Diversity Seminars Don't Have To Be Maoist Struggle Sessions

Chloe Valdary's Theory of Enchantment program uses Kendrick Lamar, Cheryl Strayed, and The Lion King to ease workplace racial tensions.

Nick Gillespie | 8.2.2021 1:45 PM

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In a world where workplace diversity sessions increasingly resemble Maoist struggle sessions, Chloé Valdary's Theory of Enchantment seminars seek to bring people together using popular culture to explore our common humanity and generate empathy rather than division.

The 28-year-old Valdary started a group to combat anti-semitism as an undergraduate at the University of New Oreans, and after a fellowship at the Wall Street Journal opinion page, she created Theory of Enchantment as an alternative to the antiracist programs of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, which she believes deepen the very resentments they seek to alleviate. Her program employs materials as varied as Disney's Lion King, music from Kendrick Lamar, and writings by James Baldwin and Cheryl Strayed.

Valdary spoke to Reason about how her life experiences inform Theory of Enchantment, why the demand for her program is growing, and why she's optimistic about the future of race relations and individualism.

Photo Credits: Tsering Dorjee, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Panchen Lama Struggle Session, Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash; Koshu Kunii on Unsplash; Philip Strong on Unsplash; Holly Andres on cherylstrayed.com; Rob Croes / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons; Batiste Safont, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons; Photo by Roger Cosby on Unsplash; John Marshall Mantel/ZUMA Press/Newscom; https://www.uno.edu/uc; Photo by Brother Swagler on Unsplash; Photo by Clark Van Der Beken on Unsplash; Photo by Nelson Ndongala on Unsplash; Photo by Duncan Shaffer on Unsplash; Photo by Ryoji Iwata on Unsplash: Photo by Alicia Steels on Unsplash; Cheryl Strayed Photo by Joni Kabana; Theory of Enchantment on Facebook; Patience Photo by Caleb Gregory on Unsplash; Photo by Seven Shooter on Unsplash; Photo by Teemu Paananen on Unsplash

Intro edited by Regan Taylor; interview edited by Ian Keyser; hosted and narrated by Nick Gillespie.

Music Credits: Never Looking Back - Instrumental Version, by VESHZA on Artist.io

NEXT: Dave Smith on Big Tech Censorship, Lockdowns, and Running for President

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Nachtwaechter Staater 4 years ago

And yet, Nick, THEY ***ALWAYS*** ARE.

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1. criticaljeff racial theorist 4 years ago
  
  This from the "libertarian" who last year wrote that Communist governments dont always have to be Stalinist totalitarianz
  
  Log in to Reply
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  2. ThomasD 4 years ago
    
    What the fuck do you know about any of this? It's not like you have an actual job other than shitposting on the internet.
    
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2. Mother's Lament 4 years ago
  
  Maoist Struggle Sessions are the point, not a byproduct.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. JoeB 4 years ago
    
    A feature, not a bug!
    
    Log in to Reply
  2. ThomasD 4 years ago
    
    From what I've seen at both of my company gigs they are as much about insulating upper management from any real consequences as they are about anything else.
    
    But yeah, they inevitably go Maoist, if only because the 'facilitators' are reliably "no enemies to the left" so there are no real brakes on participants who drive things in that direction.
    
    Much like Reason editorial meetings over the last decade.
    
    Log in to Reply
criticaljeff racial theorist 4 years ago

JFC, Fonzie.

Please go away forever

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1. Chumby 4 years ago
  
  Those would be happy days.
  
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Dillinger 4 years ago

>>seek to bring people together using popular culture to explore our common humanity and generate empathy rather than division

ya. Children's Television Workshop.

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Moonrocks 4 years ago

Diversity Seminars Don't Have To Be Maoist Struggle Sessions

Yes they do. That's the whole point.

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1. Nardz 4 years ago
  
  Beat me to it
  
  Log in to Reply
Ken Shultz 4 years ago

We need a kinder, gentler totalitarianism--a Big Brother that gives people hugs and says, "I love you".

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1. mad.casual 4 years ago
  
  If Big Sister were a perfect 36-24-36, everything else about 1984 would've been hunky dory.
  
  On the plus side, the torture is likely to be much better than waking up with your head stuck in a rat cage. Though I'm not sure I'd want to shoot myself any less.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Chumby 4 years ago
    
    The DomiMatrix?
    
    Log in to Reply
  2. squid_hunt 4 years ago
    
    Only if she's 5'3".
    
    Log in to Reply
2. Union of Concerned Socks 4 years ago
  
  So, head cages with rats?
  
  Meh, sounds better than your average diversity seminar.
  
  Log in to Reply
Brett Bellmore 4 years ago

You don't quite get it: Maoist struggle sessions are the whole point. "Diversity" is just an excuse.

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1. JimboJr 4 years ago
  
  +++
  
  Who wouldve thought the people that push for marxist policies, side with the Cuban govt, and desire a socialist/communist govt would end up using the same kinds of tactics as Mao and Lenin. This was always going to be the way it ended up because it always fucking does.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Frank Sterle Jr. 4 years ago
    
    Unlike a few social/labor revolutions of the past, notably the Bolshevik and French revolutions, it seems to me that virtual corporate rule and the superfluously wealthy essentially have the police and military ready to foremost protect big power and money interests, even over the food and shelter needs of the protesting masses.
    
