The "D" word

"D" as in "Diversity". "Diversity" is the latest corporate buzz-word. And I'm afraid, as a critical observer, the road of good intentions has finally reached its destination: hell. It's kind of like the oxymoronic quip, "I want to be different just like everyone else." Our corporate society's desire not to offend anyone has finally reached the point that we must accept even the offensive, cuz' they are just expressing their diversity by, for example, being a redneck bigot. Kumbaya. I'm all about the judging people on the quality of their character (being born a poor black child and all), but as good as I am at abstraction, I don't get it.

But that's not the important thing. The important thing is to find humor in mundane. A silver lining, if you will.

Because we work for a large company that doesn't want Jesse Jackson to sue it, MIO and I get the pleasure of attending a yearly diversity class. And as these classes often go ( last time "Ethics", this time "Diversity"), they divided the room into small discussion groups to review real life cases and try to guess the company line solution. My "team" this go around was made up of baby Grinch, Marty Feldman, Sherman Klump, MIO and me. (Guess which ones are me and MIO)

In consideration of MIO's delicate nature, I want go into the embarrassing introductions that took place as the team assembled. Let's just say Baby Grinch does not have good hearing.

My favorite part of the class was when we were reviewing the case file of an obese woman who felt discriminated against by her boss because he gave assignments requiring travel to her colleagues instead of her (in consideration of her apparent difficulty...er... moving). When the team got the assignment, baby Grinch turned to Sherman Klump and said "you're twice as big as anyone else here. I think you should answer this one."

Hopefully the sensitivity training will begin next week.