YOU WILL UNDERGO RACIAL SENSITIVITY TRAINING: When I was a child, teachers used to punish the whole class when they couldn’t identify an actual wrongdoer. It didn’t make us resolve to do better. Instead, it greatly annoyed us.
It will likely do the same to the tens of thousands of students, faculty, and staff members who are going to be forced to undergo racial sensitivity training by the University of Tennessee. They, rather than the individuals in the tasteless photo on Instagram that triggered this response, are being punished. As Hans Bader points out in Liberty Unyielding, mass training like this costs millions of dollars in lost work and study time. But it’s worth it because … no wait … I can’t think why it would be worth it.
Bader has a lot more to say, including on some of the legal aspects of the situation. Read his whole post.
The aspect that bothers me is how counterproductive such training may be. Instead of increasing racial harmony, it may diminish it. As Rohini Anand and Mary-Frances Winters noted in a 2008 article in the Academy of Management Learning & Education: “Many interpreted the key learning point [from their diversity training] as having to walk on egg shells around women and minorities—choosing words carefully so as not to offend.” I’ve talked to many people who have undergone such training in recent years and drawn a similar conclusion.
People don’t like walking on eggshells. They will avoid contact with those who make them feel that way. It’s the precise opposite of what we want.
Why do employers and schools nevertheless insist on such training? As Bader points out, they may feel they reduce the likelihood of a lawsuit against them. Another interesting question is: Why do diversity advocates insist on it? Why not instead promote activities like sports and group projects that promote integration rather than convince students that race really does matter? Why not ask schools to promote integration by doing away with separate dormitories for racial groups and other kinds of campus separatism? My fear is that the answer is while diversity training may have started out as an effort to help achieve something worthwhile it has become simply a big business.
As Eric Hoffer famously said, “Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket.”