Diversity-Related Training: What Is It Good For? (Hint: Absolutely nothing!)

 A nice paper which pulls together the links and sources for well known conclusions, conclusions which are absolutely unpopular in some ideological circles.  From Diversity-Related Training: What Is It Good For? by Musa al-Gharbi.

It is a make work scheme for underemployed Critical Theory and Social Justiace aficionados.  The problem is that it is not just a waste of money.  It is affirmatively damaging to those whose conditions it is intended to better.  

In wake of George Floyd’s murder and the protests that followed, many colleges and universities have been rolling out new training requirements – often oriented towards reducing biases and encouraging people from high-status groups to ‘check their privilege.’

The explicit goal of these training programs is generally to help create a more positive and welcoming institutional environment for people from historically marginalized and underrepresented groups. However, many of these approaches were implemented by corporations, non-profits and universities before their effectiveness had been tested rigorously (if at all).

[snip]

Beginning in the mid-90s, it became increasingly clear that, due to this lack of validation, many widely-used interventions could be ineffective or harmful. An empirical literature was built up measuring the effectiveness of diversity-related training programs. The picture that has emerged is not very flattering.  In a nutshell, it seems that these training programs generally fail at their stated goals, and often produce unfortunate and unintended consequences. 

The documented findings are:

Training is generally ineffective at its stated goals.

Training often reinforces biases.

Training can actually increase biased behavior and increase minority turnover.

Training often alienates people from minority Groups and dampens their morale.

Implicit attitudes are a meaningless measure.

Micro-aggressions are a meaningless construct for measurement purposes and which do appear to have negative impacts on minority participants when in a training session.

 Mandatory training generates its own negative consequences.

Focusing on expensive training which has no demonstrated efficacy distracts from other critical initiatives.