If you're just doing an innes civic scipher, I'm your host Ramsey's job. Big shout out to my manqu Word, who is still traveling the globe, but he will be back with us next week, I can assure you. But for now, we have a special guest in the studio, longtime friend of the show and my teacher, doctor Kimilla Westernberg, who is Professor emeritus of English and Music for over forty years, as well as the second Vice President for Political Action of the Americopa County Branch of the NAACP.
Today we have spent some time talking about the Jacksonville mass shooting, but for the second half of the show, we are going to shift gears and be discussing DEI training, diversity,
equity and inclusion training. These are things that you often find in the workplace and other places where human beings are organized and have to interact with each other across racial lines, and so there's been a tax in recent months and years on whether or not it works, and we are going to provide a case for DEI training shouldn't need it and it doesn't, I know, but that's
where're to do. So first and foremost, we're going to discuss ba BA becoming a better ally BABA and today's BIBA was sponsored by Unknown Union, the fashion house situated at the intersection of meaning, innovation and culture. More info check Unknown Union dot com. And I want to share a bit from the ARC Times. That's sure for Arkansas Times. Funny right, but they are Oh that is your state, yea, yeah, shout out to Arkansas one time and hopefully we'll be
on the air there soon. We got Yeah, we're negotiating, So shout out to Arkansas. They're always in the news for like heavy things and being on their own side
of stuff. But today we're sharing some good news. So the school districts calling the state education departments bluff by keeping African American studies on the books, schools in Little Rock, North, Little Rock and Jonesborough say they'll continue to offer ap African American studies despite the last minute maneuver by the Arkansas Department of Education to defund and discredit the class Little Rock School District, Central High, North, Little Rock High School,
Jacksonville High and the academies at Jonesborough, along with the charter schools North Little Rock Center for Excellence and Easteam High school have all confirmed they will offer the course and calculate grades on the same elevated five point GPA skills other AP classes. A message sent to EASTEAM parents revealed details about how the state conveyed the last minute news to schools. In fact, East Team students had already been in school for more than a week before their
high school director got word of the state's decision. Jokes on the state, though, since EASTEAM will not only continue offering the class, but will award the school's first Medal of Historical Pursuit and Valor to students who complete it. The Jacksonville North Pulaski School District confirmed Thursday that they
will also continue to offer the class. Education supporters and representatives for these Arkansas schools that committed to offering the class said they're exploring options for covering test cost with the AP African American Studies exams, since the state will not do so, unlike with every other A class. So again, shout out to the folks fighting back in Arkansas. Yeah, yeah, we like that, all right, d EI training Does it work?
Okay?
Well, the short answer, if I may, is yes, absolutely. I've seen attacks recently suggesting that DEI is preaching to the choir. The people that come to DEI courses, are they already feel that way? There have been people who have you know, did the cost analysis of the entire industry. D I is a three point six billion dollar industry, something like that. And so the folks that are involved in DEI training have no incentive to see racism go away.
And because they're gainfully compensated to weed out violations, everything is always a violation to these people, and so they're
not to be trusted, so forth and so on. Right, and so these attacks on DEI erode a lot of what people were asking for, a lot of what activists were asking for and the more vocal of us in twenty twenty and let's be honest in the entirety of our history in this country, because a lot of what has been asked for has been conversations, understanding, sharing of information, insight into what day to day life and activities is. And you know, when people start to put a dollar
amount to things, then businesses start to pay attention. It's no longer about does it feel good? Is it the right thing to do? It's more about spending money. Are we paying less to our shareholders and to our stakeholders and to ourselves for something that doesn't work. And so you can see how easily a narrative that runs counter to the intention of DEI could conceivably take root where there is a fiscal incentive to corporations around the country.
And so this conversation is certainly necessary before we get into the nuts and boats, any thoughts, any early thoughts.
You know the concept of DEI as a two or a curriculum, and many ways it's it is needed. But I find it very novel, just for me personally, because I think I was traveling down that road as soon as I became an adult.
And began working. Okay, the necessity was obvious to me. Sure, you cannot be a be all to everyone, and when you walk into an environment where your audience is eclectic, you cannot use the same had an and structural for everyone. You're going to have to deviate a little bit, and you have to know the nuances, thank you, of how you need to deviate and even why you are deviating. So of course it's necessary.
