A bold new diversity training

Whites just suck in general:

'Most white people most of the time" share the belief that "bland is best" when it comes to aesthetics. They believe that "wealth equals worth" and that a wife is "subordinate to (her) husband."

In communicating, white people "don't show emotion" and "avoid conflict, intimacy."

They share an ethic of "win at all costs" and possess a "master and control nature."

Had enough of this bigoted, juvenile, trashy analysis? Unfortunately, I'm merely quoting from a sheet distributed recently to some teachers at Cimarron Elementary School in Aurora as part of the diversity training set in motion last year by the Cherry Creek School District.

The teacher who showed me the paper was deeply offended by it, as of course she should be. It is replete not only with simple-minded generalizations, but also with subtle digs at social norms such as the nuclear family and attitudes that enable people to succeed in a society such as ours.

If planning for the future, delaying gratification and self-reliance are "aspects and assumptions of white culture," as the paper insists, instead of good habits that assist all of us in achieving our goals, then people who harp on such traits may unconsciously be putting minorities down. Thus the perverse logic of such exercises.

The idea behind such training, as I explained in two columns last May on Cherry Creek's embrace of radical diversity ideology, is that the achievement gap between some ethnic groups is mainly a product of institutional racism and the culture of "Whiteness." Teachers with the suspect pigmentation are expected to feel guilt and shame.

For the moment let's forget that this radical ideology insults the vast majority of well-meaning, nonracist teachers. And let's ignore the fact that its thesis fails to account for the astonishing academic success of Asian-Americans. The most surprising feature of this brand of diversity propaganda is, as you can see, its sheer crudeness - as well as the fact that it is inflicted upon one of the better educated professions in the land.