Leaders build cultures and cultures build teams.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is a slogan that sits on top of Critical Race Theory (CRT). In order for diversity initiatives to have practical, real-world value for human beings and companies, they must be divorced from CRT and its poisonous political agenda.

These sources aim at lifting the veil on race hustlers like Kendi and DiAngelo, and nonsense “trainings” in the public & private sector under names like anti-racism, racial-sensitivity, white-fragility, unconscious-bias, and more.

*Note: Polarization about CRT or DE&I as left/right, black/white, good/evil is false. There’s a groundswell that stretches across race, gender & party lines in a coalition that has long-championed diversity of background, experience & ideas — but reject identity politics dressed in slogans or corporate “best practices.” Some are linked here.

DE&I is an $8 billion per year business fraught with good intentions and disastrous consequences.

This is the best breakdown I’ve found of diversity, inclusion, and equity.
Kendi, DiAngelo, and Media

Billionaires Buy Ibram Kendi’s Woke Promises, But He Doesn’t Deliver, by Charles Fain Lehman in The Washington Free Beacon

Defining Racism Up: Ibram X. Kendi’s Weird Definition of Anti-racism, by Samuel Kronen in New Discourses

How to Be an Anti-Intellectual, by Coleman Hughes in City Journal

The Dehumanizing Condescension of White Fragility, by John McWhorter in The Atlantic

A Fragile Argument, by Wilfred C. Reilly in Commentary Magazine

How the Media Led the Great Racial Awakening, by Zach Goldberg in Tablet

This next one is a great example of the generic bullshit that now populates mainstream business rags. Notice it’s the same exact playbook as Change Management & Digital Transformation: a) it’s critical to your company’s future! b) you need 100% buy-in! c) the work is ongoing! d) did I mention I’m a consultant?

Hiring a Chief of Diversity and Inclusion Won’t Fix Your Company Culture, by Tanya Prive in Inc.

The fall from grace of the 1619 Project may seem out of place here but it’s a useful example of the games that Critical Race Theory folks play. Here are 4 critiques of the project, and project leader Nikole Hannah-Jones, after major revisions to the published work appeared without disclosure.

Public & Private Sector Workplace

Unconscious Bias Training Is Complete Nonsense, by Carrie Clark in Sp¡ked UK

Is Critical Race Theory racist?, by Helen Pluckrose in Unherd

Eight Big Reasons Critical Race Theory Is Terrible for Dealing with Racism, by James Lindsay in New Discourses

Completing a Race IAT Increases Implicit Racial Bias, by Ian Hussey & Jan De Houwer on PsyArXiv Reprints

How To Disrupt Critical Race Theory Training, by Rod Dreher in The American Conservative

While this was created for employees, it’s well-done and simple enough for an open-minded leader to imagine themselves in the same position.

Here’s the article the above image corresponds to. If asked, I’d suggest New Discourses and the folks involved are the best one-stop-shop to begin exploring well-researched and thoughtfully presented arguments against CRT and Wokeism.

Edit: I had a video from Fairfax County’s (VA) internal employee website that suggests “white women’s weapons are micro-aggressions and a direct line to the police murder hotline” posted by a Fairfax County (VA) employee. Unsurprisingly, it was removed.

Instead, here’s a 5 minute clip of Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying, who land well to the left of center, commending the federal ban of CRT while acknowledging their reservations about this president.

Here’s an interesting contrast: the above video and articles give a real sense of CRT’s aggressive posture out in the wild. By comparison, this next link shows how it gets packaged for mainstream news consumers.

What Critical Race Theory Is — and Isn’t, by Faith Karimi on CNN

Books
Twitter Voices

It’s a long process to wrap your head around Critical Race Theory and all of its aliases. The information flow is both heavy and fragmented. If you’re a Twitter user, here are a few names who are very active and engage with rational people on both sides of the CRT issue.

Get in touch if you need more and thanks for reading 👍

Thomas Irre is the founder of HK5, LLC, Practical Business Technology and Mental Self-Defense for leaders & teams.