"Try to be less white" - what?!?

[Kessler]

Thought this was a joke, but no - it's just woke
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/lifestyle/coca-cola-sla...

Apparently Coca Cola wanted their employees to take this course by what seems like a woke cult leader.
The blatant racism is staggering, but it comes from a person who obviously makes big money on peddling the racial divide. Complete nutter

Edited by Kessler on Wednesday 24th February 12:25

[Kessler]

sgtBerbatov said:

Do you see the irony of what you've written with what's on the slide?

That it's racist? No, I don't consider that ironic

[Kessler]

remedy said:

So, all those traits are traits of white people only?
Thats the definition of racism.

All this is doing is creating division where so much progress to close that gap had been made.

in a sane world, yes, that would be common sense.
But we are in a place now where stuff like this is shoved down the throats of students, and parents are urged to confront their kids with their "white privilege".

https://www.news.com.au/world/north-america/us-sch...

[Kessler]

sgtBerbatov said:

Kessler said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Do you see the irony of what you've written with what's on the slide?

That it's racist? No, I don't consider that ironic

Christ you're dense.

Great contributions to the discussion - keep it up mate

Edited by Kessler on Wednesday 24th February 12:27

[Kessler]

2xChevrons said:

Kessler said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Kessler said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Do you see the irony of what you've written with what's on the slide?

That it's racist? No, I don't consider that ironic

Christ you're dense.

Great contributions to the discussion - keep it up mate

OK, to expand on what I'm pretty sure was sgtBerbativ's point:

Leaving aside the (probably deliberately) provocative context to the slide, you reacted to a slide suggesting that white people can be overly defensive, certain, arrogant, apathetic and unwilling to listen to or consider structural racial issues in society...in a way that hit all those points.

One slide from a presentation, out of context, tells us very little. It was probably intended for a certain amount of shock value to make the audience confront their subconscious biases - I've seen similar slides tackling different issues the same way. Or it's just a bad, overly-ambitious and self-flagellating attempt to make a point that is worth approaching.

As I said in the thread about unconscious bias, a big problem is that when there's a push to introduce this sort of training to organisations (or, worse, be seen to introduce it) it leads to a lot of low-quality information which does the actual matter that should be at hand a huge disservice.

No. Ascribing negative traits to a skin colour is racist - plain and simple, no further context needed. Yes, I reacted negatively to that because I'm not on board with racism - as would a black person being ascribed negative traits based on their skin colour - and you conclude my reaction is "arrogant and defensive"...wow

Edited by Kessler on Wednesday 24th February 12:55

[Kessler]

2xChevrons said:

Kessler said:

No. Ascribing negative traits to a skin colour is racist - plain and simple, no further context needed. Yes, I reacted negatively to that because I'm not on board with racism - as would a black person being ascribed negative traits based on their skin colour - and you conclude my reaction is "arrogant and defensive"...wow

Edited by Kessler on Wednesday 24th February 12:55

Or healthy self-critique and reflection by a person of that race aimed at other people of that race?

It's one thing for people of one race to make sweeping generalisations - especially negative - about people of another. It's quite another for people of the same race to consider what aspects of their culture might cause issues when it comes to trying to eliminate lingering systemic issues about race.

This course was not restricted to white Coca Cola employees. Sending the message that it's ok to make assumptions of negative behaviour based on skin colour is the opposite of eliminating racial issues. And no, there are no common behavioral traits of "white people" that oppresses non-whites - to enforce the idea that one race is more "arrogant" than others will create more animosity against said race. But again, people like the author make a good living from creating this friction. "White Fragility" made her $2 million alone https://nypost.com/2020/08/06/peddling-the-idea-th...

Edited by Kessler on Wednesday 24th February 13:29

[Kessler]

[redacted]

[Kessler]

2xChevrons said:

Four Litre said:

Kesser 100% correct here. The second you start placing traits on skin colour its racist. No coming back from that. If that's your belief thats fair enough, just have to accept that your a racist. I think its a real shame when people see skin tone as opposed to the person.

Nope, I never said those traits were intrinsic to white-skinned people. I specifically said that the way the slide suggested hat was the problem with it. If that wasn't clear, then I'll say it again here and now - that slide is a Very Bad Bit of Work because it implies that these things are intrinsic to all white people.

But what I believe it was trying to do was challenging white people to consider their own responses to issues of race in society, which is a deep-rooted social and cultural thing. Such as the common "it's not a real problem anymore" or "people just complain because they like to play the victim" or "I'm not racist, so I'm not part of the problem" or "This is all a load of nonsense, it seems everything is racist these days" or "I'll tell you what, the real racists are the people pushing this onto white people."

All common responses to racial issues being raised, as seen on this thread, in NP&E and in society in general. It is often reflexive because it makes people feel some mix of anger, discomfort, threat, fatigue, annoyance and so on. Confronting bias is difficult and uncomfortable. All the more so when they're around such charged and unjust matters as race.

Like most bias education, the people who will loudly declare it pointless or counter-productive are the ones who need it most.

Yes, the course is implying white people have common bad traits such as arrogance, and it's indefensible.
I'm sure most white people are fine to have a discussion about to what extend racial issues exist today, and who/what is causing it - but this is obviously a biased "diversity course" which wrongly labels an entire race from the outset, and I doubt there is little room for debate - ie, is there room for a Coca Cola employee to argue that negatively painting all white people racists, constantly conflating white majority with white supremacy, and claiming black people are prevented from any success in life by privileged white people is a toxic narrative which is harming racial unity and demoralises black kids from an early age, or do you think that employee would have to be re-trained to align with the woke agenda - or find a different job? I'm pretty sure it's the latter given their choice of course and popularity of cancel culture.

[Kessler]

All the woke bullst summed up perfectly in this video from the brilliant Ryan Long

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmSjyU2fLcw&fb...

Edited by Kessler on Monday 1st March 19:19