DiversityInc readers were quick to respond to our lead story Asking the White Guys: Don't Try This at Home. In this Ask the White Guy blog, Luke Visconti advised a reader not to hold a diversity summit that included a panel called "Ask the White Guys," warning the reader he could do more harm than good.   Here are some of the most thought-provoking responses we received, unedited.

I have taught a college course on managing the challenges of diversity inside an employer for a few years, and I could not agree more with your column "Don't Try This at Home."  Have you seen the "Diversity Day" episode of the TV series "The Office"?  It illustrates what happens with good intentions and inadequate training.

Keep up the good work.

-Jack Hames

I think DiversityInc does great work, but that this column does a great disservice to the campaign for diversity.  It assumes that white guys cannot be allies in diversity work.  As a result, I think the work of diversity will always be experienced by white guys as "being nicer to 'them' week."

I have worked to include white men in diversity work for the past 20 years.  In my lectures and workshops in corporate settings, I emphasize that white guys can be stakeholders in the diversity conversation -- that is, we can see that diversity is not only about "them" but also about "us" and that we white guys will actually live better lives by embracing diversity and equality in the workplace, instead of fighting it, or, at best (as this column implies) grudgingly accepting it. 

-Michael Kimmel

As an African American male I am concerned about inclusive (in this case the "White Guys") until there is some clarification ( ground rules). People of color and particularly Blacks need to have a discussion about their personal, yet similar experience being Black.  When ever I have been in meeting to discuss diversity, the majority "White Guys/Girls" tended to "water down" the subject, make it too inclusive i.e., reminding everyone that they/parents are from foreign countries, migrated to the US and worked hard (not for free obviously) to get to where they are today. The problem (my opinion) is that these remarks point to a much more complicated problem, "race" ignorance, not exclusively among Whites. By the time everyone (People of color in attendance) finishes explaining/educating White on the history of Black American, Civil rights, etc. the intent of the meeting can be lost. It also places the "White Guy" in an uncomfortable predicament. For perhaps the first time, he does not have all of the answers and unless some "Uncle Tom" in the room begins to feel guilty and takes-up for them, it could be an environment filled with people on both sides, dealing with raw emotions that had not been addressed in their life time. Keep in mind, Blacks are not immigrants and (I know I am) tired of the comparisons between our experience and other groups experiences. There is no comparison. I find that because of lengthy discussion required (by Blacks) to educate, dispel age old stereotypes, etc, not much is accomplished in the meeting (except for opening a few wounds) and everyone comes away not feeling so great about each or themselves. 

Suggestion, these meeting should be held with a strict agenda and a mediator (qualified and Black) to keep the discussion from being side-tracked into more comfortable areas of discussion, i.e. women's rights, Native Americans, Asians, etc.

Thanks for the thought provoking article, good luck!
- Ron Adkins

-Anonymous

As a straight, white guy who has been working as a corporate diversity consultant and trainer for nearly 15 years, I couldn't agree with Luke's response more. Diversity is an incredibly loaded topic and in all honesty, like Luke, I get it wrong sometimes too and put peoples' noses out of joint. Straight, white males, especially those in leadership positions, are seen by everyone else through a particular lens that's all about "power" and less about their own individual diversity as straight, white men. In fact, I've facilitated a number of panel discussions at diversity conferences in which there are white males on the panel who are saying all the "right things" and yet their words are interpreted differently.  As a straight, white male, I know I sit in a unique position of privilege in our society. Asking white guys in power who maybe perfectly decent human beings but don't have years of exhaustive training and insight on diversity, to sit on a panel about white guys at a diversity conference is setting them and the panel up for a potential disaster. 

-Gregg Ward

Huh! I'm surprised at your response. Are you assuming the "diversity councils" don't know anything?

I'm a member of the diversity council in my company - one of few white folks - and I'm often called on for my opinion. Now granted I've done over 10 years of diversity work, but why are you assuming the guys on the regional councils are naive?

I'm also a member of a diversity organization that holds an annual 4 day conference, and we always try to find a frame to discuss whiteness. Last year was most successful. Again, white folks are in the minority, so the four or five women launched a workshop we called, "Everything you ever wanted to know about white people, but were afraid to ask."

It was a hit. We were asked pertinent questions, not jabs, and the most interesting question, that actually stumped us, was "what about being White brings you joy?" Everything we named was either a class thing or was about avoiding what People of Color face all the time (being stalked in stores).

- Nancy Arvold