Friday, December 28, 2007

White Guys Have No Rights. And They'd Better Shut Up If Think They Have

The above title is a quote from someone who has just been subjected to a compulsory course on "sexual and other illegal workplace harassment". The title summarizes what she learned from the course. An excerpt:

"The message the employee is supposed to carry away is clear: Anyone who complains about any kind of inappropriate harassment or discrimination in the workplace must be treated with kid gloves (even if the complaint is silly), unless the complainant is a white guy concerned about "reverse" discrimination, in which case he's "really out of line" and his conduct is "really offensive."

It occurred to me that this training course is itself a rather blatant form of racial and sexual harassment. Employees taking the course are not so subtly being told, "Do not dream of complaining about race or sex discrimination if you are white or male. Your employer will consider you to be 'really out of line' and your conduct 'really offensive.' This may have an career shortening effect."

Go here to read it all. Some background and further comments here and here