    I can imagine that there are/were lessons learned from them — a figurative How to Hinder Progressive Revolutions 101, perhaps — with the clarity of hindsight by big power and money interests. They, the police/military/big-money, can claim they must bust heads to maintain law and order as a priority; thus the absurdly unjust inequities and inequalities can persist.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Nardz 4 years ago
      
      Big money and big power are 100% the progressives, and it's progressive policies that exacerbate and create inequality and inequities
      
      Log in to Reply
2. Mark Thrust, Sexus Ranger 4 years ago
  
  Maoist Struggle Session is a good name for a band though.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. BestUsedCarSales 4 years ago
    
    Struggle Session is, by pure coincidence, the name of my new porn website. All face sitting, all the time.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. JimboJr 4 years ago
      
      Good sir, I would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
      
      And by newsletter, I mean porn site
      
      Log in to Reply
    2. The Encogitationer 4 years ago
      
      Mmmm...Predicament porn!
      
      Log in to Reply
  2. KillAllRednecks 4 years ago
    
    What kind of shitty white trash music do you like traitor?
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. EISTAU Gree-Vance 4 years ago
      
      Do all the 6th graders wanna know, or just you?
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. KillAllRednecks 4 years ago
        
        I don’t know any 6th graders, so I don’t know…
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Mother's Lament 4 years ago
        
        "I don’t know any 6th graders"
        
        Yes, yes, they're 3rd graders, but Eistau didn't mean did you know them "biblically".
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        KillAllRednecks 4 years ago
        
        Good one ML!
        
        You find me being anti Semitic yet?
        
        My offer is still there.
        
        I’m sure a Mormon knower(in the biblical sense) like you would love to be rid of me.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        squid_hunt 4 years ago
        
        Thank God "Killallrednecks" isn't racist against Jews.
        
        The best part about the left is that they wear their bigotry on their sleeve and call it tolerance.
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. KillAllRednecks 4 years ago
        
        I tried going #2 in the 5th grade bathroom and a bully gave me a swirlie. So I stay out of the big kid halls…
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        JoeB 4 years ago
        
        Yet, it haunts you still...
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        KillAllRednecks 4 years ago
        
        Have you ever gotten a swirlie?
        
        It’s quite traumatic. Like water boarding, but funny
        
        Log in to Reply
  3. Union of Concerned Socks 4 years ago
    
    So is Diversity Seminar. They could open for the Slants.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Nardz 4 years ago
      
      You're, uh, not supposed to call them that anymore
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Commenter_XY 4 years ago
        
        Can we call 'em Slopes?
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        squid_hunt 4 years ago
        
        They prefer chink or oriental.
        
        Log in to Reply
Chumby 4 years ago

Be less White Mike

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1. Mother's Lament 4 years ago
  
  You mean be honest?
  
  Log in to Reply
mad.casual 4 years ago

Disney's Lion King, music from Kendrick Lamar, and writings by James Baldwin and Cheryl Strayed

So, in predominantly black companies do they watch Song Of The South (Gone With The Wind? I'm getting confused on which fiction cures racism and which doesn't), listen to David Allen Coe, and read The Secret Garden?

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1. A Cynical Asshole 4 years ago
  
  I’m getting confused on which fiction cures racism and which doesn’t
  
  It's quite simple really: if the author is a straight white cis-gendered man, then it's the kind that doesn't and needs to be cancelled. If the author can check off any of the "diversity" check boxes (racial minority, female, any of the various alphabet categories, mentally and/or physically disabled, or "body positivity" activist - aka a gigantic land whale) then the amount the work cures racism is proportional to the number of boxes the author can check off. So any work by a gay, black, non-binary, transgendered, morbidly obese, wheel chair bound female with depression and PTSD author is automatically The Most Important Book Ever Written and Must Be Read by Everyone and anyone who disagrees is an evil Nazi.
  
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  1. JohnZ 4 years ago
    
    So it translates to the amount of grievous victimhood intersectionality one can acquire for extra brownie points.
    
    Log in to Reply
2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago
  
  They watch Black Savior narrative movies, in which a working class black man with a troubled past teaches an uptight, wealthy white man how to really live.
  
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  1. A Thinking Mind 4 years ago
    
    Ah, so "Trading Places."
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. R Mac 4 years ago
      
      + Jamie Lee Curtis’s amazing boobs.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Union of Concerned Socks 4 years ago
        
        + +
        
        Log in to Reply
Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland 4 years ago

Back in university we had an approximately bimonthly diversity seminar. It was called a kegger, and people of all races and religions got together hung out and got along with out the need of anyone claiming victim status, grated this was the early 2000s, before the progs started pushing for full on race wars. There was no discrimination... Unless you were a male and brought boonsfarm

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1. The Encogitationer 4 years ago
  
  And no petitioning the Lord with prayer, just praying to the porcelain god! 🙂
  
  Log in to Reply
Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf 4 years ago

Everyone (except Tony) here knows how to combat racism: stop noting race, stop making it a checkbox, stop logging it, stop mandating it. All these things are one thing: racism. By definition they are racist, racism, racial, call it what you will.

That will include getting rid of affirmative action and other racist programs, and restoring freedom of association to a fundamental right recognized by the Constitution. If some damn fool wants to bar blacks from his lunch counter, I won't eat there, but it's his business, his decision to drive away customers. If some other damn fool wants to not bake pink+blue cakes, or photograph gay weddings, that his business to ruin by restricting his customer base.

