NRR: Question about Diversity Training

that's silly, they should just have everybody watch the "Diversity Day" episode of The Office.

With all due respect, your employer is requiring you to undergo some training. If what they are requesting is not illegal, why are you not doing what your employer is asking of you? If you have a great ethical dilemma and your employer insists you can look for another job.

Glenn Singleton is a racist ass. You are correct in that his views are offensive, and they should be offensive to Blacks and Latinos as well. He is a phony without peer. If your employer is sending you to this diversity training, he or she has already drank the Koolaid. Just go to the training. Participate in the line up. Accept that you are a bad person and a bad teacher and that you are a bigot. Accept that there is no such thing as racism for Black people. Realize that you are a beneficiary of White privilege. Also, remember that the ultimate rejoinder will always be that you "just don't get it." No matter what you say, this is what will be offered up. For example, you say that you think it's wrong that such and such happens and you actually want to have an honest debate about it: he or one of his acolytes will look at you head shaking, slightly amused and disappointed, and say "you just don't get it." If you call attention to yourself, Glenn will quietly call the principal or whomever set up this professional development program. They--or he or she-- will be told by Glenn that they have a racist in their midst. If you don't have tenure, you will be let go at the end of the year. It will seem to be for some other reason, but that is what will happen.

I hope you haven't said anything already. Just suffer through this. There is no honest debate. It's just political re-education. You need to finally accept Big Brother or Mao Tse Tung or whatever. If you are white, you are bad. If you have ever given a Black student an "F," you are bad. Never mind the concept that minorities can do just as well as anyone else and it is actually insulting to assume they can't. Glenn's point is that Whites need to be punished for White Privilege--whatever that is exactly.

In all sincerity, good luck to you.

I've done three minutes of research on him--thanks, Google!--and reports are mixed. He's got degrees from Penn and Stanford and has spent time in the vicinity of Berkeley, so he's no intellectual slouch. Could be an interesting time. Given the sorts of fees he commands, the guy is surely good at what he does.

But the wild and wacky world of diversity training has its problematics. I remember when my research on racial healing led me to sign up for a workshop in Philadelphia sponsored by a group called Training for Change. The workshop was called "White People Confronting Racism." Leaders were an Italian-American woman and a German-American immigrant woman, both with extensive experience in antiracism work. Very weird time, beginning with the opening greeting on Day One, "Welcome, white people!"

Look, you need some ammo.

Go to Amazon and order at least one book apiece by John McWhorter and Debra Dickerson. Two very smart down-the-middle-of-the-road black intellectuals who write powerfully and well, and will have nothing to do with diversity "training"--or racism, or any other sort of idiocy.

Good luck.

You might also want to pick up a copy of Shelby Steele's THE CONTENT OF OUR CHARACTER and Derrik Bell's FACES AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WELL. That will give you the beginnings of a full-spectrum African-American intellectual immersion. Two from the center, one from the right, one from the left.

Oh: and Stanley Crouch's THE ALL-AMERICAN SKIN GAME. And Leon Wynter's AMERICAN SKIN.

Seriously. Study up. Then go in and have fun, fearlessly.

Kudzu,

With all due respect, he should do all the reading you suggest. I'd add Thomas Sowell to that list, but it doesn't matter. The argument is already lost. And Glenn is an intellectual slouch; you are mistaken. I have met him and been in a room with him. He is a charlatan, a snake oil salesman. And the scary thing is that he really knows it. He doesn't even believe in what he's selling. If an administrator (or administrators) have decided that Glenn is the next great thing, this guy will be toast if he even murmurs a peep against Glenn. If he wants to keep his job, he needs to shut up. If he can line something up somewhere else, he can go out in blaze or glory if he wishes. If he's in San Diego or up near San Francisco, he really needs to sit there and eat shit if he wants to keep his job.

To add to your booklist, I'd suggest Juan Williams's ENOUGH to that list. And although I differ with him on a large number of things, D'Souza's book THE END OF RACISM might be something to look at. Many Blacks look at Shelby Steele as an Uncle Tom. While I disagree with this assessment, it's just food for thought.

sooo........ what exactly is this guy's argument

white people are the devil?

affirmative action?

I need some specifics here.

Go to google, and read the stuff toward the bottom of the first page. When you read what Glenn says in his interviews, he sounds reasonable. And it is true that we need intelligent and open conversations about race, but he is lying through his teeth: he wants conversations that he controls and manipulates.

