Today in a meeting, which for the sake of clarity is 50% male and 95% white in its make up, someone mentioned a trade article. The article stipulated that "watching XYZ practice occur among companies is like watching a middle-aged white man try to dance." Obviously, the idea is that middle-aged white men can't dance, it's awkward, and funny to see them try. These companies clearly are not doing something well, I get it. That's not an issue.
The issue became the humor of the statement, as our leader stood up and pretended to do a 'dad dance' and soon everyone (except me) was howling. The jokes about middle-aged white men dancing flew for about 2-3 minutes. I've got a sense of humor, so I wasn't offended, and I even think the joke was on the mark. But I started thinking what if the joke had been "like watching an obese woman climb the stairs"? Add in any racial qualifier just to salt it a bit. What might have happened? Would someone have been fired or, at the very least, brought into HR for a stern talking-to and some sensitivity training? Absolutely.
The other night, Hillary Clinton stated that Political Correctness is about "politeness". Boy, that's pretty telling. As far as I can tell, PC behavior is about not having a sense of humor about yourself and your background. It's about taking yourself too seriously. What was even more amazing, to me, was that she followed that up with a joke about Eric Holder and Cory Booker being black and "they all look the same." Well, she's a female, a Democrat, and wife of the first 'black' president (remember that gem?). So she gets a pass. She's fundamentally diverse and I, as a middle-aged white male, most certainly have no diversity in me.
Diversity is not a goal. Diversity is barely a thing. If it's something you want, great. Diversity is important. Maybe it isn't. That's up to you, it's up to the companies that want to pretend it's something more than virtue signaling. But if it is real, then the behavior I saw today has to stop. Nobody has a claim on the right to champion 'diversity' if they think this kind of thing is 'funny' but changing the gender or race makes it 'not funny'.
