Diary of a Mad Voter: Denver's diversity training troubling

Mean jokes can lead to hurt feelings. But portraying white men as racist, sexist slobs is perfectly acceptable.

This is the message public workers have been subjected to as part of a City of Denver employee-training video titled "Laughing Matters - Think About It."

In the eight-minute-piece, the main character is Billy, a white blue-collar worker. He walks around the office making fun of every minority imaginable.

The video opens with Billy mocking an Hispanic co-worker, Carlos, who is waiting for job supplies. Billy asks, "What's his problem? He can't sell breakfast burritos without the supplies or he takes a siesta?"

But Billy doesn't stop there. He rambles off a blonde joke. He makes fun of homosexuals. He even belittles midgets. Meanwhile, his innocent coworkers — mostly minorities — respond in shock.

City officials say the video's purpose is to show workers how inappropriate humor diminishes respect in the workplace. Really? We need a taxpayer-funded video to teach grown adults that mean jokes hurt the feelings of others? But this video is about more than jokes. It's about spreading a message that whites are bigots.

According to Dennis Supple, a white city employee who works as an air-conditioning mechanic, the video is part of a larger effort to characterize white males in a negative light.

"Right now, their diversity program is racially motivated against white males," he told the Rocky Mountain News. "If you portrayed a black woman (or a Hispanic or a homosexual) in that manner, there'd be hell to pay," he added. "But it's OK for them to portray a white man in this manner because you put down one little (disclaimer) at the end of the (video) that says, 'Remember, anybody could be Billy.' That's a bunch of bull."

Fortunately, after Supple went public, the video was yanked from the line-up of the city's employee training. But how many city employees saw the video and were shamed into silence? How many city officials saw the piece as it went through the production process and said nothing about the negative stereotypes perpetuated?

While the city issued a press release saying it was pulling the video, there was no apology from those responsible for perpetuating such ruthless stereotypes.

The video was developed by the city's Diversity Advisory Committee. In the early days after Supple voiced his concern in the media last week, officials remained committed to its usage, saying they'd consider revising it in the next year or two.

They pointed out that it had won second place nationally in 2005 for "instruction/training" from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors. I guess we're supposed to be impressed that there are a whole lot of people in power out there who think it's perfectly acceptable to perpetuate an image of whites as racists.

According to City Councilman Charlie Brown, the only official to express outrage at the content, the city spends $250,000 a year on promoting diversity. But if this diversity, taxpayers shouldn't be forced to fund it.

Mayor John Hickenlooper, as a leader who has frequently indicated his commitment to a progressive social agenda, needs to take a stand. Simply dumping the video is not enough. In addition to offering an apology to offended city workers, he should issue an immediate moratorium on all diversity training.

If the tables were turned and minorities were presented in a negative light, he certainly would have commissioned a citizen task force to investigate all diversity-training materials and the impact they might have on protected classes.

But perhaps Hickenlooper's silence is the result of attending one too many diversity sessions himself. After all, portrayals like those seen in the city's video are the norm in training sessions across America. I know because I've attended dozens of them as part of my professional research on the negative impacts such training has on interracial interactions.

Jessica Peck Corry is a public policy analyst with the Independence Institute in Golden, Colo.

They perpetuate the extreme views of sociologists, as described in the Wikipedia entry on racism: "Some sociologists have defined racism as a system of group privilege. In 'Portraits of White Racism' David Wellman (1993) has defined racism as "culturally sanctioned beliefs, which, regardless of intentions involved, defend the advantages whites have because of the subordinated position of racial minorities....Sociologists Noel Cazenave and Darlene Alvarez Maddern define racism as “...a highly organized system of 'race'-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/'race' supremacy. Racist systems include, but cannot be reduced to, racial bigotry...Sociologist and former American Sociological Association president Joe Feagin argues that the United States can be characterized as a 'total racist society' because racism is used to organize every social institution..."

In sum, whites cannot escape their privilege. They are born racist and regardless of their actions, they benefit from a racist society. And to punish each and every one of them, they must endure a lifetime of diversity training.

While city employees in Denver and across the nation are being spoon-fed racist stereotypes, the joke is ultimately on taxpayers forced to fund such sessions. Supple is right that the video is "a bunch of bull." But if history is any indicator, his outspoken criticism is only going to earn him more time in front of another TV screen spouting the virtues of an intolerant diversity ideology.

Editor’s note: Jessica Peck Corry's weekly blogs are part of a feature on The Denver Post's PoliticsWest.com site called "Diary of a Mad Voter." The group blog, published in partnership with NewWest.Net/Politics, is intended to give a glimpse into the hearts and minds of several independent-minded voters and thinkers in the Rocky Mountain West in the '08 election cycle. Check back regularly at www.politicswest.com for "Diary of a Mad Voter."

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