Adventures in Diversity Training!

Delaware State’s Department of Transportation sent out a newsletter to their employees with hints and clues on how to be sensitive to gays, blacks, latinos, the elderly and the crippled. But the newsletter’s author, Secretary Carolann Wicks, refused to beat around the bush and neglected to be politically correct or use preferred “multicultural” words. The result was a newsletter that is insulting, like all diversity training classes are, but hilarious because the newsletter spews hateful words like spic, fag, nigger and retard.  It reads like diversity training by Michael Scott of Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

The hilariously racist, insulting document is here.  It contains nuggets like the following:

• Never call a coworker a “fag” or “homo.”
  This is derogatory, rude, and totally
  insensitive.
• You may have heard comedians or African
  Americans use the word “nigger” casually.
  It is never, ever acceptable to use this word
  in any context. You are asking for trouble;
  leave this one alone.
• Don’t ask blacks: “Should we order fried chicken or
  watermelon for you?”
  This is stereotyping and shows ignorance.
• Never refer to a co-worker as a “retard.”
  This is an insult to people with mental
  disabilities.
• It is never ever acceptable to refer to a
  Hispanic/Latino co-worker as a “spic”
  “wetback” or “hot footer.” This is
  derogatory.
• Can you help me out with my landscaping?
  Why would you assume that all
  Hispanics/Latinos are landscaping experts?

And it goes on and on. Read the public’s reaction here. As far as stereotyping goes, ever notice that whenever you pass a road construction project run by people in the Department of Transportation, you always see one person working and 9 people leaning on a shovel? Oops, does that somehow make me insensitive or a racist? Probably.