I've had The Identity Trap checked out so long that the library is presuming it lost. The book did give examples of horrors and I decided I should read it at home where I could write down the examples, but then I never did.
I vaguely remember the story about a kid getting permission from his Native American teacher to dress as a Native American for some event, and they both agreed it would be a good idea to increase knowledge, but then the kid got in trouble (expelled, I think). Sickening.
Then the stories of faculty getting fired or ostracized when what they are doing is interpreted in the worst possible way. Like using the n-word in a question where they were quoting another person. Or criticizing things that need criticizing but happen to involve minorities (like how some people have a problem with criticizing our ally Israel for doing horrors). You're not anti-semitic for protesting Israeli horrors. You're not a traitor for criticizing our president's horrors.
And similarly, I heard of a situation from a friend working in a woman-owned business. This company got several contracts based on being a woman-owned business, so when one of the female managers retired, they had to replace her with another woman in order to keep their woman-owned-business status. So they ended up promoting someone who was good at her job but who made a very mediocre manager. Gross. (I'm just assuming it would have been possible for them to get someone better and that it was possible to know she wouldn't have made a good manager ahead of time, but even if not, I'm sure this sort of thing happens way too often.)
So I do see that there are real problems (not just stupid, made-up problems) connected with the push for DEI. And that just knowing something is DEI or woman-owned or whatever isn't enough to know what's really going on. I will try harder to be sure to support decent actions regardless of which side of the political divide they seem to be coming from.
Meanwhile, my problem with Target stands. Though I don't know what they were doing that they're no longer doing to promote minorities. I do know they promised to spend a certain amount with black-owned businesses and then quietly decided not to. And so Black churches called for a boycott. Target still also doesn't have as many LGBTQ things, which is merely disappointing. So I'm still standing with the boycotters.
And what if that's stupid? Am I doing something even worse with my money in my ignorance? I don't think so. So far, my money has been diverted to REI, a coop, for shoes; The People's Pharmacy for multivitamins; and I've been buying books directly from the authors when possible and otherwise from Powell's used books. People's Pharmacy probably supports some fluffy-headed nonsense. None of these businesses are minority-owned, to my knowledge. So, maybe not better. but I don't think worse.
And I did write that e-mail to Target. They have not responded.
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ninetydegrees
Re: What DEI is
on 2025-06-04 06:47 pm (UTC)I vaguely remember the story about a kid getting permission from his Native American teacher to dress as a Native American for some event, and they both agreed it would be a good idea to increase knowledge, but then the kid got in trouble (expelled, I think). Sickening.
Then the stories of faculty getting fired or ostracized when what they are doing is interpreted in the worst possible way. Like using the n-word in a question where they were quoting another person. Or criticizing things that need criticizing but happen to involve minorities (like how some people have a problem with criticizing our ally Israel for doing horrors). You're not anti-semitic for protesting Israeli horrors. You're not a traitor for criticizing our president's horrors.
And similarly, I heard of a situation from a friend working in a woman-owned business. This company got several contracts based on being a woman-owned business, so when one of the female managers retired, they had to replace her with another woman in order to keep their woman-owned-business status. So they ended up promoting someone who was good at her job but who made a very mediocre manager. Gross. (I'm just assuming it would have been possible for them to get someone better and that it was possible to know she wouldn't have made a good manager ahead of time, but even if not, I'm sure this sort of thing happens way too often.)
So I do see that there are real problems (not just stupid, made-up problems) connected with the push for DEI. And that just knowing something is DEI or woman-owned or whatever isn't enough to know what's really going on. I will try harder to be sure to support decent actions regardless of which side of the political divide they seem to be coming from.
Meanwhile, my problem with Target stands. Though I don't know what they were doing that they're no longer doing to promote minorities. I do know they promised to spend a certain amount with black-owned businesses and then quietly decided not to. And so Black churches called for a boycott. Target still also doesn't have as many LGBTQ things, which is merely disappointing. So I'm still standing with the boycotters.
And what if that's stupid? Am I doing something even worse with my money in my ignorance? I don't think so. So far, my money has been diverted to REI, a coop, for shoes; The People's Pharmacy for multivitamins; and I've been buying books directly from the authors when possible and otherwise from Powell's used books. People's Pharmacy probably supports some fluffy-headed nonsense. None of these businesses are minority-owned, to my knowledge. So, maybe not better. but I don't think worse.
And I did write that e-mail to Target. They have not responded.