Annual You're a Racist Training Video

[Sun_Worshiper]

At my state flagship I have to watch a five minute video once a year. It doesn't accuse anyone of being racist, but does encourage people to think before saying something racially charged in the workplace (sounds obvious, but some people are actually too dumb to figure this out on their own). It takes a few minutes and is such a small thing that I literally never think about it, until I see a thread like this one.

[mahagonny]

At my state flagship I have to watch a five minute video once a year. It doesn't accuse anyone of being racist, but does encourage people to think before saying something racially charged in the workplace (sounds obvious, but some people are actually too dumb to figure this out on their own). It takes a few minutes and is such a small thing that I literally never think about it, until I see a thread like this one.

It sounds to me like a CYA type of thing, like they really don't want to get too far into the controversy. They're probably not buying the BS people like you are apt to be promoting, not 100%.
In our school there are some who think having the first name 'Becky' means you need to be watched because you're likely insensitively and untactfully unaware of your privilege, then getting combative, and could improve yourselves by enduring some ridicule. They converge on social media and spot each other readily. Just the kind of people you need to have a collegial workplace.

[marshwiggle]

I did go to one workshop about something I can't remember, and the half dozen people in the room were to introduce ourselves and give our preferred pronouns. Which was odd, since in that small a group non-one would need to refer to anyone by a pronoun; their names would make more sense.

[Ruralguy]

If you are feeling rebellious and don't care who you offend, say your pronoun is itt, and can be used as a proper name as well, as in Cousin Itt.

[mahagonny]

I did go to one workshop about something I can't remember, and the half dozen people in the room were to introduce ourselves and give our preferred pronouns. Which was odd, since in that small a group non-one would need to refer to anyone by a pronoun; their names would make more sense.

What is the etiquette around that? Can you write down the pronouns requested for each member, or is that rude? I have enough trouble with names.

Not to mention, the elephant in the room. What is it about academia that gives it the right to both (1) proclaim they are at the cutting edge of appreciation of diversity and tolerance, and also (2) require a new age social etiquette that is not characteristic of the society at large? They are doing someone one should expect to find in a cult, which you would have joined specifically because it has a self limiting, unique dogma. The whole thing strikes me as arrogant.

[PScientist]

Can you write down the pronouns requested for each member, or is that rude? I have enough trouble with names.

I have yet to be in one of those meetings where the pronouns turned out to be different from the ones that I would have guessed from the person's name and appearance.  In general, this seems to be a massive virtue-signaling exercise.

[pigou]

Can you write down the pronouns requested for each member, or is that rude? I have enough trouble with names.

I have yet to be in one of those meetings where the pronouns turned out to be different from the ones that I would have guessed from the person's name and appearance.  In general, this seems to be a massive virtue-signaling exercise.

This. Also, what a wonderful way to make anyone whose pronouns don't match their expressed gender feel excluded. The norm should be "indicate them, if they differ from expressed gender." But that'd not give people an opportunity to virtue signal.

The disconnect between expressed views and behavior would be funny if it were not consequential. Left-leaning organizations doing work around immigration policy who will not sponsor work visas are a hoot. During the election, major political consulting companies that support Democratic candidates didn't sponsor work visas, those supporting Republicans did. A friend of mine received a reason for not getting a job at an organization reducing bias in hiring decisions, telling him they can't sponsor a work visa -- he's a 2nd generation immigrant (they didn't ask about work authorization during the application, presumably to reduce bias).

[secundem_artem]

I did go to one workshop about something I can't remember, and the half dozen people in the room were to introduce ourselves and give our preferred pronouns. Which was odd, since in that small a group non-one would need to refer to anyone by a pronoun; their names would make more sense.

What is the etiquette around that? Can you write down the pronouns requested for each member, or is that rude? I have enough trouble with names.

Not to mention, the elephant in the room. What is it about academia that gives it the right to both (1) proclaim they are at the cutting edge of appreciation of diversity and tolerance, and also (2) require a new age social etiquette that is not characteristic of the society at large? They are doing someone one should expect to find in a cult, which you would have joined specifically because it has a self limiting, unique dogma. The whole thing strikes me as arrogant.

These are the same people who took a gendered language like Spanish and created some genderless neologism like Latinx.  I still don't know if that's pronounced Latin x  or Lantincks so I'm gonna go with Latin or Hispanic.  If only they all spoke German instead, some neutral pronoun may make more sense.

Anybody who asks me my pronouns will receive the reply "Whatever you want them to be." 