KudzuRunner wrote:

I've done three minutes of research on him--thanks, Google!--and reports are mixed. He's got degrees from Penn and Stanford and has spent time in the vicinity of Berkeley, so he's no intellectual slouch.

That's exactly what makes him an intellectual slouch. Ivy League schools have been letting these racists get their way for decades, even giving them their own racist departments - African American Studies.

Glenn Singleton’s Racism and the Arlington Public Schools

Posted by Hans Bader

Earlier, I wrote about the racist “diversity” consultant Glenn Singleton, who is hired by school officials, like the Arlington, Virginia schools, despite his long record of promoting offensive racial stereotypes, such as claiming that minority students are “emotional” and not “intellectual” or “task-oriented.”

What is commonly overlooked about Glenn Singleton’s racist approach is who his real victims are: America’s minority children. The Maoist indoctrination by Singleton that civil-rights historian and professor David Beito recounts here and here is no doubt humiliating and uncomfortable for the white teachers and professors forced to undergo it, especially given Singleton’s claim that racism is “ubiquitous” among whites, and his assertion that white teachers are to blame for minority students’ bad grades.

But the biggest losers in the long run from Singleton’s approach will be minority students, not the white teachers that Singleton scapegoats for poor performance by minority students. Being subjected to Singleton’s “diversity” training won’t cost white teachers their jobs, and if such “diversity” training gets too abusive, they may even be able to sue Glenn Singleton or their school system for it, since a federal court ruled in Hartman v. Pena (1995) that a man could sue for discriminatory harassment after being subjected to a humiliating 3-day diversity training seminar. But Singleton doesn’t just humiliate white teachers. He also promotes stereotypes about minority children that could aggravate the minority achievement gap.

Singleton claims that “white talk” is “verbal,” “intellectual” and “task-oriented,” while “color commentary” is “emotional” and “personal.” See, e.g., Vincent Carroll, “On Point: The Whiteness Trap,” Rocky Mountain News, May 10, 2006, at page 34A. That’s exactly the sort of racist stereotype that contributes to the poor performance of some minority students, who believe that studying is “acting white.”

The fact that Singleton puts a superficially positive spin on this negative stereotype (by claiming that whites’ fous on achievement is coldly “impersonal” and “task-oriented”) makes it all the more seductive to those minority students who already perceive studying as “acting white” and being a “grind” (and who taunt studious classmates of their own race by referring to them as “schoolboy,” “schoolgirl” and “little miss perfect”).

Singleton is hired for big bucks — a “six-figure fee” — to conduct diversity training seminars in order to supposedly remedy the minority achievement gap. But the truth is that his own teachings aggravate and reinforce the minority achievement gap. And America’s minority students will be the losers.

For that reason, I was especially saddened to learn in a November 28 letter from Arlington Schools Superintendent Robert G. Smith that Singleton was supposedly hired to remedy “the disparity in achievement between white students and students of color.” Hiring Singleton to reduce the minority achievement gap is like hiring a flat-earther to teach astronomy and biology.

In his letter, Dr. Robert Smith admitted that Singleton’s bizarre racial theories are “provocative.” Provocative, indeed. Singleton’s racial theories resemble those of the infamous racist Leonard Jeffries, who was belatedly removed from his position as head of the black studies department at the City University of New York, after he decided to go beyond promoting racism to preaching antisemitism. His racial claims, too, were described as “provocative.” But in Jeffries v. Harleston (1995), the federal appeals court upheld his removal from his administrative position because of his bigotry.

Glenn Singleton’s racial theories closely parallel those of Leonard Jeffries. Jeffries taught that whites were cold, individualistic, competitive “ice people,” while minorities are warm, “communal” “sun people.” Similarly, Singleton claims that “white and Asian students are more competitive and individualistic,” while minorities have a “collective,” communal orientation (see Vincent Carroll, “On Point: ‘Culture of Whiteness,’” Rocky Mountain News, October 19, 2005, at page 37A). And he claims that whites are “impersonal,” “verbal,” “intellectual” and “task-oriented,” while minorities are “non-verbal, personal” and “emotional.” (See Vincent Carroll, “On Point: The Whiteness Trap,” Rocky Mountain News, May 10, 2006, at page 34A). Ironically, Asian students end up being classified as as “majority students” in school systems advised by Singleton, because they have the temerity to succeed academically in a predominantly-white society.