Just because racism is mandated by law does not make it a good thing. It was good when it meant slavery, it wasn't good when it mandated separate and unequal, it wasn't good when it mandated affirmative action, it isn't good now, and it never will be good.

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1. A Cynical Asshole 4 years ago
  
  It was good when it meant slavery
  
  Damn straight, it was free labor!
  
  Just kidding, I'm sure you meant to say "It wasn't good..." but I couldn't resist the joke.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. R Mac 4 years ago
    
    It threw me for a second.
    
    Log in to Reply
  2. Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf 4 years ago
    
    Damn, I sure missed that! Sure does read funny.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. retiredfire 4 years ago
      
      Almost as funny as those black slave owners being called racists.
      
      Log in to Reply
2. The Encogitationer 4 years ago
  
  As Papa Heinlein put it: No Jim Crow and no Crow Jim!
  
  Log in to Reply
3. ananimasu 4 years ago
  
  The only color businesses care about is green. We blame them after the fact for what the government forced them to do.
  
  Log in to Reply
Ken Shultz 4 years ago

There are kinder and gentler ways to control people's thoughts and feelings, but they all have the downside of trying to control people's thoughts and feelings.

Even with things like the Human Potential Movement, Large-group awareness training, EST seminars, etc., the reason they had to try so hard to differentiate themselves from cult activity and "coercive persuasion" was because their techniques were so much like them.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-group_awareness_training#LGATs_and_the_anti-cult_movement

There are more humane and less painful ways of making bacon. You can cut its throat, shoot it between the eyes, or boil it alive, but they all involve killing a pig. There are more enjoyable and less painful ways of engaging in thought control, too, but they all involve controlling other people's thoughts.

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1. Chumby 4 years ago
  
  If we could post pics, I’d regularly share pics of bacon cheeseburgers for all the Californians. At least after Sacramento has swinedled you out of the opportunity to have pork.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
    
    Bacon cheeseburgers won't have the effect you want.
    
    The Mexican-American community in California will go nuts if there's a shortage of carnitas.
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carnitas
    
    There may be no other issue like it. Whatever else it is that the government think they can get away with doing, they should not fuck with the ability of Mexican-Americans to make carnitas.
    
    Making it prohibitively expensive to make carnitas is probably much worse to Mexican-Americans than disrespecting the flag is to patriotic Americans or the war on Christmas is to American consumers.
    
    You don't do that. One stupid "anglo" politician using a racial slur towards Mexican-Americans might offend them less than the whole government enacting policies that are so obtuse and so insensitive that they somehow deprive Mexican-Americans of the ability to make carnitas.
    
    Whatever laws need to happen in order to make the pork flow and the carnitas start sizzling again, it will happen soon after the price of pork goes through the roof. The government of California may not survive the rage of Mexican-Americans directed at Sacramento if they can't make carnitas for an extended period of time. I'm not exaggerating.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. BestUsedCarSales 4 years ago
      
      It's worse then just carnitas since pork features heavily into good Mexican food. Carnitas is one. Chicharrones is another. But even good refried beans had lard, as do the best tortillas. Unless they're people from specifically cattle ranching parts of Mexico (which to be fair, is a lot of the border) it's the main meat.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Overt 4 years ago
        
        Man, Tacos al Pastor have recently gotten very good here in southern california.
        
        Of course, maybe this is all feature not bug to californians. After all, the restaurant in my neighborhood is culturally appropriating food from a region of mexico that culturally appropriated it from lebanese immigrants in the 1900s. It's double-plus no bueno.
        
        (In all seriousness, every time someone tells me about cultural food appropriation, I tell them the story of al pastor and how fucking AWESOME the migration of food traditions across borders really is.)
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Ken Shultz 4 years ago
        
        When I lived in the Yucatan for more than a year, Pastor was all over the place--far more than other kinds of beef, which was mostly sold in what they called Argentinian restaurants.
        
        The Yucatan is conducive to cattle raising, but there's a huge Lebanese community in that part of Mexico, and my understanding it that they brought Pastor with them.
        
        In Middle Eastern cuisine, the meat is served a lot like the gyros you might get in a Greek deli back on the east coast, but in Mexico, they adapted it to tacos, and it's so fuckin' good.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Ken Shultz 4 years ago
        
        The Yucatan is [not] conducive to cattle raising.
        
        Fixed!
        
        Log in to Reply
    2. Stuck in California 4 years ago
      
      Taking Carnitas away from San Diego is like taking Italian Beef sandwiches away from Chicago.
      
      It isn't just Mexicans. It's everyone, we all eat at 'ertos growing up in Southern California. It's a local delicacy. The farther away you get from San Diego county, the worse the mexican food.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
        
        I'm not sure people outside the southwest understand the difference between authentic Mexican food and the stuff they get at El Torito or wherever. And when they order, they order the stuff they'd usually get at El Torito and don't really know what they're missing or what authentic Mexican food is supposed to taste like.
        
        The carne asada burritos I used to get at Alberto's in North County back in the 1980s were better than the Mexican food I've had everywhere outside of American southwest and Mexico. And that was just drive through, fast food version of authentic. But, dude, for $4, they'd give you a two fisted steak burrito full of stolen avocados and good stuff.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Stuck in California 4 years ago
        
        Oddly, San Diego-centric mexican food isn't quite authentic. I mean, as traditional Mexican food. It's an olio of styles, mostly Norteno, though carnitas as you'd get at a good 'ertos is kind of based on Michoacan cuisine. Burritos themselves are an American/Norteno mishmash.
        
