{"id":21638,"date":"2020-08-09T06:59:40","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T06:59:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=21638"},"modified":"2020-08-10T13:20:35","modified_gmt":"2020-08-10T13:20:35","slug":"why-diversity-training-on-campus-is-likely-to-disappoint","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/why-diversity-training-on-campus-is-likely-to-disappoint\/","title":{"rendered":"Why diversity training on campus is likely to disappoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

Amna Khalid<\/a>, Carleton College<\/a><\/em> and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder<\/a>, Carleton College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

U.S. colleges and universities will be embracing diversity training with renewed vigor this fall.<\/p>\n

In response to the killing of George Floyd<\/a>, the massive<\/a> Black Lives Matter protests and pressure<\/a> from students, dozens of colleges and universities have made public commitments to new anti-racism initiatives.<\/p>\n

The University of Florida will require<\/a> all students, faculty and staff to undergo training on \u201cracism, inclusion and bias.\u201d Northeastern University will institute<\/a> \u201ccultural competency\u201d and \u201canti-racism training\u201d for every member of the campus community. And Ohio Wesleyan University will mandate<\/a> \u201cuniversal diversity, equity, and inclusion training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Given the vital importance of confronting past and present racism, we believe it is imperative that colleges and universities address racial disparities and discrimination in higher education head-on. However, as scholars who study race and social inequality, we know that diversity training suffers from \u201cchronically disappointing results<\/a>.\u201d Recent research<\/a> in psychology even suggests that diversity training may cause more problems than it solves.<\/p>\n

What diversity training looks like<\/h2>\n

Called into a typical diversity training session, you may be told to complete a \u201cprivilege walk<\/a>\u201d: step forward if \u201cyou are a white male,\u201d backward if your \u201cancestors were forced to come to the United States,\u201d forward if \u201ceither of your parents graduated from college,\u201d backward if you \u201cgrew up in an urban setting,\u201d and so on.<\/p>\n

You could be instructed to play \u201cculture bingo<\/a>.\u201d In this game, you would earn points for knowing \u201cwhat melanin is,\u201d the \u201cinfluence Zoot suits had on Chicano history\u201d or your \u201cChinese birth sign.\u201d<\/p>\n

You might be informed<\/a> that white folks use \u201cwhite talk,\u201d which is \u201ctask-oriented\u201d and \u201cintellectual,\u201d while people of color use \u201ccolor commentary,\u201d which is \u201cprocess-oriented\u201d and \u201cemotional.\u201d<\/p>\n

You will most definitely be encouraged to internalize an ever-expanding diversity lexicon<\/a>. This vocabulary includes terms such as Latinx<\/a>, microaggressions<\/a> and white privilege<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It also features terms that are more obscure, like \u201cadultism,\u201d which is defined as \u201cprejudiced thoughts and discriminatory actions against young people, in favor of the older.\u201d<\/p>\n

Disappointing results and unintended consequences<\/h2>\n

In terms of reducing bias and promoting equal opportunity, diversity training has \u201cfailed spectacularly<\/a>,\u201d according to the expert assessment<\/a> of sociologists Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev. When Dobbin and Kalev evaluated the impact of diversity training at more than 800 companies over three decades, they found that the positive effects are short-lived and that compulsory training generates resistance and resentment.<\/p>\n

\u201cA company is better off doing nothing than mandatory diversity training,\u201d Kalev concluded<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Some of the most popular training approaches are of dubious value. There is evidence, for example, that introducing people to the most commonly used readings<\/a> about white privilege can reduce sympathy<\/a> for poor whites, especially among social liberals.<\/p>\n

There is also evidence that emphasizing cultural differences across racial groups can lead to an increased belief in fundamental biological differences<\/a> among races. This means that well-intentioned efforts to celebrate diversity may in fact reinforce racial stereotyping.<\/p>\n

