Ticking all the boxes

By Munira Mirza
Presenter, the Business of Race

Forty years after Britain's first race relations act, employers are starting to follow US firms by sending workers on race awareness courses. But instead of smoothing office relations, such lessons could be inflaming tensions that never used to exist. 

Jane Elliott is white, short and tough. For more than 20 years, she has run her day-long workshops in racism-awareness training, US-style. Her approach is uncompromising, brusque and authoritative. She tells her captive audience, she is their "resident BITCH for the day - Being In Total Control Honey".

The programme, run and devised by Elliott herself, aims to give "nice blue-eyed white folks the opportunity to find out how it feels to be something other than white".

In it she divides participants into two groups; blue-eyed and brown-eyed. The "blues" are mocked, humiliated and abused by the "browns", urged on by Elliott. Posters are pinned up around the room saying things like "Would you want your daughter to marry a Bluey?" and "Blue eyes make good secretaries".

The blues are told this emotional distress is what black people experience throughout their lives.

Elliot's programme is just one of thousands in the US, and has just been launched in the UK.

Raising awareness

Since the start of the 1990s there's been a huge rise in the number of consultants, courses, videos and books dedicated to diversity in the workplace in the US. This growth has largely been a defence against escalating numbers of race discrimination cases.

С начала 90-х в США произошёл высокий рост числа консультантов, курсов, видеосюжетов и книг, касающихся расового разнообразия на работе. Этот рост стал серьёзной защитой от растущего количества случаев расовой дискриминации.

The "diversity business" has also taken off in the UK. According to a recent survey conducted by the Chartered Institute of Personal Development, nearly 70% of organisations have diversity policies in place, in which training plays a vital part.

Бизнес, основанный на расовой дискриминации также переживает подъём в Великобритании. По данным недавнего опроса, проведённого в институте личностного развития, около 70% организаций проводят на местах политику расового разнообразия, для которых игры-тренинги являются неотъемлемой частью.

"You've got an enormous group of people from different ethnic backgrounds... if you can know more about them, you'll do so much better," says Alick Miskin of consultancy Grassroots.

«У вас есть огромная группа людей разного этнического происхождения… Если вы можете знать о них, это будет гораздо лучше,»  говорит Алик Мискин из консультационной компании Grassroots.

Most diversity training has a lighter touch than Jane Elliot's course, designed to make people aware of racial differences and understand cultural or religious customs.

Большинство тренингов по расовому разнообразию носят более лояльный характер, чем курс Джейн Элиот, разработанный, чтобы заставить людей познакомиться с различиями и понять культурные и религиозные традиции разных этнических групп.

But many courses go further, "encouraging people to reflect on the impact of what they say," says trainer Tess Lees-Finch.

Но многие курсы пошли дальше, «побуждение людей реагировать на влияние их слов», говорит тренер Тес Лис-Финч.

She asks participants to think about times when they themselves have felt excluded or offended, and to share these emotions with the group. The argument goes that an emotional release can waken people to the impact of their words.

Она призывает участников подумать о временах, когда их самих притесняли или оскорбляли, и поделиться своими эмоциями с группой. В качестве аргумента выступает тот факт, что выражение эмоций может пробудить у людей реакцию на влияние их слов.

Blonde jokes

She even asks participants to consider whether apparently inoffensive things like cracking "blonde jokes" ought to be tolerated.

              In 1995, 75% of 50 largest US companies had diversity directors or managers. Race Relations Amendment Act 2000 puts duty on UK employers to 'promote good race relations'

The theory is that if people are careful about what they say, workplace relations will be more relaxed and productive. But there are questions about whether such training actually delivers.

"We don't have at the present time are very good long-term outcome measures to see what kinds of effects these training initiatives are having, if indeed any effects at all," says Louise Pendry of Exeter University

In fact, some courses could even do more harm than good.

Tracie Stewart, a professor at Georgia University who looks into the causes and effects of ethnic stereotyping, says people turn the anger on themselves because of their own prejudices.

In some courses, she says, participants' frustration about can even lead to a "backlash" or "victim blame", where they actually begin to harbour resentment against other minority groups for the way they feel.

Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn, a cultural historian in the US, argues awareness of racism has made people increasingly anxious about not wanting to cause offence. This, in turn, drives the need for more instruction in the correct "racial etiquette".

More harm than good

Even the mildest incidents and jokes can be deemed offensive and inflate tensions in the office. Diversity training, it's claimed, actually reinforces the sense of difference between people rather than bringing them closer.

One fear is that ethnic minorities may become over-sensitised about the problem of racism, feeling they need to be constantly on guard.

One black female participant called Natasha, was told during a workshop that when shopkeepers do not put change into her hand, this is an example of blatant racism.

She resolved to say something in future. But it's far from clear that such a minor incident is a racist act, and in fact, research suggests it happens to lots of people, black and white.

Sceptics say the message of diversity training is that racism is in the eye of the beholder. Put simply: if you think an act is racist, then it automatically is.

The result is a heightened sense of grievance, even when it is not warranted.

Worse still, commentators suggest it could mean genuine cases of racial discrimination get swamped in a mire of less credible claims.

It is hard to judge what the effect of diversity training is likely to be in the UK. We may like to think that as a nation we are better at handling racial issues than Americans.