Discrimination and Diversity Programs - Glypto's Take

First off, an experience with racial discrimination.

Until 1998, I worked for Nortel in their Meridian 1 PBX division. I was a top level field technician, classified as a Top Tech III, and could go no higher unless I moved into management. Most field service techs on our crew assigned to the electric utility were Tech II. Except for our black co-worker Willie. Willie was still a Tech I hired before some of the Tech II's. He was well liked and respected, worked hard, knew the job, and there was no reason he should not have been promoted up the pay scale. One day at lunch, he was lamenting the fact he was being left behind, and wondered aloud why and what could he do about it? One of the wise asses we worked with points at Willie's bare black arm and says "maybe this is why." Willie was like, "Naw. Can't be. You think so?" I remember everyone egging him on and saying "what else could it be?" Well, we planted the seed, and a couple of weeks later, Willie lawyered up and filed a discrimination lawsuit. Holy shit... that did not sit well with the company, especially when the rumor mill put out the fact we put him up to it.

I remember being called into the conference room at our company office to give a deposition. Everyone on our crew did one at a time. In there were my company HR people, a couple of executives, a stenographer, and the attorneys. They start questioning me about Willie, the work environment, and his treatment. When they asked me if I thought Willie had been discriminated against, I told them exactly what I thought. "What are we and Willie supposed to think? Willie knows his stuff, works hard, and never gets in trouble, yet he has been continually passed over for promotion. And he is the only one of us that is black. I guess it's up to the company to prove otherwise." We all basically said the same thing without colluding ahead of time. It paid off, because like a month later Willie was made a Mid Tech II because of his service time.

 

Diversity Awareness

In the `90's, Nortel was starting to do the diversity crap shortly after sexual harassment training became a thing. I made sure I had an urgent service matter to take care of so I didn't have to attend (I pulled the same stunt every time they did the United Way kickoff event, too). When I was told I was still going to have to go, not only did I tell my management I was not going to participate, I composed and sent a letter to the executive vice president of operations for the New England region. I wrote that the first thing company diversity programs do is break people up into groups based on sex, skin color, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. (all the things Dr. King told us we should NOT be caring about). Then the companies count up the groups and how many members of each group they have so they can proclaim "See how many ________'s we have?? We're SO AWESOME!!" As you can imagine, my letter probably never made it past the president's secretary, and most likely ended up in the trash. But you know what, I never did have to take that stupid training.

 

A Job Interview

In 2016, I lost out on a machinery maintenance job in a local FEDEX facility because of this nonsense. I was informed at the beginning that it was a multi-part interview. The first part was the technical aspects of the job and my abilities to work on the different systems. Electronics, electro-mechanical, pneumatic, mechanical, fabrication, assembly, repairs, etc... aced it. The next part was about work ethics, attendance, punctuality, expectations, and such. No problems there. Early is on time, on time is late, and late is fired in my work life. Then came the death knell, the final part of the interview... the diversity, inclusion, and equity (DIE) section. I knew I was toast, because since I despise the whole concept I was not gonna lie or pretend I'm someone I'm not. Fuck the job... I just let 'em have it. I basically repeated in person what I had put in that letter to the executive vice president back at Nortel. They wanted to know if I would consider these things while putting a team together for a special project, and give preference to those people with "certain" attributes. I told them absolutely not, that I would put together teams the same way I always did, based on skills, abilities, and whether a person could handle assigned responsibilities and tasks. One of my customer sites I served did lots of special projects large and small that I worked on and some I was in charge of. That company had a huge cross section of employees. Male, female, minorities, LGBTQ, and tons of foreign nationals. The people I worked with were always highly qualified... PERIOD! The looks on their faces was priceless, and told me all I needed to know. I asked if there was anything else, because I would be leaving the interview now. I finished by telling them if they want someone qualified and reliable to keep their facility running at peak operation, then I'm your man. If you want someone to play the P.C. game and coddle useless people for the sake of someone's idea of diversity, you need to hire someone else, and that will be YOUR LOSS! Of course I did not get the job, but then I did not expect them to buck corporate policy and hire someone like me anyway.

Recent DIE (diversity, inclusivity, and equity) Training

A good friend of mine worked for the state at UConn and at 30+ years of service was the most senior person in his department. Last summer he too joined the ranks of the recently retired, gettin' out while the gettin' was good. They are still rushing to hire all kinds of new people to try and fill the vacated positions. He told me these new hires all have to take mandatory DIE training before they can start. He got to see what the program was about and was totally disgusted by it. He luckily didn't have to take it because it is only for new hires. 

BIPOC

This page was originally completed March 21, 2022. Before that day, I had never heard this acronym but heard it multiple times on different media throughout the day, so I had to look it up. BIPOC stands for Black, Indigenous, and People of Color. It is nothing more than all these supposed oppressed groups getting together to gang up and cancel anything they think offends them, and is also some kind of preferential treatment label. I wonder if, as a white male, can I self identify as a LGBTQ female BIPOC? Or will such a stunt get me fired and cancelled?