Where to begin?
- Most often than not they're taught by a woman who is the epitome of privilege: comes from a wealthy family, went to an ivy league school, drives an expensive car, etc.
- While being the definition of privilege, this woman then goes on to lecture at a very expensive rate, a whole bunch of employees some of whom are minimum wage workers about … privilege.
- People are grouped in two, maybe three groups: victims, oppressors and sometimes allies and you could probably guess who are the “designated” oppressors and victims.
It's condescending. It's toxic. It's awful. I get this is done so that companies can cover themselves in case they get sued for inappropriate behavior by some of their employees. But somehow it makes things even worse.
Some people leave these classes mocking and laughing at what was “taught.” Others leave in silence, probably stupefied by what they learned. Then there are the people who just become even more disillusioned after hearing this seminar. Their beliefs get reinforced that they didn't get the promotion, pay raise or what not, because of their race, gender or sexual orientation. Of course, in most cases, this is simply just not true. In reality, they're most likely not to get that promotion due to nepotism, spitefulness or just ignorance.
In the past, you could tune them out when forced to attend, but in recent times, they make the class “interactive” to see if you paid attention to the stuff they're peddling. If you didn't pay attention? Yup, you're likely part of the problem and likely HR will be notified. I wish these would go away.