Thursday, May 18, 2017
Commonweal publishes Paul J; Griffiths' letter of resignation.
Paul J. Griffiths resigned from Duke University because of a flap over his remarks disparaging diversity training as a waste of time. Given that the professor was learned in other traditions besides Christianity, I'd guess that he was already appreciative of diversity. But I've been forced to take all kinds of such training: sexual harassment, human trafficking, AIDS, etc. As far a I know, the guys like me who found sexual harassment unprofessional before training still did . The unprofessional idiots who sexually harassed women in the workplace did not change after training. As far as I could tell, it was just a CYA check mark for the management that actually DID merely waste time. Whatever improvements in tolerance I've achieved, it was from reading, not training. I've always hated the word "training". There IS something overbearing and totalitarian in the word. If this was Professor Griffiths' objection, I agree.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
BTW, I have full access again. Hip hip hooray. Punched in number as instructed by email. Still no go. Website asked me to log in again. And voila.
ReplyDeleteSexual harassment training is important not necessarily to change people's minds but to let people know what's acceptable and what's not and that the employer will enforce those limits. I think sometimes it's hard to know what counts as harassment without some official standard that everyone is exposed to. I've been harassed at work in the past and only once spoke up about it ... no job I ever had gave sexual harassment training.
ReplyDeleteunagidon here.
ReplyDeleteThese seminars, training videos, online courses etc in the private sector are done for the benefit of management rather than for the workforce. They are part of the modern lawsuit prevention checklist coupled with whatever the corporate PR people think will dovetail with the smiling happy worker brochures they put out showing what a modern company they are. They tend to be written to the most common denominator (that is, children) and they are not so much meant to change or enlighten anyone as to show that people were previously warned when the company has to terminate someone.
But there is a twist here in our society where ideological purity has almost become commoditized, both on the Left and the Right. If one criticizes the sexual harassment or racism "training", that must mean that one is sexist or racist. It's one of the ways that modern behavioral norms get bound up as things to be managed by professionals and how the real work of dealing with these issues gets flattened out into a non-threatening world of feelings and intentions; prejudice as attitude adjustment.
In my own experience, the way to attack sexism, racism, and homophobia in the workplace is to hire more women, Blacks (and Hispanics) and gays and give them positions of authority.
I get that this training is lawsuit prevention. However I think it also is a step in the right direction. It doesn't change how people think, but if it changes how they act in the workplace, I see that as a good thing. Where I work there was a guy hitting on a woman who didn't reciprocate (she was married and the guy was 50 shades of weird). HR gave him a warning, he didn't desist. They let him go. In the old days it would have been, wink, nod, guys will be guys, you must have led him on, etc etc.
DeleteA thing about racism in the workplace - it's not just about hiring more minorities. I've worked in a job where the majority of workers were minorities and racism exists in all races.
DeleteYes, there will still be racism no matter how many Blacks get hired. But I'm kind of Old School (left) about this. First, while racism is real, I think that racism in the US is especially about hiding class relations and material inequality. Second, I'm not sure we can eliminate a person's racism in the workplace, but we can do a lot to eliminate discrimination in the workplace. Racism (as racial fear or whatever) is a different problem from discrimination I think. So I have always focused on discrimination.
DeleteYes, discrimination is the thing the law can affect. It was a big deal for the disabled, for instance, when the Americans with Disabilities Act was passed.
DeleteThis is one of the things I hate about the church - its continuing push to be able to discriminate against certain employees.
Una Gidon Great to see you here!
DeleteIt seems like the Duke issue was not about the value of diversity training, but whether one is permitted to express a negative opinion about said training. The Professor's email to his colleagues was in response to one that another colleague had sent around waxing lyrical about a two day diversity training. The professor's email trashed the training and then the colleague filed a complaint. Doesn't seem like something that should be subject to a complaint; obnoxious, maybe, but that's it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Unagidon about the purpose of these trainings. (Hi Unagidon!) Often these trainings are CYA. I had to take an online sexual harassment training, which I thought was completely stupid. Apparently I needed the training, though, because I got quite a lot wrong on the online test. (I confused being an asshole with breaking the law and vice-versa. I think I should still be okay, though, so long as I both try not to be an asshole nor knowingly violate any laws).
I have attended a couple of diversity trainings, which I enjoyed. My husband hates them. He is a security guard at an elite prep school. One of the guards not so long ago had a confrontation with a parent of a different race/gender and then all of the security guards had to go to diversity training. No other staff at the school attended diversity trainings, just the security guards at the bottom of the food chain. And the privileged parents, some of whom treat staff like something on the bottom of their shoe, certainly did not attend diversity training. So the security guards, understandably, did not see the training as a resource, but more as punishment or something to give the school cover.
If that's a resignation letter in Commonweal, I missed the part that said. "Take this job and shove it." It reads more like a haiku. So I had to Google around until I found the relevant documents in American Conservative. I have two reactions:
ReplyDeleteSheesh, they offered coffee, snacks and a light lunch. What more do academics need?
It's too bad email was invented. Without it, this would be a he-said, she-said, and nothing but feelings would be bruised.
Tom, it's the 21st century. What else are there but feelings?
ReplyDeleteYeah, after I posted, I saw it was the rationale for the resignation, not the resignation. Developing a trump-fried brain, I guess.
ReplyDeleteI especially enjoyed this description of his style: "For me, the sky-flower has fallen to the ground, its petals scattered but bearing still the beauty of a remembered reverie. I bear responsibility, of course: my class, my intellectual formation in the snidely and aggressively English dialectic of debate, my eye-to-the-main-chance polemical temperament, and no doubt other deep and damaged traits of which I’m scarcely aware, all had their part to play in bringing the sky-flower to earth."
ReplyDeleteI've argued with him, he is relentless, but not mean. Being a good arguer is hard work...
It was an argument about marriage in CWL, I think. I'll have to look.
DeleteHere it is from CWL 2004: Griffiths, Legalize Same-Sex Marriage: Why Law and Morality Can Part Company. https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/legalize-same-sex-marriage
DeleteSteinfels response, From Sex to Sect. https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/sex-sect
From back in 2004 when these issues were still debated!
Blechh. We have online training on diversity and harassment we have to take every three years. The training is set up as a series of situations with multiple choice questions: Bob tells Arvindra that her butt looks great in that spandex skirt. Arvindra tells Fatima about Bob's comment and how uncomfortable it made her feel. Fatima tells Arvindra she should stop wearing spandex skirts. What is wrong with Fatima's answer?
ReplyDeleteEverybody mocks these things, and the "bad guys" are always white men, which ticks a lot of white men off, defeating the whole effort.
What's really needed are practical tips for putting perps in their place.
I was harassed one time only in the work place, ever. I was 27 and looking over one of the editors' shoulder reading a story I had submitted when he ran his hand up my leg. I said very loudly, "Are you feeling up my leg?" Big silence. Then, "Oh sorry, I didn't realize." By then everybody in the newsroom was staring.
It never happened again.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJean - so familiar. One of my first jobs when I was in college was working in a movie theater. The boss used to puch the behinds of the girl employees. None of us thought there was any recourse so we just lived with it. In a another job when in college, a guy grabbed my chest. I did tell then and he was let go. But what's more usual is a low level innuendo vibe, leers, jokes.
ReplyDelete