Why Singleton continues to be hired by school systems (like the Arlington County schools) is a mystery, given how much public embarrassment he has caused some of them. Perhaps white school officials harbor so much politically-correct racial guilt that they fixate on his anti-white rhetoric and thus lose sight of how damaging his racial stereotypes are to minority children. Anti-white rhetoric is sometimes rewarded, as Leonard Jeffries showed by obtaining tenure and administrative authority at CUNY as a result of his flagrantly racist “scholarship” and writings.

Singleton recently embarrassed California Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell. This year, he was hired by the gullible O’Connell to give diversity training. O’Connell then was publicly ridiculed after he repeated an offensive stereotype voiced by Glenn Singleton: that blacks, as a people, are loud, and need to have their loudness accommodated in the schools. (In fact, many minority students express dismay about how loud and disorderly their classes are, finding that to be a major impediment to learning. They want “simple, elusive quiet” so they can study. My Asian, Hispanic, and black relatives are not loud and noisy). The head of San Francisco’s NAACP has demanded an apology from O’Connell for spreading this unfounded racial stereotype. Singleton also embarrassed the Seattle Schools in a landmark Supreme Court case.

But Singleton himself continues to be hired, probably because of his anti-white rhetoric. A case in point is the enthusiastic reception that speakers from the anti-white Nation of Islam receive on campus. At both of my alma maters (Harvard Law School and the University of Virginia), a Nation of Islam speaker, Abdul Alim Muhammad, received an enthusiastic reception from predominantly-black audiences, even though he said things that were antisemitic, not just racist. He got away with his anti-semitism as a reward for his anti-white racism. Anti-white racism apparently excuses all sins.

No student newspaper would even criticize the bigoted Nation of Islam speech at U.Va. on November 15, 1990, which lasted for four hours, featured an enthusiastic audience of 600 students, and was filled with racial hatred and antisemitism. Nor would any individual journalist criticize it (except for me), until a Muslim minority student from Bangladesh (Arshad Rahman) publicly condemned the speech on November 28 as a “heretical expression of race hatred.” That broke the politically-correct taboo among journalists against criticizing anti-white racism, and suddenly, guilty whites began to gingerly criticize the speech, although they focused not on its racism but on its antisemitism and one arguably antigay remark made by the speaker.

You're a sad shit if you think that African American studies is racist in nature. Native American studies, Latin American studies, Southeast Asian studies, etc.

I think of the clip from Family Guy, where the slave owner unlock's the slave's chains following emancipation and asks, "So, we're cool, right?"

SCR wrote:

For the next six weeks, my school district is requiring all teachers to attend diversity training led by a man named Glenn Singleton. I have heard Singleton speak before. I am a libertarian, and I am opposed to Singleton’s racist ideas, which only fuel the negative stereotypes that are detrimental to African-American and Latino students.

My question is this: do I have the right to inform my principal that I am philosophically opposed to the training and I am unwilling to participate?

Honestly, you're an idiot.

You're going to prove to them how willing you are to accept diversity by not listening to someone because you disagree with them? The point of diversity is to experience different things. You may not like or agree with the views of people, but to say that you're going to object and not listen altogether is just silly and childish. Just because you don't like someone or agree with them doesn't mean you shouldn't listen to them.

Another Teacher,

Training begins Tuesday, so I have yet to make any comments. I work for a wealthy, super-liberal, suburban school district, so I think that if I decide to go through with this, my best bet is to simply keep my mouth closed during the entire program. I have read several of the books some of you recommended, so I have the background to be quite an annoyance during this training, but I don't think it will serve any good. And I would like to keep my job.

I think the one half-baked notion of Singleton's that bothers me the most is that African-Americans don't "plan ahead," and to expect that from black students is racist. Really? Maybe I should have him come sit in during one of my gifted and talented English classes (which are half black), and let him talk to black students who, as middle schoolers, are already planning for college.

I have no idea how anyone can take this guy seriously.

I have listened to him...go back and reread my original post. And despite the fact that this is labeled "diversity" training, there is no diversity of ideas here. Simply a narrow-minded, racist, rant that actually hurts minority students.

If you are just a grad student as your name suggests, I'll chalk your ignorant comments up to a lack of experience.

Grad Student,

I'll have to add to what SCR said in that you don't know what you are talking about with this. Would it make you a more open minded person if you attended a Nazi rally? That's diverse, isn't it? After all, they presumably have different views than you do. What about sitting around talking with members of the KKK? Would that be you being really open minded? Since you are a grad student, you know about re-education camps. You know what happened over in China where children turned in their parents to the state so they could be re-educated. Please don't jump to conclusions about what conversations people have to participate in just because other people tell them to do so. Research the Milgram Experiments a little bit. Glenn Singleton is a very bad man who seems to be a very good man to people who are naive. He is especially bad for minorities, and he will seek to have teachers fired who don't drink the Koolaid. Read the post I put up earlier that I copied and pasted.

