Look out for the mafia with rainbow lanyards - Hadley Freeman

[IwantToRetire]

Diversity officers have terrorised workplaces, but their reign may be ending

Introducing activism into the workplace has rarely gone well, and the diversity officer is the human form of this activism, not interested in making things fairer but in replacing one hierarchy with another. Aside from distracting people from doing their job, it invariably makes everyone sound insane. A few years ago the place where I worked held a “Diversity & Inclusion Week”, in which a panel on “LGBTQ+ allyship”, featured the tax barrister Jolyon Maugham. I asked a diversity person how Maugham, a wealthy heterosexual man who had blocked countless women on social media, including me, was a representative of diversity and inclusion. “The agenda is set,” was the response.

Another time I was told the “anti-bigotry workshop” would ensure no one in the office “would think or say anything bigoted”. I replied I didn’t care what thoughts anyone had. “You don’t care if the person next to you has racist thoughts?!” the person gasped, and all I can say is it was a good thing no one could see the thoughts in my head at that moment.

Article in full publised at https://www.thetimes.com/comment/columnists/article/look-out-for-the-mafia-with-rainbow-lanyards-vb29s3b86 and at https://archive.is/b0zgB

I absolutely agree that high-quality institutional knowhow, compliance and training to ensure that an organisation complies with the law is a non-negotiable.

However not only do I see massive overreach by the EDI initiatives I am exposed to (I work across the NHS and academia), I see no critical thinking evaluating their effectiveness (or even their legality!), and in many cases I suspect they do harm. We know that the mere fact of pointing out to girls that they are female negatively impact test scores, we know that putting a female name on a CV means that CV is judged more harshly, so forgive me if I am skeptical that EDI initiatives pointing out all the ways that women and other minorities are different (menopause awareness!) will improve equality.

Despite the millions of pounds spent on such efforts, my organisation is still led by middle aged white males. I have seen no efforts go into challenging unconcious bias, into ensuring make up of committees is more diverse etc, evaluating the pay gap - it's all about the rainbow lanyards and blokes in women's bathrooms.

I don't, sorry, as a dinosaur, I despise podcasts as a Satanic device of the young

They’ve being doing the exact opposite of that. The mistake was detaching this work from HR departments and employing and empowering activists in place of people who actually understand employment law.

What's a radical feminist.

I'm not new to the concept of equality but I've never been able to understand some of these labels.

https://archive.ph/b0zgB

Shame as she is recognised by HR Magazine as a Most Influential Thinker. She is a leader in the scrutiny of ‘bad’ DEI and an advocate for ‘good’ DEI.

Podcasts have been going for nearly 26 years now, it's just the radio, playing when you are available to actually listen to something. Your phone will have a player built in, they're free.

Given their thought processes over gender issues, I have a hard time believing that there is not a high probability that they are being equally wrongheaded about race, sexuality, or anything else.

It's not primarily the categories that are wrong, it's the beliefs around them. The hierarchies, in particular.

Despite the millions of pounds spent on such efforts, my organisation is still led by middle aged white males. I have seen no efforts go into challenging unconcious bias, into ensuring make up of committees is more diverse etc, evaluating the pay gap - it's all about the rainbow lanyards and blokes in women's bathrooms.

There was a huge fad for "anti-bias training" a few years ago. People like Robyn DiAngelo made large amounts of money doing that kind of training for companies.
It was totally a bogus use of science, unevidenced so far as it's intended results, as well as weird and racist. It came in for a bit of a beating and seems to have fallen out of favour a bit.

Mafia is far, far too mild a word imo, I'd use a LOT WORSE.
"Diversity" (so-called because they don't allow actual diversity of views and beliefs) officers exist to BREAK the law. Not follow it.

They're scum. A waste of space and dangerous to women. The sooner the 'job' is done away with, the better. I wouldn't even hire them to sweep the street.

True. Why can't an Northern Irish Loyalist append No Surrender 1690! to their pronouns? Or a Rejoiner could have EU. Political beliefs must be respected . And so on ....

I've never liked the radio and i like to see who's speaking. I also can't bear anything in or around my ears so I hate headphones, earbuds or anything of that like.

I will see if I can find her stuff in writing, thanks for the tip

There’s a video version of her podcast where you see the speakers live. To be clear, not photographs of them.

It is on YouTube.

https://www.youtube.com/@This-Isnt-Working/featured

I thought a rainbow lanyard was to indicate it was a safe space for a gay individual so they could be open and confident to be themselves? Not the mafia

Unfortunately the "rainbow" is an indication it is a trans led multipurpose outlook where just about anything is supported. Unlike those who say sex is a biological fact and cant be changed, and that to be lesbian and gay is to be same sex attracted.

This group is actively undermined by the rainbow mafia which is why the article refers to the "rainbow" lanyard.

Slightly off topic.

I thought DEI was a US based theory, and establised and implemented in a different way to EDI is meant to be (though not doubt not always) implemented in the UK.

They’re not essential if they’re not following the ACTUAL law, but ‘Stonewall law’ as has been happening frequently in recent years, and given that the majority appear to have no legal training, businesses shouldn’t be relying on them for legal advice.

I notice you don’t mention the protected characteristic of disability, no rainbow lanyards, trains or parades for them is there? They have to just get on with their life and suffer very real discrimination on a daily basis.

For balance, rainbows were a covid frontline worker support theme too. I got a nice rainbow badge for working through covid. The rainbow (just roygbiv) has positive associations of public support during a horrific period for a lot of HCPs.