        A carnitas burrito from Karinas in Leucadia or... well, pick your 'ertos, I guess. SOOOOOOO good for so little money. Little mexican market a few blocks from my old house would have daily specials and you could almost always get an asada or al pastor burrito or three street tacos for a couple bucks.
        
        The food in Mexico City is the best I've ever had outside of Italy, but it was funny when I learned that it is not the same as Southern California taco shops.
        
        I work in Chicago a lot and the last time we were in that office someone mentioned mexican food. I asked when we were going to have it and was informed that it had been served the day before. I had NO idea they thought that was mexican food. And, I mean, there are a lot of Mexicans in the Chicago area, you'd think one of them could at least educate the masses. But, no, they just don't get it in the midwest. Or anywhere else in the US I've traveled. It's as regional as New Yorkers claim a bagel is. Or from experience a Chicago Italian Beef, a Philly Chesesteak, or a few others. I'm sure there are some I probably haven't tried personally.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Claptrap 4 years ago
        
        Claim? Outside this area (and in much of the area itself) a bagel is just a roll with a hole in the middle of it. You should also hear how the real NYers sneer at Chinese take-out from anywhere else (there's only one authentically inauthentic way to do it!).
        
        In my travels throughout SoCal I didn't sense a huge difference in the Mexican food compared to what's back home; it was better, but better in the way the NY pizza is better than Philly's. I guess being inundated with Mexicans has its advantages.
        
        Bringing it back to pigs, Philly's iconic sandwich should be the roast pork. I could eat a thousand of them, and would.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Stuck in California 4 years ago
        
        > Claim?
        
        You misapprehend my meaning.
        
        I just haven't done this myself. Not a bagel eater, wasn't a thing I have done when visiting New York. So I am not the one to attest, and I can leave that to those who have. New Yorkers never shut up about that shit, so I needn't speak for them.
        
        I have personal experience with other regional foods.
        
        And I'll agree on the roast pork being so very good, though nobody around here makes a shite sandwich calling it a "Philly Roast Pork" like they do their wannabe cheesesteaks.
        
        Where did you get your mexican food when you were here?
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Nardz 4 years ago
        
        New Yorkers never shut up about anything from The City
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        ananimasu 4 years ago
        
        people steal avocados?
        
        Log in to Reply
    3. Chumby 4 years ago
      
      So like in Dune but instead of spice it will be pork.
      What about pork chorizo? It is popular in Toluca but dunno about SoCal/Cal.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
        
        Yeah, it's like that.
        
        The guild is gonna be seriously pissed off when there's no spice.
        
        Only we're talking about pork.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        squid_hunt 4 years ago
        
        When you say pork, are we talking about Congress?
        
        Log in to Reply
    4. Utkonos 4 years ago
      
      Don’t forget about California’s large Filipino population as well. Only a fool would come between a Pinoy and his pork!
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Brett Bellmore 4 years ago
        
        They could always appease them with stinky fish! (My wife's a filipina, and when I come home and there are candles burning in the house, I know what she's been eating...)
        
        Log in to Reply
    5. R Mac 4 years ago
      
      Did you link to carnitas wiki page for sarc’s benefit?
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
        
        Not everybody knows what we're talking about.
        
        Some people don't know the difference between carne asada, carnitas, and carnival.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        JoeB 4 years ago
        
        Carnal is my favorite.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        ananimasu 4 years ago
        
        i mean, it does translate as “flesh” sooooooooo
        
        Log in to Reply
    6. Bubba Jones 4 years ago
      
      I love carnitas. I frequently substitute it for other meats on the menu.
      
      Another favorite is chorizo. Who doesn't love some spicy salivary glands in the morning?
      
      Log in to Reply
  2. Overt 4 years ago
    
    "At least after Sacramento has swinedled you out of the opportunity to have pork."
    
    Let's be clear here: The pork ban was passed by popular referendum. Proof positive that the only person worse than the legislators of my state are the assholes living next door to me.
    
    Log in to Reply
  3. John C. Randolph 4 years ago
    
    I'm sure it will be just as hard to get pork in California as it was to get pot before legalization.
    
    -jcr
    
    Log in to Reply
2. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
  
  If there's a way to control other people's thoughts without being coercive, someone who believes that needs to make the argument.
  
  Even when you're dealing with willing participants, you need to wonder about the psychological health of the people who are wiling to subject themselves to that.
  
  Abusive spouses often use the same methods of thought control as totalitarian governments and cults, not because they're aware of those techniques and have studied them. They just go with what works, and the kinds of people who will tolerate psychological abuse typically have certain psychological issues. If they were psychologically healthy, they wouldn't continuously subject themselves to psychological abuse. They'd get out.
  
  Whatever the morality of allowing people to subject themselves to that kind of treatment, however, what is the ethical justification for inflicting psychological abuse on others? Respect for the thoughts, feelings, and desires of other people approximates agency itself--the respect for which is the essence of all libertarian ethics. From a libertarian perspective, how can we justify grabbing someone's agency by the neck and twisting it around until we get the effect we want?
  