So this guy kills members of a certain race by the millions and places them in gas chambers and forced work camps? Or he strings tens of thousands of individuals of a race up on trees? Or were you just making an awful analogy?

For such a brutal guy it seems odd that I've never heard of him. If he's the KKK and nazi's wrapped up into one you'd think he'd be the top of the FBI's most wanted list.

Yea I read your post and it sounded like it was written from one side of the argument by someone who doesn't agree with the man's point of view. He seems to have a unique point of view. Even from the post you put up it doesn't seem that CRAZY to listen to. Maybe you'll object, but this guy isn't telling you to kill someone as you suggested.

Just go sit through the thing. This isn't listening to the KKK, it seems more like listening to a rev. Wright sermon.

I still think you're an idiot for not going and at least listening. You may disagree with this man's whole philosophy, but it never hurts to listen. Now if he tells you to kill some students in gas chambers then I think you have a point in not going.

Grad Student, I have heard this man speak before. He is not going to offer me anything I have not yet heard from him or read in his book. His point of view is far from unique and he is actually intellectually bankrupt. Please go back to your studies so the grownups can have an adult conversation now.

Another Teacher, did you bring up any counter-points during discussion, or did you play it safe like I plan on doing?

I brought up counter-points and I spoke with him during the breaks as if he were a decent human being. I was warned about him, but I didn't think he lynched people or killed people by the thousands, so I wasn't going to fall for that hyperbolic trap. I mean, how bad could he be? When he did the line-up thing where white males end up on one end of the line and black females and males end up on the other end of the line, I didn't do what I was supposed to do and ended up in the middle. I didn't come from money, and I lived in a rougher part of Boston growing up. He wasn't too pleased that I didn't stand where I was supposed to stand. I also didn't pick up my "Beyond Diversity" certificate after the two days of training.

Up to that point, my teacher evaluations had been outstanding, but I was not offered a contract at the end of the year. Later on I found out that my dickhead principal and this guy were best buds and that that was one of the primary reasons why I wasn't kept on. Some of my colleagues were amazed that I had to reinterview when the principal had done my evaluations and they were all superior. In addition, I got along with the kids really well.

I wasn't killed or lynched, so Grad Student is right. I guess I got carried away there with the analogies. What the Grad Student doesn't understand is the frustration one feels by not being to have any debate. The intensity with which I hate this guy would seem incomprehensible to someone like the Grad Student. I think he is an awful person in the same way that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton are awful people. Malcolm X I could respect. Martin Luther King I could respect. I can't respect Chavis or Jackson or Sharpton anymore than I can respect Clay Davis on The Wire. If it helps anyone, I don't want to sit in a room with Rush Limbaugh either. I like him about as much as I like Michael Moore. I hate liars who move the goalposts. After not being rehired, I took a year off, and now I've been teaching for several years in a more congenial state. Actually, I am in independent schools now, and it is so much better. My experiences with students of color sounds just like yours. Guys like Glenn Singleton are the Clay Davises of the academic world: they stink to high heaven.

By the way, Glenn is also a conspiracy theorist and he believes that Tupac is alive. I am not saying that there are never any conspiracies, but I think it's a problem when he believes the crap he does to the extent that he does. I am a marginally conservative, socially moderate, libertarian leaning pragmatist. Singleton doesn't work for me.

Diversity is bullshit.

This past week where I work the vaunted "diversity coordinator" sent out some blathering email on somesuch, she has a sign off at the bottom of her emails:

Can you imagine a world without diversity?

YES I CAN!!!!

Especially after hearing Obama's Rev. Wright addressing the National Press Club (who in their right...no pun...minds felt he deserved such a forum) where he said the criticism of his comments were "an attack on the Black Church".

BULLSHIT REV...it was an attack on YOU for saying "GOD DAMN AMERICA". Don't spin it.

I wish a UFO would abduct him, Jackson, Sharpton and Ferrakan. Give us more Desmond Tutu-style leaders.

Sharpton should've been asking (after the Sean Bell verdict) "Why were they out at 3-4AM in the first place?"

For the record, my fellow Crackers can be twits, just as well as those of a darker shade of pale.

Another Teacher,

That is absolutely horrible. How did they possibly justify letting you go over that?