It's obvious to me, very obvious, obvious, all right, So for those of you who might have encountered some of these attacks on DEI and and I know, I know there's been attacks on African American studies. It's been rebranded as critical race. There there's been a tax on wokeness,
which is effectively pursuing a more equitable society. There's been a tax on diversity and equity, and in diversity, equity and inclusion, which is understanding how we relate to each other in the workplace and everything is It's very easy to drape to trace the roots of all of these attacks to divisiveness, let's be honest, hate and a far right political agenda and insecurity. Oo okay, yeah, we have you up here to say the truth and you do just that. All right now, I want to share some
things that help make this point for US. DEI training has been increasing in prominence since twenty twelve with major boosts. One, let's talk about June team of course, MLK Day. Historically, that has been a time of the year when folks
try to do their their little part. You know what I mean, Black History Month, of course, is that the time of the year when you know, some companies will acknowledge right right exactly and you know, KWANSA and other you know, other little moments, right, But D and I's is an additional step that often enough companies can make. So, as I mentioned, DEI attacked from the right, suggesting that the three point six billion dollar DEI industry needs racism
to sustain itself. Right, so it finds racism everywhere. And a particular individual who has a lot to say about this as a former DEI trainer and black man. Uh, he's a current black man. He's not a former black man, well depends on you ask, but he's a former DEI trainer slash black man. That's what I was saying. And his name is Eric Smith, and he said on Fox News, if you're making money off of racism, the last thing you want to see is for it to go away. Now.
I mentioned this a bit on our social media this week on Civic Cipher's Instagram and TikTok and all that sort of stuff. So folks who've seen it and interacted, I appreciate that even the people that disagree, but you know, allow me to elaborate. I can do a lot more of that in a full segment than I can in thirty seconds.
Right, So.
For those that saw that, you might recognize that I posted a counterpoint which suggested that the cost of racism had impacted the economy to the tune of sixteen trillion dollars. So while people are saying de training costs three point six billion, racism costs the economy sixteen trillion because of discrimination. And this is from I believe it was. It might have been Chase.
Bank, City Group that was it.
So I'll read since two thousand, US gross domestic product and this is from NPR. By the way, US gross domestic product lost that much as a result of discriminatory practices in a range of areas, including in education and access to business loans. According to a new study by City Group, it's not an insignificant number by comparison to US GDP totaled nineteen point five trillion dollars last year, So sixteen trillion since twenty twenty. It's over the course
of twenty years. The economy was nineteen and a half trillion as of twenty nineteen. I believe his articles from twenty twenty. So here's some some other points or real quick and not acting to reverse discriminatory practices will continue to exact a cost. City Group estimates that the economy would see a five trillion dollar boost over the next five years if the US were tackle key areas of
discrimination against African Americans. Now, this is City Group. This is not RAMS, this is not civic scivist, is not doctor Westernberger. Okay, city group saying this, And I don't believe City group plays the political game to the degree that a lot of our elected officials do. Okay, City group is about money, literally, right, all right, So here's
some points. Thirteen trillion dollars lost in potential business revenue because of discriminatory lending to African American entrepreneurs, with an estimated six point one million jobs not generated as a result. Two point seven trillion dollars in income lost because of
disparities and wages suffered by African Americans. Two hundred and eighteen billion dollars lost over the past two decades because of discrimination providing in providing housing credit ninety billion to one hundred and thirteen billion, and lifetime costs lifetime lost from discrimination in accessing higher education. And there's several more bill of points. But I want to also add that you know, to your point, doctor Westernberger, there's so in
school and this is just me, I don't. I don't have this written down, but I'm glad you made the point because it allowed me to remember. I went to school for marketing. My bachelor's is in marketing and my master's is in management. Okay, so we learned marketing. That's what I had to learn in school, Arizona State University. Yeah, and one of the things that we learned is that there are blind spots when dealing with people who don't come from where you come from, don't live the same
life that you live with. One example that comes to mind is Colgate. For Colgate to sell their toothpaste in Spanish speaking countries, they have to understand that Colgate translates to go hang yourself in Spanish. When you read it go right in Spanish, that means go hang yourself, and people might not be so likely to purchase this off the bat right. It needs a serious rebrand. But if you just want to open up that market and you don't know that, then you're going to run into some problems.
You know, your sales projections are going to be off right. And this is exactly what happened. This is why the story made its way to my class because of corporate blind spots. Another one is that in countries where there's low literacy rates, some people purchase items based on the pictures on the label, not necessarily based on the language.
And it's not just low literacy rates. It's you know, in this country we brand everything in English, and other parts of the world they don't read English, speak English. It's just not a part of their life, right, But we want to still sell the same products with the same labels and so forth. Right, But it doesn't matter if they can't read English, even the name of your company.
They're looking for the pictures, corporate blind spot. People are looking for the pictures, regardless of literacy rates, regardless of any of this stuff. If they don't speak English, they look at pictures. Okay, all right, so if you're with me, watch this Gerber babies. It's a picture of the baby. So what people were horrified to find out is that people are selling ground up babies in these little tiny jars. Right, So, no one wanted to buy Gerber in these other countries,
right now, that's true. That come to mind that I learned in school, right, And those weren't specific to the differences in African American life. Versus you know, white American life. But you begin to see the fact that corporate blind spots exist right now. If corporate blind spots exist, then you miss your sales projections. In addition, you can offend different communities. I remember a campaign not too long ago
from Toyota. Toya had ammercial and they were trying to appeal to African Americans, and they had African Americans using the products and enjoying themselves, going on trips, et cetera. And then at the end of the the commercial there was a person smiling and they had a like a gold teeth or a grill or something like that, and it had the Toyota logo in it. And then black people rightfully, so we were like, yo, what is Toyota
think of us? You know what I mean? Like yeah, yeah, And then there's a there's an example here that I have that I actually wrote down. This is from August twenty three, so this is a recent example. This story comes to Black Enterprise. KFC is in hot grease after Black Twitter called out its racially offensive ad campaign billboards across Canada's It was a Canadian country, but you know,
a lot of similarities between our two societies. Right, bill boards across Canada displayed black pep people enjoying its famous fried chicken under the slogan of its finger licking good. No problem yet, finger licking good has always been their slogan. But you know, our sensitivities have changed, how we're viewed has changed. But you know, no problem just yet. Okay, And this drew criticism for tone def imagery. Okay. Criticism, though, is not the biggest part of the story. Let's keep reading.