  Note the difference between that and persuasion. Persuasion not only respects the right of every individual to their own thoughts, feelings, and desires but also . . . it's practically impossible to persuade anyone of anything without convincing them, first, that we care about what they think and feel. In fact, libertarianism is all about getting people to care about their own rights to think, feel, say, and desire what they want--and to make choices for themselves.
  
  Anything we do to undermine people's belief in the sanctity of their own thoughts and feelings and impose our own thoughts and feelings on them in their place--in an effort to make them think thoughts, have feelings, and make choices that we like better--is anti-libertarian in the most fundamental way.
  
  Your motives are no better than your willingness to respect the rights of others to think and feel what they want.
  
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  1. Cronut 4 years ago
    
    It is psychologically abusive, and that's why it's so abhorrent. It's predatory and unethical, and not just toward psychologically vulnerable people. It's predatory toward regular people who, in general, want to be decent people and want to do the right thing by others. None of this crap would have gotten any legs at all if regular, well meaning people weren't concerned for the welfare of their fellow man.
    
    The past half century has demonstrated that it's also unnecessary. Civil rights and racial equality has come further over the past 60 years than it had in the rest of American history, and that's because most people have been pursuaded that it's the right thing to do.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
      
      Yes, psychologically abusing people to make them think and feel what we want doesn't generally make them healthy and happy people.
      
      "The victim may experience severe psychological effects. This would involve the tactics of brainwashing, which can fall under psychological abuse as well, but emotional abuse consists of the manipulation of the victim's emotions. The victim may feel their emotions are being affected by the abuser to such an extent that the victim may no longer recognize their own feelings regarding the issues the abuser is trying to control. The result is the victim's self-concept and independence are systematically taken away."
      
      ----Psychological Abuse
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychological_abuse
      
      Regardless of whether or not we think this is psychologically or emotionally abusive, we should get clear on whether psychological and emotional abuse can be justified in the name of ridding society of racism.
      
      Everyone who thinks eradicating racism does justify psychological and emotional abuse should come right out and say so. We can proceed from there.
      
      Log in to Reply
    2. Nardz 4 years ago
      
      "The past half century has demonstrated that it’s also unnecessary. Civil rights and racial equality has come further over the past 60 years than it had in the rest of American history, and that’s because most people have been pursuaded that it’s the right thing to do."
      
      Which is exactly why it's necessary for the progressives
      
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3. mad.casual 4 years ago
  
  Even with things like the Human Potential Movement, Large-group awareness training, EST seminars, etc., the reason they had to try so hard to differentiate themselves from cult activity and “coercive persuasion” was because their techniques were so much like them.
  
  'Theory Of Enchantment' sounds *exactly* like the name of a strip club and if you try to legitimize it by making it a clinic/resort/or center, it sounds *exactly* like an NXVIM-style sex cult.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Ken Shultz 4 years ago
    
    It sounds like the Human Potential Movement seminars that have been adapted to deal with race relations.
    
    Here are some examples of these human potential organizations that used to go around giving these transformation seminars.
    
    est
    The Forum
    Landmark Education
    Lifespring
    Lifestream
    LifeResults
    LifeSuccess
    Context Training / Context International
    PSI Seminars
    Personal Dynamics
    Life Dynamics
    Alpha Seminars
    Hoffman Quadrinity Process
    Dimensional Mind Approach
    Pathwork
    
    Some of them have a different emphasis, and some of them used to be marketed as executive training courses. A lot or their stuff was adapted into things like team building exercises, motivational speakers, management guru stuff, personal psychology for sales people, etc. They called them "seminars".
    
    "Specific techniques used in some Large Group Awareness Trainings may include:
    
    meditation
    biofeedback
    jargon
    self-hypnosis
    relaxation techniques
    visualization
    neuro-linguistic programming
    yoga
    
    [Large Group Awareness Training sessions] utilize such techniques during long sessions, sometimes called "marathon" sessions. Paglia describes "EST's Large Group Awareness Training": "Marathon, eight-hour sessions, in which [participants] were confined and harassed, supposedly led to the breakdown of conventional ego, after which they were in effect born again."
    
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large-group_awareness_training#LGAT_techniques
    
    Are these "seminars" using techniques like this?
    
    These techniques were originally adapted from Buddhist monasteries, where the intent was to teach the prepubescent second and third sons of local farmers to lose their desire for women and possessions and accept renouncing both so the family farm wouldn't be broken into pieces too small to support any family over successive generations.
    
    Chinese, Korean, Cambodian and other totalitarian regimes adapted these techniques to "reeducate" their people and teach them to doubt the validity of their individual thoughts and selfish desires for property.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Utkonos 4 years ago
      
      Anyone here ever actually go through EST? If so, which was the worse ordeal-the marathon session with no access to a toilet (“You are not a tube!”) or trying to get off their damn call list in the ensuing years/decades?
      
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    2. JohnZ 4 years ago
      
      L. Ron Hubbard was another of these shamsters.
      Improve yourself with Dianetics!
      Then he created Scientology.
      He was also terrible at writing Sci Fi.
      
      Log in to Reply
  2. JoeB 4 years ago
    
    Hence Nick's interest in it.
    
    Log in to Reply
Unicorn Abattoir 4 years ago

You want to ease workplace racial tensions? Stop this crap.

