And now a former diversity trainer is blowing the whistle and saying these seminars are killing us. former diversity trainere an eric smith joins me now. all right. so, eric, you know, i have noicj probleoinow.m with diversity. w diversity is great. but why are these silly training sessionits? such a problem? well, it s not really diversity how we know it, right? it s diversity of bodies. yes. of colors, of ethnicities. but one thought and that thought abides by a particularss narrative that basically says any problem, basical a black pet is because of racism. any proble m? so when you were doing these training sessions, what were you discovering and why did it make you come forward you t? ect i well, this was a while ago when i was a diversity officer, and i realized how useless it was because, well, a, you can t really compel people to do certain things or think certain things. you can t be a thought. policeyo a when it comes to the.
Things. and secondly, i was always preachin g to the choir.. it wasn t working. there s nothing pragmatic about a lot of these roles. it s just it s idealistic. idel we need to have a diversity person so that people don t calld us racist. period. perit was more about the project of diversity than actual having diversity in the workforce. it wasn t authentic. precisely. okay. and someone s getting paid a lot of money, right? eric? oh, yeah. i mean, think about it. if you re makingright, all thaty off of racism, the last thing you want is for racism to go away. or are you going to perpetuate it? you re going to see it wher it isn t. the mind, the major tenet of critical social justice justi pedagogy is don t ask if racism happened. ask how it manifests in this situation, which is to sayin there s racism everywhere. siright. and, you know the saying, if you re a hammer, the thena crit