December 2024
Jack logged into the video meeting called by his company’s Chief Technology Officer, who was also the head of the IT (Information Technology) department in which he worked. The IT department of the well-known US company had about 150 employees. Jack heard the usual chit-chat about sports, weather and movies while waiting for the CTO to start the meeting. The usual extraverts were dominating the conversation as they were wont to do. Then the CTO chimed in to start the meeting.
How’s everyone doing? queried the CTO. A chorus of “good” and “great” responded.
That’s great. You’re probably wondering why I called you all together today.
Obligatory chuckles at the old joke.
Well, it’s for something very important that has been ignored for too long. There is a very real marginalization and oppression of certain groups in this country. We can continue to act like it doesn’t happen, but that won’t fix the issue. What I’m talking about is racism and misogyny. Despite efforts to promote equity and a level playing field, these dark, ugly things still exist. Sadly, I am one of those responsible, because I am a white man. I come before you today to confess my inherent, generational racism and misogyny … with a pledge that it ends for me here today. I am guilty, but I will not continue to be so. You have my promise that I will have an open ear, open heart and open attitude to hear from those whom I have oppressed, and learn from them.
I speak to all the white men now and encourage you to do the same. There cannot be true change until we acknowledge the ugly parts of who we are and commit to changing them. I think the rest of the people in this room, long time victims of our systemic oppression, can verify their suffering at our hands.
Various words of affirmation erupted from some of the non-whites and white women. Yes! Finally! About time!
The CTO continued. Now, who will be next?
I scanned the faces on the video call matrix, seeing shock and disbelief on the faces of white men … and everything ranging from steely eyes to predatory smirks from the rest. Nobody spoke up.
Come on men. This is important. You are men, aren’t you?
The manipulative shaming tactic worked. Coupled with the fear of losing employment, the first man spoke up.
I confess my inherent racism and misogyny. I have inadvertently oppressed others through my ignorance. That is no excuse. I apologize for this and for the generational oppression that came before me. I pledge before all of you to open my mind and heart to learn from you and end this ugly cycle.
More white men joined it, but not all. A few remained silent. Jack was one of them. He considered it nothing more than a disingenuous bullying attempt by the CTO to gain DEI points. He’d never oppressed anyone. The thought that it was somehow inherent in him was just manipulative gaslighting. Moreover, he was a first generation American, so how could he have “generationally oppressed” anyone in this country?
After a while, no more white men came forth. The CTO was not done however.
Come on. I know there are still some of you who haven’t spoken up to acknowledge this. You know who you are. Let’s hear from you. Come on, be a man.
Two more men chimed in with their confessions. After that, silence again.
I guess we will end the meeting then, stated the CTO. I’m very disappointed that not everyone chose to take this noble and necessary step. It proves that racism and misogyny still run deep and that we have a lot of work to do.
The meeting was over. Jack felt angry at the overt manipulation attempts of the CTO. He was not surprised however. Things like this had become more common over the years. Now, with DEI fully implemented and embraced by the company, it was as if white men had targets on their backs. The only way to prevent someone from shooting at that target was to confess to being a racist and misogynist, then take your place as a 2nd class citizen. Jack believed that there was no place for this nonsense in the workplace. The company leadership felt otherwise and made sure that DEI was forced upon all levels of management and below. Comply, or else. The “or else” was never specified. It was left for the employees to fill in with their own imaginations. Jack was about to find out exactly what “or else” entailed.
Jack wasn’t sure if anyone had kept tabs on who did, and did not, confess. He couldn’t name any men who had not. Rest assured someone had kept track. The HR representative. Now began the covert campaign against Jack for failing to bend the knee at the altar of DEI.
Jack’s boss gave Jack’s leadership role to a contractor, removing all of Jack’s authority and control over the systems for which he was still responsible. Any time something went wrong, Jack was called to the carpet and the contractor was nowhere to be found. All of Jack’s attempts to explain the situation or defend himself were met with statements from management that he was trying to dodge responsibility.