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1. Zeb 4 years ago
  
  Yeah, that this is even a problem in need of a solution is a huge and faulty assumption. Actual racists won't be swayed by this kind of bullshit. For everyone else it will just be confusing or inflame resentments.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. JimboJr 4 years ago
    
    Ya its really their only move in terms of race. Race relations are so much better than ever, we have to make ourselves think about an invisible boogeyman (systemic racism) and turn our thoughts mostly toward race, make all identity 1000% about race (and sexuality) whereas most people might think about it to a degree, but barely at all.
    
    It's the only way they can drive a wedge between otherwise well meaning people.
    
    As you said, any actual full on racist is likely to just sit there and nod while getting more racist. Anyone that had some internal racial beef or people that barely thought about race are now more likely to find themselves immersed in it and resentful of others.
    
    But they know that. They are "firemen" who show up to put out a small trashcan fire with gasoline and dynamite.
    
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  2. Cronut 4 years ago
    
    These types of programs seriously over estimate the extent to which normal people care or obsess over race. In general, normal white people have no emotional investment in oppressing anyone. They just want to be left alone, and they don't really care about people's race.
    
    Woke people are deeply racist people who have no understanding of how other, normal people think or live their lives. They have messed up views on race, and they just assume everyone thinks that way, when we really don't.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Nardz 4 years ago
      
      I don't think they assume it - they're trying to induce it.
      
      Log in to Reply
2. Nardz 4 years ago
  
  "You want to ease workplace racial tensions?"
  
  No, they don't.
  They want struggle sessions.
  
  Log in to Reply
3. Vulgar Madman 4 years ago
  
  Picking at a scab is how you make it better !
  
  Log in to Reply
Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago

In a world where workplace diversity sessions increasingly resemble Maoist struggle sessions,

Reason's finally caught up to 2017. I'm cheering them on!

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Cal Cetín 4 years ago

"I'm sorry Officer Mutt is so mean to you, let's give you some time with Officer Jeff, he's much nice and maybe you'll confess your racism to *him*. Otherwise we'll have to call in Officer Mutt again."

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Ben_ 4 years ago

Nick doesn’t understand the objective of diversity seminars.

If you want everyone to be nice to each other and respect each other, it doesn’t take a seminar. You just say it.

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buckleup 4 years ago

It's a loyalty test, and if you argue with it you failed.

That the left is using corporations to push their ideology is just totalitarianism in a another disguise. That even libertarians go with the "private companies speech nothing to see here" is troublesome.

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1. JimboJr 4 years ago
  
  No coincidence that parents who speak up are put on lists, publicly threatened (in front of other parents) with lawsuits for even requesting information.
  
  Log in to Reply
Longtobefree 4 years ago

Shorter, better headline
"Diversity Seminars Don’t Have To Be"

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Quo Usque Tandem 4 years ago

"..explore our common humanity and generate empathy rather than division" vs. "the antiracist programs of Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, which she believes deepen the very resentments they seek to alleviate."

Nice thought, really, but we were pretty well doing the empathy thing on our own already; the whole point of these so called "diversity" interventions is to bring about the very resentments. That is how you create and exploit a power differential. Which is why racism was redefined during Obama's administration [anyone remember the chatter about living in a "post racial society" in 2008?] to mean things like "white privilege" and now "critical race theory." It is entirely subjective and designed to be the song that never ends.

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1. EISTAU Gree-Vance 4 years ago
  
  “…… resentments they seek to alleviate.”
  
  Got a chuckle out o that.
  
  Log in to Reply
Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago

Get in on this channel now. It's at 1.7k subscribers and it should have a million.

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1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago
  
  Why Elite Private High Schools Love Critical Race Theory w/ Amanda Milius
  
  Log in to Reply
2. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago
  
  "Paraphrased: The white elite in these areas are the wealthiest people on the planet, they're at the end of history, they've solved scarcity, and yet they're deeply psychologically broken"
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Cronut 4 years ago
    
    They love it because it allows them to pay lipservice to "racial equity" without having to actually do anything or give up anything. It's no different than membership in the "right" country club, or being seen eating at all the best restaurants, or whatever rich people do to fit in with other rich people. They won't send their kids to public school with poor black kids, and wokeness allows them to pretend their not actually really racist people.
    
    Log in to Reply
  2. Vulgar Madman 4 years ago
    
    It was always thus.
    
    Log in to Reply
Cal Cetín 4 years ago

So, on the one hand these corporations are pressured (sometimes by the govt, sometimes by internal constituencies) to hire "diversity consultants" to inoculate against the white-privilege variant of the racism virus. But on the other hand if they hire officer Mutt to sceam at the employees they get pushback, so what to do? "Compromise" by hiring a sweet-talking, non-shouty diversity consultant, and hope everyone is pleased. Everyone who counts, that is.

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1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago
  
  It all presumes that diversity solves anything, or is even desirable.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Cal Cetín 4 years ago
    
    The harder they work at it, diverse it gets.
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Cal Cetín 4 years ago
      
      Diversity *consulting,* that is.
      
      Actual diversity might work, if they do it sincerely and don't mess it up with unproven (or falsified) ideological concepts.
      
      Log in to Reply
      1. Diane Reynolds (Paul.) 4 years ago
        
        Google going to suddenly start hiring working class black Trump voters? Oh, not THAT kind of diversity.
        
