I recently had occasion to see a couple of training videos meant to educate new employees away from prejudice and harassment. The very white, 1950s-sounding VO narrator and the very 2020s multiethnic actors seemed to be in competition who could be more stilted.
Beyond that, think about this.
In the middle of the twentieth century, everyone in professional life had to wear a suit and tie whenever they were out in public. A backlash counterculture rose who believed that t-shirts and grease-stained jeans were appropriate for all occasions. They eventually won.
Around the same time and a little later politicians and men in respectable trades had to be family men with doting wives, children preferred if not absolutely necessary. But of course a hundred gay and lesbian and "queer" subcultures bloomed.
So if you make racial guilt and constant apologies a condition for employment, what will the downstream effects be?
2 comments:
Short question about a big subject that's already used a lot of virtual ink. Thomas Sowell once described the current popularity of Critical Race Theory as "racism under new management". He was interviewed recently about how The Left Focuses on Race.
The most useless class of people in the world are the ones who make those training videos. On the other hand the ones who show up in person may be worse, but none of them appear in person to gatherings of new hires. At least you managed to find some further insight about modern western expectations.
The curious thing about clothing is that when people first meet you, they have no way to judge your by your personality, so their only way to decide something about you is by judging your looks. There are some professions where wearing a suit is expected - bankers, lawyers, legislators etc. - but I think that wearing clean and decent clothes will show proper respect in these less formal times.
Self-righteousness becomes boring once it's run its course. Chances are it's probably/hopefully already met its high tide mark and will soon fade away.
Critical Race Theory isn't false so much as it's incoherent to the point where "theory" seems like a misnomer. Entirely unfalsifiable. That was a good interview. Sowell made good points, such as married blacks being disproportionately over the poverty line. "Do the racists care that blacks are married?"
On one level the makers of training videos are fulfilling a "need." On another, that need is most often the result of an artificial requirement rather than anything intrinsic to the job. It's easy to imagine that the legislator's or boards who make these requirements are in cahoots with the trainers.
The professions that still work in formal dress are those who've marked themselves as different, with specialized skills and/or connections. It could be seen as a sacrifice or a boast. The last few years have seen a lot of people temporarily at least working from home and dressing as they normally would at home. In a number of cases they've made the relaxed dress code a condition for returning to the office.
I don't think most people want to walk on eggshells, regardless of their demographic. It will be a relief if/when they no longer have to.
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