DEI Explained, Selfish Joy, Babymoon, White, Straight, Cisgender, Non-disabled Man Calling Bullsh!t

“One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves.” - Ayn Rand.

Hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you for asking; it’s a beautiful day; the sun is out; I slept in, spending time cuddling my wife. I have not slept in until 7:00 for many months; I

needed the extra sleep. But I woke up and felt great, some days are better than others, and today I have that extra oomph.

I like to read; I usually read a book and comb the web for interesting articles. I caught one yesterday that asked if we talked about DEI too much, and I had to see what DEI was.

According to the author, Julie Kratz:

“A well-intentioned client shared with me recently some feedback they had gotten from a recent DEI program. The leader thought they were talking about DEI too much.

I was utterly shocked that someone would say that. As someone who leads this conversation in many inside organizations, I think we’re not talking about it enough. Having a DEI training or one-off event, or even a quarterly conversation series seems like a small amount of activity compared to other activities that are prioritized in organizations.

It probably feels like a lot for the majority group (white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled men) who don’t often experience the adversity of diversity. Especially since organizations had a very swift reaction to the events of the summer of 2020, The Great Resignation, and the increased competitive pressure for top talent.”

Since Julie did not define her term, assuming I knew what she was talking about, I needed to search for what the heck she was talking about. So I gave DEI a “GOOG,” and here is what I found:

Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) is a term used to describe policies and programs that promote the representation and participation of different groups of individuals, including people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities and disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations.

As a white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled man, this is the first I’ve heard of such training. And on the surface, it seems like a well-intentioned idea to use Julie’s term. I run a small company; I work with larger companies; I have not been exposed to this idea, and thank you, Julie, for bringing it to my attention.

I guess it might be good to pay someone who is not a white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled man to explain how to integrate culture better. Over the years, we have employed people of color, gay, straight, women, men, and young and old, which has never been an issue. At our company, we tend to judge people on the content of their character and not on their identity.  

But today, we can’t look at the individual; we must look at the group or class to better understand how to be inclusive. The idea of taking time out of the workday to discuss diversity, inclusion, and equity is akin to taking time to talk about gender identity. Is this the purpose of the workplace, or is the purpose of the workplace too, hell, I don’t know, work?

As a child, I went to school to learn about math, science, literature, and history. We knew there were two sexes, two-plus 2 equals 4, and what were a vowel and consonant.  We didn’t see others as different; we were all kids learning together, living our lives, and not spending time dividing each other based on various identities.

It seems that today we must be taught how others feel. And if you are a white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled man, you need to learn things that you probably don’t understand diversity, equity, and inclusion. It would help if you took the time to learn about such things to make the world a happier shiny place.  I’m sorry, I’m calling bullshit.

Suppose you and your company want to spend money and time on this grift, more power to you. But as a white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled man, I can say that I respect and treat all of my team with respect, love, and understanding. I don’t care what they are, I care only about who they are, and our team is a group of loving, caring individuals that respect each other without having to spend time understanding people are different.

But our differences do not separate us; they help us be a better team of white, black, young, old, gay, straight, and others. I think DEI is a process of separating us, making white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled men the enemy, and making group identity paramount. Since this is the first time I’ve heard about this topic, I’m reacting from a deep level. This sounds like another way to separate us rather than bring us together.

Has your company fallen prey to this radical agenda? If so, share your thoughts. If you own a company, would you see value in paying a white, straight, cisgender, non-disabled woman to visit your company and tell you the ills of your ways and how you should better respect and understand people that are not like you?

I just spoke to my brother Ronn who informed me that a babymoon was a thing. It’s a time when people expect a baby get away for a weekend before the arrival of a kid. I didn’t know this was a thing, but I thought I would end this contentious anti-progressive piece with some more knowledge.

Some people will read this and call me a racist, a homophobe, a western classic white man, but I’m none of those things, and if you met me, we probably would agree on many things. But the moment you begin separating people based on anything other than their character, we’ll need to have a conversation.

“One gains a profoundly personal, selfish joy from the mere existence of the person one loves.” - Ayn Rand.