‘Try To Be Less White’: Sensitivity Training Sparks Backlash

By
Lawrence Richard
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OPINION | Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those held by Sarah Palin.

A new racial sensitivity training curriculum, used by the Coca-Cola Company and other companies, has sparked a backlash as it encourages employees to “try to be less white” among other recommendations.

As part of the training curriculum, employees have access to various LinkedIn services, including one on “understanding what it means to be white” and “challenging what it means to be racist.”

News of the training program was shared online by Twitter user @DrKarlynB, who provided pictures of the training material courtesy of “an internal whistleblower.”

The slides of the training point to “U.S. and other Western nations” where “white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior.”

Another slide in the training says: “To be less white is to be less oppressive, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be less ignorant, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy, break with white solidarity.”

Take a look:

An unverified statement attributed to the Coca-Cola company, said employees have access to these training programs though they are “not a focus” of the curriculum.

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“The video circulating on social media is from a publicly available LinkedIn Learning series and is not a focus of our company’s curriculum,” the statement continued.

“Our Better Together global learning curriculum is part of a learning plan to help build an inclusive workplace,” it added. “It is comprised of a number of short vignettes, each a few minutes long. The training includes access to LinkedIn Learning on a variety of topics, including on diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

Conservative activist Candace Owens and American actor Kevin Sorbo were among many people who responded to the images.

Owens pointed out how a company would never train its employees to “be less black.”

“If a corporate company sent around a training kit instructing black people how to ‘be less black,’ the world would implode and lawsuits would follow,” she tweeted.

“Seriously?” Sorbo asked.

Lawyer Harmeet K. Dhillon tweeted the training program “seems like blatant racial discrimination to this employment lawyer.”

Many others shared their own thoughts on the trainings: