More Diversity Perversity

Joanne Jacobs does an admirable job (as usual) reporting on two Christian Science Monitor articles on “diversity,” and I’ll not repeat what she said here. Instead, I’ll simply highlight one comment from each that impress me as sadly typical

The focus of one article was on the large and depressing performance gap between blacks and whites in higher education — for example, much lower graduation rates of blacks than whites, both from selective colleges and nationwide among young adults with some college. Some observers attribute this gap to differences in preparation, the article reports.

Yet studies have also shown that even where grades and test scores are equal, minority students still may underperform. To some, this suggests institutional problems, rather than individual failure. “College leaders recognize that their campus cultures must change to effectively serve an increasingly diverse student population,” says Blenda Wilson, president of the Nellie Mae Education Foundation, which financially supports the CHAS group. [Emphasis added. CHAS is the Consortium on High Achievement and Success, a group of 35 liberal arts college presidents intent on dealing with the performance gap.]

Presumably these colleges are attractive in the first place because of their academic culture, but Ms. Wilson, the moneybags of this particular organization, believes that in order to be successfully “diverse” that culture must be changed to accomodate the newcomers. This calls to mind Groucho Marx’s famous remark about not wanting to join any club that would have him.

And what about “diversity” in the workplace, the subject of the other article? After reporting a study conducted by Thomas Kochan, a professor at MIT’s Sloan School of Management and others that found little impact of diversity, the bulk of the article discusses a number of “diversity” strategies at different companies and recommended by various diversity consultants. Here’s my favorite:

The term some consultants use is “inclusion” – creating an environment in which people feel valued as individuals.

So, companies are supposed to take race and ethnicity into account (as the saying goes) in every nook and cranny of corporate life — in hiring, assignments, promotion, general corporate culture creation, etc., and this will create “an environment in which people feel valued as individuals”?

Go figure. I’d say that any company that pays consultants for advice like this deserves what it gets.

Say What? (2)

  1. Anonymous November 12, 2003 at 1:54 pm | | Reply

    “. I’d say that any company that pays consultants for advice like this deserves what it gets.”

    Amen to that. I word in industry, and I am up to my eyeballs with the latest ‘diversity’ tactic: ‘networks’. We have a women’s network, an African-American network, an Asian-American network, a Hispanic Latin network, and a Gays, Lesbians, and Allies network.

    I’ve attended a few meetings in several different networks. In the African-American network, I overheard whispered comments of “what’s the ho’ doin’ here?” I’m Native American but to them I’m just another white person. A main topic of conversation was how discrimination by whites is keeping them from getting high-level manager positions.

    In the Women’s network, they spend a lot of time insulting men and their behavior, and how discrimination by men is keeping them from getting high-level manager positions.

    In the Hispanic Latin network, they spent a lot of time arguing about who was more ‘Hispanic’ or ‘Latin’. They also talked a lot about how discrimination by everyone else is keeping them from getting high-level manager positions.

    Do we see a trend here? It’s always some excuse for not getting ahead, and it MUST be discrimination or a conspiracy. It couldn’t possibly be that these people just flat-out don’t have the qualifications, could it?

    Oh, the whites aren’t allowed to have a network of their own. They just get together socially after work and talk about how discrimination by the minorities and the political left keeps them from getting high-level manager positions.

    The managers – well, they’re a rainbow of male and female, white, black, hispanic, asian, and a large smattering of non-Americans of all sizes, shapes, colors, and cultures. what do they talk about? I’ve asked some who are friends and mentors. They talk about how discrimination and ‘diversity’ is getting in the way of many employees accomplishing anything meaningful because they spend an excessive amount of time fretting and worrying and sometimes even litigating over it, and how people who have that mind-set and focus usually don’t have what it takes to be high-level managers.

  2. Rob Lyman November 13, 2003 at 10:18 am | | Reply

    One of the most powerful women in business (got a cover story from Forbes, or someone) once asked: “Why would you want to “network” with other women? If white men have all the power, shouldn’t you be networking with them?”

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