        Log in to Reply
        
        Titus PUllo 4 years ago
        
        Google has an issue with libertarians and Italians it seems...Reason care to comment? or just defend the bolsheviks who run Google?
        
        Log in to Reply
      2. Utkonos 4 years ago
        
        You mean actual diversity of thought? That smacks of white cis male privilege—or as our glorious predecessor Mao would put it, arch-reaction ! Assume the jet plane position, comrade!
        
        Log in to Reply
2. American Mongrel 4 years ago
  
  That's Sgt mongrel to you sir.
  
  Log in to Reply
n00bdragon 4 years ago

So now Reason is literally shilling for diversity seminars? JFC. The way to stop discriminating on the basis of race is to stop discriminating on the basis of race. Done. Where's my check?

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1. Cal Cetín 4 years ago
  
  "shilling for diversity seminars"
  
  Shilling? They're not going to get out of it that cheaply.
  
  Log in to Reply
2. Vulgar Madman 4 years ago
  
  There is to much money in race hustling
  to ever quit it.
  
  Log in to Reply
The Encogitationer 4 years ago

Diversity Seminars Don't Have To Be Maoist Struggle Sessions
Chloe Valdary's Theory of Enchantment program uses Kendrick Lamar, Cheryl Strayed, and The Lion King to ease workplace racial tensions.

How about just recognizing the common desire to get shit done and get the Hell home? That's how everybody at my workplace gets along.

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1. Cal Cetín 4 years ago
  
  You'll want my Deluxe Package, where I agree not to waste your time with my seminars and mark you all as having attended, whether you did or not.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. Cal Cetín 4 years ago
    
    For my Platinum Package, you all get certificates of anti-racism personally signed by Martin Luther King, Jr.
    
    https://dilbert.com/strip/1997-10-23
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. The Encogitationer 4 years ago
      
      I want the Newhart Package where the "Struggle Session" was all just a dream and we are all actually "Living The Dream" of MLK.
      
      Log in to Reply
    2. The Encogitationer 4 years ago
      
      That gives yet another idea on how to unite a workplace: Give all the workers a common enemy to hate, like Catbert, The Evil Human Resources Director.
      
      Log in to Reply
NOYB2 4 years ago

Chloe Valdary's Theory of Enchantment program uses Kendrick Lamar, Cheryl Strayed, and The Lion King to ease workplace racial tensions.

I have never seen any racial tensions at any of my workplaces.

What I have seen is tensions between intolerant, aggressive, bigoted ideologues and normal people.

I gather Gillespie is in the former category of people.

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1. Vulgar Madman 4 years ago
  
  He just wants a diversity dominatrix to beat the white guilt out of him.
  
  Log in to Reply
  1. NOYB2 4 years ago
    
    That's what he hired Shika for, didn't he?
    
    Log in to Reply
    1. Vulgar Madman 4 years ago
      
      Eh, to white for that.
      
      Log in to Reply
Frank Sterle Jr. 4 years ago

Although there's research indicating that infants demonstrate a preference for caregivers of their own race, any future racial biases and bigotries generally are environmentally acquired. Adult racist sentiments are often cemented by a misguided yet strong sense of entitlement, perhaps also acquired from one's environment.

One means of proactively preventing this social/societal problem may be by allowing young children to become accustomed to other races in a harmoniously positive manner. The early years are typically the best time to instill and even solidify positive social-interaction life skills/traits, like interracial harmonization, into a very young brain. Human infancy is the prime (if not the only) time to instill and even solidify positive social-interaction characteristics into a very young mind.

At a very young and therefore impressionable age, I was emphatically told by my mother (who's of Eastern European heritage, Croatian specifically) about the exceptionally kind and caring nature of our Black family doctor. She never had anything disdainful to say about people of color; in fact, she still enjoys watching/listening to the Middle Eastern and Indian subcontinental dancers and musicians on the multicultural channel. I believe that her doing so had a very positive and lasting effect on me.

Irrational racist sentiment can be handed down generation to generation. If it’s deliberate, it’s something I strongly feel amounts to a form of child abuse: to rear one's impressionably very young children in an environment of overt bigotry — especially against other races and/or sub-racial groups (i.e. ethnicities). Not only does it fail to prepare children for the practical reality of an increasingly racially/ethnically diverse and populous society and workplace, it also makes it so much less likely those children will be emotionally content or (preferably) harmonious with their multicultural/-racial surroundings. Children reared into their adolescence and, eventually, young adulthood this way can often be angry yet not fully realize at precisely what. Then they may feel left with little choice but to move to another part of the land, where their race or ethnicity predominates, preferably overwhelmingly so.

If not for themselves, parents then should do their young children a big favor and NOT pass down onto their very impressionable offspring racially/ethnically bigoted feelings and perceptions, nor implicit stereotypes and ‘humor’, for that matter. Ironically, such rearing can make life much harder for one's own children.

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1. Vulgar Madman 4 years ago
  
  I’m guessing non whites aren’t affected by any of this.
  
  Go fuck yourself.
  
  Log in to Reply
2. Titus PUllo 4 years ago
  
  And govt has a role in this of course? Social outcomes that make you feel "good" or ensure your tribe gets enriched? Your expectations at work are to act professionally..your personal beliefs you leave at home..
  
