Diversity Training.
God what a pile of old wank that was. I was working for Zee Germanss at the time, and they took everything so fucking seriously it was almost enough to make me cry. So a load of us had to go in and learn about how having people from diverse backgrounds made the company strong, and how to recognize when an problem was caused by cultural differences.

They had us watch a video in which a young black guy (pardon me, African-American male) was trying to present a concept to his boss, and older white guy (pardon me, Oppressor) and the boss's assistant. During the presentation it was clear that the boss was not interested from the start and was curt and rude.

The black guys in the room were snarling about how the old white guy didn't want to hear anything from Da Black Man, and I said nothing- but apparently my expression was enough. "Paul, you don't look like you're agreeing with them," the facilitator said.

I shrugged. "I think there was something else going on there."

I got a lot of glares from around the room. The facilitator ignored them as she focused on me. "Why do you say that?"

"Because the boss was conferring with the other guy there, his assistant or whatever, treating him with respect and a measure of equality, and the other guy was very definitely not white- in fact, he was black."

Pandemonium ensued, with demands for a replay. In the end they all had to grudgingly admit that maybe there was something else going on.

At that plant I was in a definite minority as a white male. One of the supervisors I worked under was black, two of the engineers over me were Chinese and another was Indian, several of the people high up the food chain above me who I interacted with daily were women, and I had never had a problem with any of them. I look past race and gender and all that and only call bullshit on someone when their work is done badly. I may have been the only white guy in there with the nerve to say anything- but I also backed it up every damn time.

I still don't know why I was in there.
( The Resident Loon Not a demographic. Do not measure., Mon 7 Dec 2009, 1:00, Reply)