Diversity Thursday

Just a quick post to put down a marker about something that has been around our Navy a long time, and that we've covered here for over a decade; affinity groups.

They seem harmless, and just pop up now and then. Here's a typical example from 2019;

Unless you've been to one of their meetings, read their literature, or subjected your admin department to processing their flood of self-serving awards, you may not have insight in to where they are in the diversity industry ecosystem and what role they play in keeping people divided along sectarian lines.

They know what they are and what their mission is - heck look them up yourself - but only now and then to they let the mask slip. Lucky for you, the affinity group advocates in the educational branch of government in Sacramento decided to do that for us;

... in Racial Affinity Groups, white people can discover together their group identity. They can cultivate racial solidarity and compassion and support each other in sitting with the discomfort, confusion, and numbness that often accompany white racial awakening. They can also discern white privilege and its impact without the aid of or dependence on People of Color (POC). White people who have formed Racial Affinity Groups report that they recognized their collective commonality and shared history, as well as the impact that their privilege has had on other races and on each Racial Affinity Group member. 

While many POC may not need an affinity group to help them relate to their racial group membership, they may need to explore the diversity that exists among POC and across POC without having the distraction of having to educate white people on whiteness and its harm. A habitual focus on white people can distract POC from knowing themselves as a diverse body. Exploring this tender territory in a Racial Affinity Group can be a wholesome alternative to expecting white people at large, who often are not aware of being racial beings, to relieve the intense distress experienced by POC. 

Of course, this is all around building an "anti-racist classroom." Fun note, go their main page where they lead with a quote from Lenin Peace Prize winner Angela Davis. You can't make this stuff up.

Anti-racist? Of course that rings a bell - that is the racist world view of the guy who the CNO Gilday wants everyone to read, Ibram X. Kendi.

As you hear more and more about "anti-racist" and "affinity groups" in your schools, companies, and your Navy - know you are not hearing about a collective good, harmless people trying to do the right thing.

No. Not at all.