Jack’s boss and other managers began withholding resources and information from him. They then chastising him for doing a bad job when something failed due to that missing resource or Jack not knowing the critical information that would have prevented the failure. Missing software. Missing license keys. Not notifying him of meetings. It all added up.
Jack’s boss began spreading false information about him to both his bosses and peers, painting him as incompetent, unstable and a poor communicator. People began treating Jack like a mentally challenged child. His comments in meetings were dismissed with snickers and sneers. His suggestions and solutions were ignored. When a problem surfaced, fingers automatically pointed at him in a mob mentality that piled onto the undesirable employee.
Jack’s boss promised his support to get him to agree to difficult tasks, then removed that support when Jack needed it. I know the contractor is a difficult person to work with, but you have my support and the support of the director for any problems that may arise. He would then go behind Jack’s back and tell the contractor to ignore him. The director ignored all of Jack’s attempts to keep him informed. You’re the system expert Jack. You have the authority to implement changes and improvements. The boss would then publicly chastise Jack any time he attempted to make an improvement to a system, calling him out for “not following process” and making “unauthorized changes.” Jack quickly figured out what was going on and just stopped doing anything.
Jack’s boss used all of the above to create a very stressful work environment for Jack. Whenever Jack came to him for help or support, his boss would insinuate that it was some sort of deficiency in Jack. Jack should have known to ask whether there were any meetings. Jack should have been even more vocal about the license key expiring. Jack should have anticipated the director wouldn’t have time to provide him with the software he requested and found another way. One day Jack finally had enough and lost his temper. That was exactly what his boss was waiting for.
His boss used this to claim that Jack had anger issues and could not communicate effectively. He declared him a “problem employee” and put him on a performance improvement plan. Not to improve his technical or job performance, but to more effectively “manage his anger.” Never mind that his boss was wholly unqualified or even legally permitted to play psychologist and make plans to address any such issues. The boss held weekly checkpoint meetings with Jack to measure progress on his “anger issues,” but in reality, all he did was verbally marginalize and demean Jack even more, which led to more “anger issues.” In fact, any time Jack made any effort to defend himself or explain something, it was declared another “anger issue.” His boss had effectively dehumanized him, framing him as a mental defective who nobody would take seriously anymore.
As a final act, the boss set up Jack by placing him in charge of a contractor on paper, without any actual authority over him. The contractor already had a poor track record of incompetence and failed systems. Most important, he was a minority, ranking above Jack on the DEI victimhood scale. When Jack caught him plagiarizing documents that company employees had written, and passing them off as his own, Jack reported it to his boss and the boss’ director. This got HR involved. They politely questioned Jack, pretending to be on his side. Then they used that to spin the situation as Jack being racist against the minority contractor. Jack lost his job.
The systems Jack worked on actually became worse because of all these shenanigans by his bosses. His bosses didn’t care if they sabotaged the company. They just blamed it all on Jack. It was worth sabotaging the company itself to take ideological vengeance on Jack. The CTO, a proven wokester, was sure to back them up. Ironically, he left the company in the middle of all this, lying with the excuse that he had to retire to take care of his mother. Yet he was holding another C-suite job only a few months later. His departure did nothing to put the brakes on the actions of Jack’s boss, director, and HR.
The fact that multiple managers, directors and HR were all involved in this indicates a deliberate and coordinated effort to force Jack out of the company because of he would not bend to their ideology and world view. DEI is a virus. It is nothing more than codified and organized racism against white men. They then even have the gall to claim that racism against white men is not possible, because all white men are automatically racists. Anything done to them is justified. How convenient. Make it make sense. DEI experts are nothing but race grifters, selling divisiveness and hate for profit. The “white man” CTO in this situation was one of those grifters. He figured out a way of profiting by marginalizing and condemning race and gender. That is darker and uglier than anything he alleged in his disingenuous diatribe. HR are mostly DEI grifters. Jack’s bosses may not have been grifters, but they were certainly sellouts with little or no integrity.
DEI needs to end. It is systemic racism, pure and simple. No better than what whites did all the way up until the 1960s. It is not equality or equity. It is vengeance and it needs to stop.
