DEI initiatives and woke ideology are not making workplaces friendlier but hostile to anyone not fully on board with them, writes Raquel Rosario Sánchez in the Telegraph. “The pitfalls of diversity and inclusion drives are not theoretical to me – I’ve lived them.” Here’s an excerpt.
Kemi Badenoch is not alone in her concerns that a well-meaning push to mandate diversity and inclusion within workplaces could be “counterproductive” and detrimental to employees, particularly members of minority groups that the initiatives are meant to support. According to a report by the Free Speech Union published in March, 36% of employees witnessed colleagues being penalised for challenging Equality, Diversity and Inclusion training. 31% stated leaving a job because of their employer’s promotion of ideology.
Sharing the findings, Thomas Harris, Director of Data and Impact stated: “There is no evidence the current approach is making Britain’s offices more welcoming, friendlier places to work, and plenty of evidence that it is turning them into a hostile environment, particularly for minorities and those who do not subscribe to woke ideology.”
These pitfalls are not theoretical for me because I have lived through them. I used to be a frontline worker supporting women recovering from crack cocaine and heroin addiction. These are some of the kindest and most courageous women I have ever met. Like so many of us, they struggled to cope when life got tough and took a bad turn. This was a difficult position, but I loved my job because I care deeply about the women.
A few months in, senior management invited me to the organisation’s EDI group. Being from the Dominican Republic, I was one of the few immigrants and women of colour within the organisation, so perhaps they assumed I would feel flattered. Yet the second I read the email I was filled with a deep sense of dread. I expressed my hesitation that EDI groups tend to exist to ensure ideological compliance and cohesiveness.
I heard many statements I disagreed with, but I rarely objected because I broadly believe that being open-minded about divergent views is the bedrock of democracy. Unfortunately, this tolerance was not a two-way street. Soon enough, the group sought to mandate employees to request pronoun declarations from the service users. Aside from being compelled speech, this was the least of the concerns of the women I supported. They were worried about escaping dangerous drug dealers, homelessness and exploitation. When I questioned this, I was informed that “gender critical beliefs” (that sex is real and material to everybody’s lives) were not welcomed at this women’s service. The organisation’s “trans-inclusive” position seemed to supersede everything else, including the women it was supposed to be helping.
Worth reading in full.
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Why has the term “woman of colour” caught on? It seems a silly, awkward, pretentious term to me. How is it any better than saying “coloured woman” which seems to be a complete no-no these days? How is “woman of colour” any different?
Surely there must be a better term? Non-white? Ethnic?
You beat me to it.
Whatever happened to black people, whose lives mattered so much a couple of years back. Kemi is clearly black.
Being coloured and proud hasn’t got the same ring to it as being black and proud.
Much as I like Kemi I am disappointed that she makes concessions to new-speak.
As an aside I have never heard an ethnic Chinese person refer to themselves as coloured.
You are right to question this. The three main Third World Ethnic Groups never lump themselves together, each group proud of their own ethnicity as distinct from all others, as is only right and natural. It was the Globalists who invented the pretentious term, as you so rightly call it, “People of Colour”, in order to force Orientals, Africans and Indian Subcontinentals into one group opposed to Ethnic European “racist oppressors”. Uniting 93% of humanity against the 7% World’s Smallest Ethnic Group.
More recently, the Globalists have invented the term “Global Majority Heritage” to indicate the 93% of humanity with true black hair, again to unite them all against Ethnic Europeans, who are being targeted for destruction.
The true term for Badenoch is “Ethnic African”. Ditto the woman from the Dominican Republic, whose description of crack cocaine and heroin addicts as “some of the kindest and most courageous women I have ever met” is nauseating.
Black?
Black is not a useful term, lumping so many ethnicities together.
If you use skin colour, what colour would you call Orientals or Indian Subcontinentals?
I thought it amusing to hear some of our new Hong Kong friends calling themselves ‘yellow Scots’!
I know ‘white’ people who, after a long holiday in Spain or visits to their local tanning studio, have darker skin than some of the people who are termed ‘black’.
I worked with a person for ten years, whose father is Puerto Rican. She has quite dark skin, it never occurred to me, until someone else mentioned it, that she may be regarded as ‘black’, I still don’t know, it’s not important.
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.“
The most fundamental genetic characteristic of Ethnic Europeans is that they cannot have true black hair. They can have very dark brown hair that turns lighter after exposure to prolonged sunlight, but not true black hair, like every other ethnic group on the planet. That’s the reason the Globalists encouraged young Ethnic Europeans to dye their hair jet-black during the “Goths” fashion, and why they encourage Ethnic Africans in particular to dye their hair blond or red or light brown. And that’s why Albino Africans have always been in great danger in Africa, because they are often sacrificed and cannibalised in the belief that their light colouring will be absorbed by their murderers.
Surely in the interests of fairness and equality we should also be using ‘woman of no colour,’ to accompany the honkies amongst us?
It may have something to do with South African apartheid and the classifications applied which included “coloured”?
Further, during – from memory – the 1970s, African Americans took possession and control of what at one time were pejorative terms ‘black’ and ‘blacks’ and adopted them with slogans like “black is beautiful”.
Prof Eric Kaufmann talks about this here. It’s ”liberalism run amok”. ( 5mins )
”Prof. Eric Kaufmann argues that whilst Marxists and other radical left activists certainly contributed to today’s progressive ideology, it was actually modern liberalism that is most to blame for the rise of woke.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu2X3lENy4I&ab_channel=TheNewCultureForum
Why should we defer to the supposed authority of ‘a woman of colour’ in forming an opinion on woke indoctrination. We are all entitled to form our own opinions. Moreover, woke indoctrination is certainly not well intentioned. It’s the imposition of coercive collectivism and is aimed at the destruction of individual freedom and of western civilisation. Proponents of woke indoctrination are evil scum.
Off-T
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-shape-of-bank-holidays-to-come/
Our Bank Holidays are to be renamed. We will have Universal Credit Day, Transgender Day and Saint Lineker Day.
The renaming of Christmas is still under discussion with the
the Muslim Council of Great Britain.
Off-T
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/biofuel-lunacy-and-the-return-of-the-hungry-horses/
A worthwhile read on the madness of biofuels.
“The increased use of biofuels has forced global food prices up by 75 per cent – far more than previously estimated – according to a confidential World Bank report obtained by the Guardian, Europe burns more than 17,000 tonnes of rapeseed and sunflower oil every day.”
“Well-meaning”
Rofl.
“The road to hell is paved with good intentions.”
You have arrived at your destination. Please take all your belongings with you, so they can be confiscated later, at a time decided by us.
Maybe Miss Badenoch could just call herself black if she truly against the wokery, but I see others have already made that point.