Birds of All Feathers

June 29, 2020
Bach, CEO of the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion, debuts with a disappointing guide to integrating diversity initiatives into talent retention, recruitment, and development at companies and institutions. He opens by arguing that the “social justice” approach to diversity doesn’t work, because it requires privileged straight white men to give up their power—which they never will. Instead, employers should emphasize that diversity and inclusion are good for everyone. Bach immediately draws a bewildering line in the sand: “I’m not going to talk about marginalization... the last thing we need is another white guy mansplaining things like oppression and racism.” The discussion that follows is more cringeworthy than illuminating. His suggestion of sorting all of a company’s current employees into different categories, such as “friend” and “foe,” according to how open they are to change, is particularly unfortunate, given the theme of overcoming the pernicious effects of how people have been placed in racial categories. Meanwhile, an attempt to address whether, “since you and I have never owned slaves, our responsibility to make reparations for slavery?” leads only to a wishy-washy “yes and no.” This skimpy treatise adds little that’s new, let alone valuable, to an urgent and ongoing conversation.