  Stop this left "libertarian" crap please..because we all know where it leads to...focus on "equal results" when it benefits one tribe and "nothing here" when you don't point out how same tribe is overepresented..still waiting for why Catholics are so underrepresented at Ivy League Colleges, the Media, Entertainment, academia and yes the Biden admin...ha ha
  
  Log in to Reply
3. Cal Cetín 4 years ago
  
  Proverbs 22:6
  
  Log in to Reply
4. JoeB 4 years ago
  
  Yes, the 357 families in the US where that is happening can certainly do better.
  
  Log in to Reply
5. Nardz 4 years ago
  
  You're projecting, PAC/NGO/DNC staffer
  
  Log in to Reply
Titus PUllo 4 years ago

When you go to work act professionally..wow that is about it..I'm sick of these "grifters"..man what is wrong with Reason..it really isn't a libertarian site anymore...just get a job at Salon or Slate or New Yorker...all the writers at Reason seem to live in DC or NYC..

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1. JoeB 4 years ago
  
  Maybe Nick is a shareholder. Or just likes the dark ones.
  
  Log in to Reply
2. Cyto 4 years ago
  
  She is a light side grifter though. It sounds like weak tea.. but in an era where the grift is funded and supported by progressives explicitly for political purposes with the overtly evil intent of creating a racist society, maybe a light side counter-grift to provide cover for companies while denying space for the racist training is a good thing.
  
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jgress 4 years ago

Oh good, a seminar where we can talk freely about racial disparities at last! I’m sure everyone will be interested to hear how higher crime rates are the reason blacks real estate has lower values and not some nebulous plot by racist realtors.

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1. JimboJr 4 years ago
  
  Oh you didn't get the memo.
  
  You can talk about racial disparities and cultural differences if it highlights and celebrates people of color or any victim class. Bonus points if at the same time you strike a contrast to the lame and racist whites.
  
  If you espouse anything positive about whites, or anything negative about a victim group, you will be labeled a racist, put on a list, and made an example of.
  
  There is only one direction criticism can go, against one specific race. Now who would call that racist?
  
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  1. jgress 4 years ago
    
    All races are equal, but some are more equal than others
    
    Log in to Reply
OldBullLee 4 years ago

Why automatically assume there is "racial tension" in any given workplace? This latest, touchy-feely approach is a tool desperately looking for something to fix.

Schemes to promote "diversity and equity" are, themselves, sources of racial tension.

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JohnZ 4 years ago

Words such as Diversity, equity and inclusivity are over used and becoming meaningless.

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John C. Randolph 4 years ago

Kids, learn and use this phrase: "Fuck off with your guilt-peddling, you racist, lefturd scumbag."

-jcr

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American Socia1ist 4 years ago

I’m so sorry, Boomer, that you can’t call your female co-workers “toots” any more and/or give her a slap or the arse. That email from HR reminding you that there’s actual policy against acting like a sexist or racist pig must be quite the blow.

What’s that got to do with libertarianism, again?

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1. Cyto 4 years ago
  
  1978 called.... It wants its stereotype about reaction to workplace rules back.
  
  Log in to Reply
HungryBear 4 years ago

Thanks captain obvious. Are we all really this tormented? The answer is no.

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Clemdane 4 years ago

I've never seen the Lion King, never listened to Kendrick Lamar, and have no idea who Cheryl Strayed is. Can I still relate to this thing?

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Cyto 4 years ago

This interview is really good and I like her ideas.... But there is a huge, fundamental disconnect.

She believes this is an organic, ground up movement of racial tension. It is clearly no such thing.

Even in the face of 2, almost 3 years of intentional, politically motivated racial divisiveness being run by leftist organizations, the press and the DNC, nobody on the ground thinks this way.

In the heat of all of the peaceful protests and riots and lockdowns, I drove across the country, stopping in bad neighborhoods throughout the country. Black neighborhoods, white neighborhoods, Latino neighborhoods... We ate at restaurants together, shopped at Walmart together, pumped gas and bought convenience store snacks together.... And there was not the slightest hint of racism in any location. Not one black person looked at me even slightly crosseyed, not one white person was even slightly rude towards any people of color...

I have been in overtly racist situations. I have been attacked for being in places where I don't belong because of my race. I know what that looks like.

That is not the USA today. Not anywhere in the deep south. Not in the Midwest.

I didn't go to liberal Connecticut or Massachusetts where I suspect racism might be a little more endemic. I did hit areas in the Midwest where the local minority is the 2 native American families in town and 80 some odd year old dudes say things like "the blacks" when talking about this stuff and would likely fail racial insensitivity tests.. and even there, where people can go years without encountering anyone who is not of Scandinavian/German descent, nobody expressed any sort of racist ideology.

This is not part of the American ethos any more.

And in our post-racial moment, having elected a black president... The left realized that their only hold over black voters was in danger. If Republicans are not scary KKK supporters who want a return to slavery, why would the mostly socially conservative black vote remain in the Democrat party?

This is the beginning and end of the hard push from the left to inspire a new age of racism. They need people divided by race for electoral politics. There is no other reason for any of this. It is not a black community thing. The only black voices in this are black college students being trained in black separatist ideologies and professional grifters looking to ride the political wave to a personal extortion racket.

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Diversity Seminars Don't Have To Be Maoist Struggle Sessions

Chloe Valdary's Theory of Enchantment program uses Kendrick Lamar, Cheryl Strayed, and The Lion King to ease workplace racial tensions.

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