Strong reactions to Asking the White Guys: Don't Try This at Home continue to pour in from DiversityInc readers.  In this Ask the White Guy blog post, 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. Today Visconti answers one of those reactions, and we offer more unedited e-mails as our readers continue to debate the issue.

Reader Reaction:

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).

I think you are way too isolated as a white guy - WACAN is forming an on-line dialogue for folks who've attended the White Privilege Conference - there were 900 folks, and probably 300 or more white folks, and all of them that I met have done their own work and are savvy. You really have to reach out more to realize you aren't the only cool white person around.

--Nancy Arvold

DiversityInc Partner and Cofounder Luke Visconti responds:

Comparing average business white men to people who have sought out WACAN is apples and oranges. 

Yes, I'm assuming a company that doesn't even apply for the DiversityInc Top 50 has low quality training and "diversity councils" with very little structure and business planning. That's based on my eight years of experience running the Top 50 competition, benchmarking hundreds of companies and presenting to hundreds of "diversity councils."

Most white people in corporate America have no idea what they're talking about when it comes to "diversity" and succumb to making statements that express ignorance to a degree that is detrimental (i.e. "it's all about parenting" or "those people don't value education").

Your mention of being "cool" is interesting. "Cool" has nothing to do with this. If you think you're "cool" and find yourself speaking in "vernacular" or shaking hands in any way but the (white) traditional way, you may want to think again.

Read on for more DiversityInc readers' comments as the debate continues.

Excellent response. Highly Appropriate. As a sociologist working in the area of diversity for 25 years, I share your perspective.

--Susan Toliver

Couldn't agree more, any organization that wishes to begin to break down the perceptions and stereotypes about their own organizational culture of race, sex, power and discrimination REALLY needs to know what they're doing.  By that I mean expertly trained diversity professionals that can deal with the sometimes dynamic and volatile discussions that will surely take place.  Diversity is a topic that needs to be discussed across this nation, and must include white people (white men particularly).  If conducted correctly, diversity training and awareness can improve any organization, community, and nation.
--Greg Jenkins

I am very disheartened that Mr. Adkins would say that he is tired of other groups comparing their issues/struggles with that of the issues of the African-American community.  We should all take note of Coretta Scott King, Martin Luther King Jr.'s wife, who said that, "Freedom from discrimination based on sexual orientation is surely a fundamental human right in any great democracy, as much as freedom from racial, religious, gender, or ethnic discrimination," - Opening Plenary Session, 13th annual Creating Change conference of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Atlanta, Georgia, November 9, 2000.

--Philip Jason Howard

Having just read the responses you posted to 'Don't Try This at Home', I must agree with Luke Visconti's original article and the majority of the responses here.  I am a white woman, working in a diversity position for a global firm in Toronto (by many accounts the most multicultural city in the world), and I've also been in an interracial marriage for 19 years.  I've spent a great deal of my adult life trying to educate other white people about the myth of meritocracy, the privilege that comes with being white in this society, and the need for white people to acknowledge and address that inequity. I often refer people to the "Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack" article as an excellent way to explain this concept. In my experience, the majority of even well intentioned, very nice, white men and women -- who would never intentionally say or do anything racist or discriminatory -- have great difficulty coming to terms with acknowledging that they benefit from white privilege. 

I agree with Luke and others who responded here: hosting a panel of white guys answering questions about diversity from a diverse audience is a recipe for a lot of unpleasantness in an organization. I personally would not participate on such a panel.  There is too great a potential for things to go wrong. A few possibilities that immediately spring to mind are: 1) the panel may be faced with very harsh pointed questions from the audience, which might make one of the panelists defensive; or 2) there may be questions which no white person could really answer satisfactorily for the people of colour in the audience; or 3) one of the panelists may inadvertently say something that reveals a lack of understanding of their own privilege and thus offend people of colour in the audience.  I'm not saying that all white people are destined to say something offensive, but it seems to me that this setup is ripe with the potential to go badly.  However well-intentioned the idea for this type of event, it would very likely lead to strong emotional reactions on many fronts, and cause a furor of gossip and conversation throughout the organization that would be detrimental to your diversity and inclusion efforts. We all know how the quickly bad news travels in a large organization. 

There are many other ways to include white people in the diversity efforts of your company. 

I really enjoy reading DiversityInc, and am pleased that you address such difficult and contentious issues head on.  Keep up the good work.

--Cathy Gallagher  

Yes the syndrome you describe is woefully present in language and spirit: diversity means 'colored' usually 'black', 'other' or 'y'all'. This is the same spiritually meager approach that comprehends 'black history' as separate and aloof from American history. Set apart, "black history" attains its own month.  This is where we get into trouble, trying to parse out our functionality as human beings in a way which alienates us one from the other. DiversityInc & any like-minded organizations finds itself trying to undo both a degraded educational syllabus in public schools and opposing 'home-training' which establishes a flow of knowledge from 'white and learned' to "unenlightened, ignorant & bewildered" masses of brown, red, yellow & black.  This is not an accurate portrayal of the exchange of ideas - anywhere on earth. There is much to be learned, scholarly, culturally, spiritually which flows naturally between types of people.  Class and now intellectual access has far more impact in determining marketable creativity. Thanks for listening.

--Jaymi Preister

FYI: As a white woman I have experienced racism and exclusion. I am of Italian heritage but I have been mistaken for Latina, African American and most recently.. Iranian, Egyptian or Syrian. As a child I remember kids saying they couldn't play with me because I was "colored". I have been asked to interpret for customers, hired because my employer thought I wasfilling a quota as a person of color. I have been asked "What are you?", way too often and I received hate mail when I moved to an all white neighborhood 30 years ago. ( I am not adopted nor have parental doubts) I am active in Human Rights and Affirmative Action projects in the community and at work.  My experience has given me insight and anxiety, but also sensitivity and empathy. I am sharing this because I do not EVER want to be clumped into the "white woman" (white man) generalization. A few years ago a diversity trainer who wanted to make a point about the white/black difference in experiences, asked who had a relevant racism experience of some kind..I raised my hand...and so did all the people of color....so he included me with the people of color for the rest of the training. Afterwards I told him about my ethnic background and my stories.

Blanketing people of any race and generalizing their experience is just as biased as being biased. Although my frame of reference is very MINIMAL compared to someone who experiences racism every day. (I know I have white privilege on MOST days)I feel my look has been a gift to help build bridges of understanding and I use it for that. NO clumping please!!   

--Elaine Carnahan

As a black man I have found whites practice what I call "liberal racism". That where whites "know" they have all the answers to the minority problem. Just look at Clinton and Obama. White women are talking about not voting for him because he "stole" Hillary's nomination. Liberal racism. These same women could not find it in their hearts to back a black women in 2004 but now they are crying (I guess this makes me a sexist for saying crying) because he won. Liberal racism. Before "WE" have a talk with the "white guys" let them talk to the "white gals" so that they together can clean up their liberal racism.

--Thomas Shaw

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