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The View
From The Ground
Diversity Bites
The liberalization of corporate America continues apace. Led
by the evil gnomes in Human Resources, more and more companies
are beginning to take on the sheen of liberal bureaucratic
inanity. Walking to the elevator today I was greeted
in the lobby by a shiny bunch of balloons (mylar, of course,
latex balloons have been banned from the building because of the
potential for allergic reactions) tied to a nice card at the
bottom. On the card was a computer clip-art image of a
black hand shaking a white hand, with the caption: "It all
starts with a conversation.." And was signed "The
Diversity Council". I didn't even know my company had a
"diversity council". Apparently we do, and
they are engaged in bold and pathbreaking efforts to foster
appreciation of "diversity". I am
completely convinced that no person on this council, or any
similar such council, has ever given a moment's serious thought
as to what they are doing or what they hope to accomplish.
Or even what "diversity" means.
The few people who have given it any thought will say that an
increased emphasis on diversity is required by the increased
global nature of business, that the company which values
diversity will have an advantage over the one which does not,
because it will be able to better serve a broader customer base.
Although fraught with logical problems, this does
not appear especially obnoxious on its face. The problem
comes when idiots on diversity councils try to actually do
something about it. The least harmful things they can do
are to plaster the building with meaningless slogans. But
even these create a false illusion that a problem exists, where
in fact none exists at all. My company is remarkably
undiverse (although we did recently hire a fellow from Africa).
We are undiverse because almost all of the skilled medical
and insurance professionals in Minnesota are white, middle class
Minnesotans . Actually, the great majority of all people in
Minnesota are white. The "shaking hands" image falsely
suggests that we have some sort of problem appreciating (or even
talking with) each other, that we are really racists at core who
just need a little encouragement to talk with our less pale
compatriots.
At worst, Human Resources departments force on companies a policy
of diversity which becomes absolutely inimical to quality.
In fine bureaucratic fashion, "diversity"
quickly becomes translated to racial, ethnic and/or sexual
proclivity quotas. It has been remarked many times that it
does not include a diversity of views or ideas. In many
places, support for the notion of a diverse workforce has been
incorporated into management performance criteria. The end result
becomes, predictably, an environment in which the goal becomes
not to hire the best people possible, but to hire the best people
possible within selected categories.
Like most companies, mine treads the middle ground, establishing
powerless Diversity Councils (no straight white males need apply)
while wisely steering clear of quotas. Nonetheless, it is
an aggravation to have even that much.
Among the recent efforts of our Diversity Council was a "Peanut
Butter and Jelly" food drive. Apparently some
intellectual giant on the council figured out that with school
out, those children who normally received subsidized school
lunches were no longer getting subsidized. Since we all
know that it is completely unrealistic to expect poor parents to
spend the three bucks a week it takes to feed a kid PBJs or
macaroni & cheese, it became imperative that we do something
about it. So they organized a food drive in which employees
were exhorted to bring in jars of peanut butter and jelly, which
would then be donated to a local food shelf. Dutifully, the
meekly liberal work force started piling them up, never giving
pause to think that no children ever go to food
shelves for peanut butter and jelly lunches. To make the
silliness even more apparent, the jars of Jif and Welch's gathered
dust for all of July and into early August, finally moving out to
the food shelves in late August, just in time for school to start.
The whole time I just looked on in wonder at the insipidity
of it all and wondered what the heck any of this had to do with
"diversity".
Apparently "diversity" has mutated into a term meaning
"anything that benefits anybody who isn't Caucasian".
The next project of the DC bore this theory
out. In an effort to get school supplies for a poor, inner
city elementary school, the DC put out a memo asking us to bring
in a school supply a day in return for the privilege of dressing
casually. This school was in dire need, we were told,
indeed it was "a very diverse school". I am
pretty sure this means there are no white students. Once
again, we were faced with the opportunity to indulge in mushy
headed feel good liberalism without the pain and effort of
thought. The fact that the state is forking over $9,000 per
pupil for such "diverse" Twin Cities schools shouldn't
give us pause. Surely we can't expect the school to pay for
its students' supplies and use the other $8,990 to miseducate the
children. Nosiree. If we don't buy these poor kids schools
supplies, why they might not get a decent education! And so the
supplies pile up.
Conservatives like to speak of the "arrogance" of
liberalism. Liberals don't quite understand what this means.
But the example above illustrates it perfectly. Some cabal
of liberal paragons identifies a "need". This
will always be a need that is in perfect harmony with the liberal
worldview, regardles of how stupid it may be. Because they know
we regular folk are unlikely to enthusiastically take action to
mitigate the liberal need, we must be bribed. So it is that
the diversity council bribes us to bring in school supplies with
the prospect of a casual day. The clear assumption is that we
cannot be trusted to do the right thing (as they define the right
thing) if they don't bribe/cajole/threaten/prosecute us.
One of my favorite talk radio hosts recently declared "There
is nothing more dangerous than a law & order liberal",
and he is right. As their power over you grows, their bribes turn
to threats, and then to prosecution. They cannot trust us
to treat the handicapped with respect, so they pass laws that
threaten us with prosecution if we stray from their vision of
respect. They cannot trust us to rob and rape from honest
motives, so they advocate "hate crimes" to punish
illiberal criminals. They do not trust us (rightly) to treasure
diversity, so they force on us quotas. Let's face it.
Liberals trust nobody but themselves.