With its emphasis on do\u2019s and don\u2019t\u2019s, diversity training tends to be little more than a form of etiquette. It spells out rules that are just as rigid as those that govern the placement of salad forks and soup spoons. The fear of saying \u201cthe wrong thing\u201d often leads to unproductive, highly scripted conversations<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This is the exact opposite of the kinds of debates and discussions that you would hope to find on a college campus.<\/p>\n

The main beneficiaries of the forthcoming explosion in diversity programming will be the swelling ranks of \u201cdiversity and inclusion\u201d consultants<\/a> who stand to make a pretty penny. A one-day training session for around 50 people costs<\/a> anywhere between US$2,000 and $6,000. Robin DiAngelo, the best-selling author of \u201cWhite Fragility,\u201d charges<\/a> up to $15,000 per event.<\/p>\n

In this belt-tightening era<\/a> of COVID-19, should colleges and universities really be spending precious dollars on measures that have been \u201cproven to fail\u201d<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Alternatives to training<\/h2>\n

In our view, instead of pouring money into diversity training, colleges and universities would be better off using their limited resources to provide increased financial aid and better academic support systems for underrepresented students<\/a>. The increasing number<\/a> of scholarships<\/a> and fellowships<\/a> that have been established in George Floyd\u2019s name are a welcome step in this direction.<\/p>\n

We also recommend that schools invest more in expanding the full range of educational opportunities at their disposal to better understand and disrupt systemic racism.<\/p>\n

This includes coursework, lecture series, discussion panels, student speak-outs, college-wide teach-ins, exhibitions, performances and common readings. Such an approach would enable universities to use the extensive knowledge and expertise<\/a> that their faculty, students and staff already have on issues of race and inequality. It would be far better than relying on the kind of mass-produced, drive-through diversity training provided by outside \u201cexperts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Campus communities don\u2019t need diversity consultants to lead workshops about terms<\/a> such as \u201cmicroaggressions,\u201d \u201cmicro-invalidations\u201d and \u201cmicro-insults.\u201d Instead they should discuss thought-provoking works such as poet Claudia Rankine\u2019s book \u201cCitizen,\u201d a personal account that \u201cstrips bare the everyday realities of racism<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rather than simply declaring that \u201cillegal immigrant\u201d is an unacceptable derogatory term, analyze Jason De Leon\u2019s \u201cThe Land of Open Graves<\/a>,\u201d a vivid portrait that \u201cpushes our understanding of how lives are lived and lost on the U.S.-Mexican border to a new level.\u201d<\/p>\n

[Deep knowledge, daily.<\/em> Sign up for The Conversation\u2019s newsletter<\/a>.]<\/p>\n

To explain the concept of \u201cintersectionality<\/a>,\u201d replace \u201csocial identity wheel<\/a>\u201d exercises with an examination of the 1977 Combahee River Collective Statement<\/a>, whose Black feminist authors insisted that it was not possible to \u201cseparate race from class from sex oppression.\u201d<\/p>\n

Facing urgent calls for action, colleges and universities have embraced diversity training to try to prove that they really are doing something to advance racial justice. But the relevant evidence suggests that in offering ineffective, superficial remedies to the complex problems of prejudice and exclusion, diversity training will shortchange campus communities and short-circuit critical thinking.<\/p>\n

If colleges and universities want to effect meaningful social change, they will soon discover that diversity training is no substitute for education.\"The<\/p>\n

Amna Khalid<\/a>, Associate Professor of History, Carleton College<\/a><\/em> and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder<\/a>, Associate Professor of Educational Studies, Carleton College<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Amna Khalid, Carleton College and Jeffrey Aaron Snyder, Carleton College U.S. colleges and universities will be embracing diversity training with renewed vigor this fall. In response to the killing of George Floyd, the massive Black Lives Matter protests and pressure from students, dozens of colleges and universities have made public commitments to new anti-racism initiatives. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":21640,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[292],"tags":[1661,245,453,8470,6826,687,1812],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21638"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21638"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21642,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21638\/revisions\/21642"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}