Azim Aktar, director of marketing for KFC Canada's, presented his latest campaign to Twitter on August twenty fourth, expressing how he couldn't be more proud at how well it seemingly turned out quote sorry utensils its finger licking good unquote, he wrote, reiterating the model featured in the ads. However, his tweet gained traction in a negative light. Naysayers suggested that the team missed de mark displaying black people in
an advertisement that perpetuated historical, historical stereotypes against them. In other words, the actors in the ad campaign right, and the people in the in the in the photographs and then the commercials were black. And now, to be fair, I want to tell the whole story. He did have other families using the same marketing, right, but on Twitter he only used the black families, right, and he was
very proud of it. But because of this oversight, what ended up happening was he ended up offending black people. It's like, Okay, black people are licking their fingers, like so grateful to have a piece of chicken, and you know there's a whole history there, you know. I mean, you know that black people didn't always get to eat chicken. We had to eat innerds of pigs and cows and stuff like that for a long time. But we're a
person like this that doesn't know that. He might think, well, if I don't interject the Asian family and the family using the same marketing assets for the ad campaign, then it looks like we're just kind of saying, here, black people, this is we know, this is what you want to know, what you like, and it's offensive. Right. But again, corporate blind spots leads to losses in revenue. We talked about the what was it, sixteen trillion dollars over the course
of twenty years corporate blind spots. Now let's add to that lawsuits. So we talked about marketing blunders. We talked about corporate oversides with lawsuits. People get sued when they step out of line. People get sued for touching my hair. Right for those that are I mean, this is radio, so you can't see me, but I've said it on the show time and again, I have a huge afro, and it is very touchable to people that you know,
oh my god, look at this. And I don't mean to generalize here, but you know, you're a woman, and women have a tendency to wear their hair longer, and black women's hair is very special. It does all the tricks.
I know that because I have.
Right, right, right, and for people that and I'm not trying to put anyone down. And you may not know this, but I'm going to say this because it's based in reality. For people who have been entitled, blindly entitled to being able to do whatever they want, move how they want and feel like they will be well received, have not had to move with caution, rather have moved with reckless
abandon throughout the entirety of their lives. Touching someone's hair feels like I'm acknowledged I'm doing you know what I mean, But you know, at a point it becomes harassment. At a point, sensitivities need to be in place. We have a different reality, we have a different appreciation for D I D I. Thank you Black folks, no hairsm it's
very especially usespecial. It's different not saying that other people's hair is not special to them, but ours is special to us in a special way, and partially.
Because society has made it that way. It probably would not be.
Special if we didn't have to protect it so much. Right precisely, Now, let's talk about office humor, jokes that are shared, that are that that these things that are offensive to to to black and brown and other marginalized people's You might think you're connecting. I remember once I went up to Prescott, Arizona, the sticks for those that don't live here, and I was hanging out with the family that was up there, and they started telling racist jokes.
And I found out later they were trying to relate. They were trying to be funny, feel welcome. That's all they knew. But it was obviously very offensive and I had to sit there and smile. And when I was a teenager at the time, but the fact of the matter is that well intentioned, well meaning people in corporate environments can find themselves on the worst end of a lawsuit or of you know, tone death marketing strategy, or corporate oversights or whatever. And so I know I talked us the whole time.
I'm so sorry, but so you, I mean, you were going into it and that is your area.
Well I appreciate that. But the long and the short of it here is that diversity, equity and inclusion does have its benefits. If people don't know, then they will continue to violate and we don't get the best of each other. In fact, I believe that we tend to retreat away from each other without that type of education. Right. Sure, With that in mind, that's going to do it for us here on Civic Cipher. So as always, i'd like to thank you for coming up and hanging out with
me once again. Uh well, I've done my best to do that that you have taken the time with me the young age, and I hope that your investment in me pays dividends. Sure sure, Doctor Westernberg again Professor Emeritis of English and Music for over forty years, as well as second Vice President for Political Action of the Americopa County Branch of the NAACP, My teacher, my mentor, my traveling companion through life particularly and so far as topics
like these are concerned and enjoy. As always, for those of you that want to know more, please hit the website civicipher dot com. Follow us on all social media at Civic Cipher. You can follow me at ramses joh q as I am q ward And until next week, y'all. Peace was