systems project, she made foundational contributions to computer architecture including invention of multiple-out-of-order dynamic instruction scheduling.

Sadly, IBM fired Lynn as she underwent gender transition in 1968. Starting all over again in a covert new identity, Lynn advanced rapidly to become a computer architect at Memorex, but also began decades living in fear of being 'outed' and again losing her career.

Because of the culture in IBM… “Mainframes are the Kings” they didn’t look outside the big blue box and they missed the PC revolution and because of the anti-LGBTQ climate at the time they didn’t recognized the talent that they had and let her go because she didn’t fit the mold.

Now we have the “Woke” climate where diversity is bad, discrimination good! Where slaves sat around the fire singing. It is something right out of the novel “1984” Doublespeak. Sitting around the campfire singing Kumbaya, how did it go out of favor?

When Did 'Kumbaya' Become Such A Bad Thing?

NPR

By Linton Weeks

January 13, 2012

Regarding the rancor among the remaining Republican presidential hopefuls as they migrate from New Hampshire to South Carolina, Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor and erstwhile candidate himself, told ABC News this week that "There's not going to be some magic moment at which three or four of these people sit around a campfire toasting marshmallows, singing 'Kumbaya' and giving the nod to one of their competitors."

[…]

Like many political phrases these days, says Richard E. Vatz, a professor of political rhetoric at Towson State University, "Kumbaya" is used "irrespective of its derivation."

In current political parlance, Vatz says, a reference to the song is used to sarcastically disparage consensus "that allegedly does not examine the issues or is revelatory of cockeyed optimism."

When did having respect for others become a bad thing?

Insight Global puts it this way,

Attracting top talent can be a challenge when it comes to building a successful organization — and then you have to retain it.

Part of holding onto your staff is ensuring your employees feel valued, welcome, and respected, and one way to do this is through a strong commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion — also known as DE&I.

In fact, a company’s commitment to DE&I can result in even more benefits than sourcing talent and building effective teams. Utilizing a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy can give your organization an edge over competitors and strengthen your bottom line. Let’s dig into how, and discuss nine key benefits to DE&I in the workplace.

[...]

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are important to company culture because they foster creativity, fresh perspectives, and understanding. By implementing DE&I, people of different races, abilities, ages, genders, religion, sexual orientation, and other diverse backgrounds can be made more comfortable in the workplace.

The Deseret News had an article about DEI,

These stories point to a conundrum for those committed to expanding opportunity for all Americans: How do we support the values of diversity and inclusion without eroding other important values? American public opinion about racial and ethnic diversity complicates this further.

The majority of Americans of all races recognize the value of diversity in American life. A plurality of Americans of all races believe it is important for businesses to promote racial and ethnic diversity in the workplace. But a majority of Americans of all races also believe hiring and promotion at work should be based only on qualifications, even if this produces less diversity, and they do not believe race and ethnicity should be a factor in such workplace decisions.

[…]

Negative experiences and associations with DEI initiatives would be enough of a challenge on their own. But in our time, a political cancer on America’s race and gender issues has metastasized, transforming negative experiences and associations with DEI into perceptions of threat.

You read comments on these articles and what you see over and over is the right-wing lie about promoting “quotas,” I have been in the business world for over fifty years and not one program mentioned quotas. What they did say was that we will hire and promote the best employees for the job and we will not discriminate based on protected classes.

But the Republicans and right-wingers want to create fear in their white supremacist, white nationalist voters. Create fear that they will become the minorities in the future. That is the real motive behind all this anti-DEI and this “Woke” movement to get their base energized to vote. I didn’t the job because a black man took it! I didn’t get the promotion because they gave it to a woman! All these forgivers are taking my job! That is the fear that the Republicans are creating.

I taught diversity training for about 20 years and never, not once was there any discussion about quotas, not once was there any talk about hiring one group over another. It was always about understanding cultures of other people. But just that pissed off a lot of people. Once when we were doing training at a homeless shelter that they cannot deny shelter to us in our true gender. A guy stood up and said this is “Bull Sh*t” and walked out.

Yes, the Republicans have “weaponized” non-discrimination laws falsely claiming that the laws create quotas, that the laws promote hiring minorities, and that diversity is bad for business.

[/Editorial]