Juneteenth/pride virtual event at work
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This is going on now. First 20 minutes were taken by the new head of diversity and inclusion, learning to use Zoom and how to mute people in large meetings. First speaker was our white female HR VP. She gave background on gay rights and slave emancipation. Just two seamless bullet points. Presidents Clinton and Biden were mentioned by name for their official proclamations about gay pride month and juneteenth. Then a guest speaker was introduced. A female person of color who we were told has a "doctorial" degree in African studies. Our new D&I coordinator can't pronounce "doctoral", at a company where she's surrounded by PhDs.
The African Studies guest speaker told us our important holidays are Christian, but other religions and cultures are ignored. July 4th is insulting to black people. A frederick douglas speech excerpt was given verbatim, invoking the feelings he felt at the time as a former slave. The speaker's family is from Texas and they have always celebrated Juneteenth and never July 4. She gave us a history lesson about slavery. The Emancipation Proclamation didn't actually free the slaves because Lincoln had no jurisdiction in the south, Jefferson "Davies" was. Finally the north won and northern soldiers came to the plantations with guns to tell the slaves they were free from bondage. But the work of true freedom - voting, equality of opportunity, equality in the courts, was yet to come. Slaves were advised to stay on their planations and continue working, but for pay this time. Juneteenth marks the beginning of this quest for equality, and is a holiday for all of us, not just Black Americans. Overall a decent speech and not too divisive or fringey.
Now a black woman is going to sing for us. Change is Gonna Come, Sam Cooke. Well that's a wonderful song.
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Next up were two consecutive speakers who were legacy employees, white male members of the LBGTQ+ community. Plain ol' gay white males. Happy to report that their Trans brothers and sisters still get attacked by police in San Fransisco. Voila, mainstream victims. Fine speeches. yes I get that it's hard for kids to realize they're gay. Thanks for the reminder, multi millionaire VPs.
Then was a young woman of color pursuing her masters in sociology. Not sure how she got invited. Obviously not the sharpest tool. She touched on lots of buzz words, even used "fragility", but not "white fragility". She was skirting the more touchy subjects. I appreciated the awareness that maybe a bunch of white and asian scientists don't want to be told they're all damaged and weak if they happen to see holes in the victim narratives of the day. But boy did she want to go full bore on that stuff. Give it time. Overton windows are still moving.
Next is a teary gay latino employee who had a difficult upbringing. He cried through his report of his difficulties in life.
Next is a gay white guy. More reporting of how hard it is to be gay in small towns etc.
Got it, tough to be gay, tough to be black. Everybody who's gay and/or black understands difficulties in life more than everybody who isn't. Understood.
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@Catseye3 said in Juneteenth/pride virtual event at work:
Will there be a Q&A at the end? Can you ask if there will be other pep rallies, or will this be it until, say, the rest of the year?
There's going to be trivia and games at the end, or so the schedule says. I'll take "places to put bodily fluids that you would never expect, for $100, Alex"!
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That's about it. Nothing too cringey tbh. If that one young lady had been allowed to, she'd have taken it there, but cooler heads prevailed. In the wrap-up the D&I coordinator implored everybody to take the lessons they learned today and teach them to their children.
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I'm a little worried that this may be a stupid question, but who exactly are these people talking to? Their own group(s) must be enlightened already, so it would be silly to go through all this for them. Are they talking to you as an unenlighted white male supremicist? Are there that many of you that this dog and pony show was necessary? If yes, then this is a pretty condescending, not to mention juvenile, way to go about your re-education and BTW, who the fuck do they think they are???
What do they hope to accomplish? If this had taken place in an auditorium, were you supposed to go galloping up the aisle, tears streaming, shouting, "I believe! I believe!"
I am beginning to suspect that Aqua's gentle reminder that I am out of the loop was justified, cuz you know what? I don't really get it.
Added later: Or is this whole thing just self indulgence? No other reason to do it than to entertain themselves like kids in recess? Needed a grownup reason to actually just do what they'd do anyway?
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@Copper said in Juneteenth/pride virtual event at work:
@Horace said in Juneteenth/pride virtual event at work:
Nothing too cringey
Sorry, the whole thing is cringey
The whole thing
Sure but I’m grading the cringe on a curve. It could have been a lot worse.
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This year we got July 4 off but not Juneteenth. I think that preference for holidays is coming under the microscope. Corporate won’t just add another day for Juneteenth, presumably, but they may trade July 4 for it. Probably don’t want to trade MLK day for it. The other viable option is Presidents’ Day. Nobody cares about that one.
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Hmm, like @Renauda never heard of this day until today.
While I "kind" of understand it, there are also a lot of important days in history that are not national holidays.
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The two VPs I was most familiar with through my career were both gay, but it was never a thing with either of them. Just something everybody knew about and nobody cared about. They both retired early this year, just in time to not be involved with this new thing where they're supposed to be public and proud representatives of their people. What a shittily awkward position to be put in. Not everybody is down with this identitarian stuff, even those who ostensibly gain cultural credibility with the claim to it.
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@Horace said in Juneteenth/pride virtual event at work:
The two VPs I was most familiar with through my career were both gay, but it was never a thing with either of them. Just something everybody knew about and nobody cared about. They both retired early this year, just in time to not be involved with this new thing where they're supposed to be public and proud representatives of their people. What a shittily awkward position to be put in. Not everybody is down with this identitarian stuff, even those who ostensibly gain cultural credibility with the claim to it.
Someone I work with is currently raising shit that we're not off on Monday for Juneteenth. It's like bro, shut the fuck up, you're a contractor. You don't get paid if you don't show up, which by the way is always your option.
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"My pronouns are FA/FO." - Mik, 2024
