In the opening thought-work session, the trainers demand that the men make a list of associations about white male culture. The trainers write "white supremacists," "KKK," "Aryan Nation," "MAGA hat," "privileged," and "mass killings."
Sounds a tad narrow to me. And what the hell does it have to do with nuclear research. I wonder if there might grounds for a law suit over this.
This is intriguing to me. Behind it, is the tenet that those who benefit from being born to a certain race, gender, sexual orientation, or even personality type, never have to learn about the struggles that an old-boy rigged system has on others, birth to death, who are legitimately as God-created, or as evolved, or as Constitutionally equal humans as they are -- which is displayed in the materials that Christopher E. Rofu selected, the educational materials he in a cornball moment, refer to as "leaked documents" which are nothing more than modern curricula used probably in consciousness-raising seminars around the world and in social science courses in colleges nowadays.
ReplyDeleteSandia called the training sessions within the seminar "caucuses", which injected an unnecessary political spin. The caucus is one of the aspects of our democracy that came from an American Indian culture. It came specifically from the Algonquins. This opened the door for Rufo to use his own political term, "reeducation camp." Yes, Rufo gets silly, because there is no death sentence nor long-term sentence of hard labor until an inmate falls in line with the ruling party of the govenment. Why not just call it a seminar, or better yet, a "meeting", most likely optional?
I watched a video on the company called, Sandia Ethos. The old images of the company were of white white guys mostly, with a couple of women and, looks like an Asian man. The more current images had mostly white woman representing the voice of the company, with recent workers/researchers being quite diverse.
They are to be applauded if this public-relations YouTube display is reflective of the company. If Sandia was an old-boys network before, it no longer is -- or maybe the video has wishful thinking in it, if not false progressive PR appeal. Out of this cultural change, would come a realization of the old-boy attitudes that had to be overcome to get them where they are, and how these ingrained toxicities either have been overcome or may be overcome -- partially through employee seminars. Note here too, that new toxicities can replace old ones, like mistakenly putting salt in coffee instead of sugar. At least Sandia is trying.
In 1946, first-place Brookly Dodgers manager Leo Durocher famously said, when talking of the New York Giants, "The nice guys are all over there, in seventh place." There's an attitude that capitalism, has to involve not being a nice guy, that you have to be mean, lying, and manipulative, throw your mother under the bus if need be, and that profitable ends justify underhanded means, that humanity needs to be left behind for some greater success to happen.
It can become a cancerous nepotism in the system that corporate managers pick up on in like-minded workers, and reward, which leads to incentives for people with certain personality disorders and rewards for personality types. The overbearing type-A man may not be likeable, but he gets noticed within such a toxic corporate culture, and rewarded -- leaving scores, even the majority of US Americans behind -- of all races, sexual orientations, genders, ages, and so forth.
What was also leaked , and that Rufo shared, was the "personal reflections" of some who attended the seminar. Here's one:
"The meeting helped me see different perspectives on diversity and helped give me tools and leadership skills to be a better ally, mentor, employee, & friend. It also helped me to better understand the dominate [sic] culture in US business and how that culture demands different levels of energy depending on the degree to which an individual is inside or outside that group."
Of course, this is from a white man who went to the meeting. Given the chance, Christopher E. Rofu may have declined to attend, or if attended may not have learned such things.
Had I been in attendance I would have raised holy hell with the trainers. Maybe you feel comfortable with that caricature of white males, but I most unapologetically do not. And, like Captain Ahab, I’d strike the sun if it insulted me.
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