Christ.  I used to be a liberal, but between this nonsense, who gets to pee where, inauthentic Banh Mi sandwiches are cultural appropriation, and the rest of the identitarian left, I have trouble caring.  Not enough people care about what AOC and the rest of the squad are proposing to fix to suggest that the far left agenda is any more attractive than the far right.  But at least the far right talks about lowering taxes which is an attractive (if actually stupid) idea.

At least the regular sexual harassment training was easy to process -- don't be creepy and whatever you do, be careful who you ask for a date.  How to be an anti-racist?  A rather more complicated message that a lot of people struggle to process.

[marshwiggle]

At least the regular sexual harassment training was easy to process -- don't be creepy and whatever you do, be careful who you ask for a date.  How to be an anti-racist?  A rather more complicated message that a lot of people struggle to process.

Well (so far at least; I'm not holding my breath) sexual harassment still requires you to make some sort of direct contact (although the infamous "male gaze" is pretty amorphous) with someone; we aren't yet blamed for "institutional sexual harassment" (although "rape culture" is heading that way...)

Give it 6 months.

[mahagonny]

At least the regular sexual harassment training was easy to process -- don't be creepy and whatever you do, be careful who you ask for a date.  How to be an anti-racist?  A rather more complicated message that a lot of people struggle to process.

Well (so far at least; I'm not holding my breath) sexual harassment still requires you to make some sort of direct contact (although the infamous "male gaze" is pretty amorphous) with someone; we aren't yet blamed for "institutional sexual harassment" (although "rape culture" is heading that way...)
Give it 6 months.

Around the beginning of the year we were shown a video demonstrating the basics of using the zoom platform. As the class began the female instructor greeted the first arrival to her class, a female student, and complimented her on how pretty she looked. When the presentation was over I quietly pointed out that, as male instructors, we must never do that.
(Aside: however, you can still write songs that compliment people on their appearance. Come to think of it, you can put anything in a song. If it's toxic enough maybe you can blame it on the neighborhood you had to grow up in.)

[financeguy]

There are a lot of "used to be" liberals out there. No one seems to talk about the main reason. There is nowhere left for the left economically. When you live in a country where most "poor" people are overweight, the "lower class" have multiple color TVs, air conditioning and more than one automobile and it's quite nearly impossible to go without food and shelter if you are willing to follow the rules and take advantage of the services already available, the only problems are vanity and identity problems which must be manufactured. I guess if you can try to make the case that someone else has more "hey, does he need that jet!" but the people shouting this the loudest still have three meals a day and a roof at a good school where they can study a fluff field and complain about the guy with a jet on their $500 iPhone. Hard to maintain much outrage for economic reasons. Ok, let's poke the race issue...

[writingprof]

Lots of truth* being spoken on this thread.

*For any progressive lurkers out there, "truth" was an Enlightenment concept, now understood to be racist, that posited that some things actually were, while others actually were not--irrespective, if you can believe it, of voguish political orthodoxies.  You had to be there, but it was pretty good while it lasted.

[marshwiggle]

Lots of truth* being spoken on this thread.

*For any progressive lurkers out there, "truth" was an Enlightenment concept, now understood to be racist, that posited that some things actually were, while others actually were not--irrespective, if you can believe it, of voguish political orthodoxies. 

Or feeeeeelings. Or anyone's "lived experience".

You had to be there, but it was pretty good while it lasted.

[Diogenes]

I just took my school's annual mandated diversity ("you're a racist") training video. This lasted a short period of time if you just click through, which was fairly easy to do with this once since there was no audio the user was not allowed to bypass, only text. The last section focused on different types of bias and the last one was group think. I'm awaiting my weight loss training video sponsored by McDonald's any day now.

Applicable to your post

Motivated Skepticism: https://www.jstor.org/stable/3694247?seq=1

The Bias Blind Spot: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0146167202286008

[polly_mer]

Can you write down the pronouns requested for each member, or is that rude? I have enough trouble with names.

I have yet to be in one of those meetings where the pronouns turned out to be different from the ones that I would have guessed from the person's name and appearance.  In general, this seems to be a massive virtue-signaling exercise.

I have encountered a person here whose appearance and legal name (printed on required badges we all wear) were not in accord with the pronouns a casual assessment would apply.

It was weird because the mentor mentioned bringing a student and referred to her being late due to an unavoidable conflict.  I didn't pick up how many times the mentor said she/her before the student showed up to the meeting.  However, when the student showed up, it became clear that this CS mentor was trying to prep us to address this person as the female equivalent of the male name and to address this visibly male person in our typical jeans-and-T-shirt attire as female without explicitly saying something like "This guy Robert goes by Roberta and identifies as female.  This is your opportunity to apply the new guidance on transgender individuals".

It was fine as a meeting went, but we have never introduced using pronouns and we didn't do it here, either.