Coca-Cola Wants Their Employees To ‘Try To Be Less White’
Last month Coca-Cola CEO James Quincey called legislation in the state of Georgia that will attempt to bring integrity to the vote in that state "unacceptable”. Apparently, Mr. Quincy does not believe in protecting the sanctity of our election process via voting.
Part of his concern was the state of Georgia wanting people to prove who they are via photo identification. It appears Mr. Quincey does not believe that a person should have to prove who they are via photo identification in order to vote. Interesting since Mr. Quincey demands that anyone who votes at Coca-Cola’s shareholder's meeting in person must show a government-issued photo identification to vote.
Well before that intelligent statement was made by Mr. Quincey’s company provided online diversity training which urged them to “Try to be less white”. The New York Post reported on this diversity training that included a course offered by LinkedIn Education called “Confronting Racism”.
One slide in that diversity training stated:
"Confronting Racism Understanding What it Means to Be White
Challenging What it Means to Be Racist."
Another slide states,
"To be less white is to:
be less oppressive
be less arrogant
be less certain
be less defensive
be less ignorant
be more humble
listen
believe
break with apathy
break with white solidarity."
A third training slide stated:
"In the US and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white. Research shows that by age 3 to 4, children understand that it is better to be white,"
The fourth slide in diversity training offered by Mr. Quincey and Coca-Cola states:
“Try to be less white”
How about we try to drink less Coke!
In a very carefully crafted statement, Cola-Cola neither confirmed nor denied that employees were required to take the training.
The video circulating on social media is from a publicly available LinkedIn Learning series and is not a focus of our company's curriculum. Our Better Together global learning curriculum is part of a learning plan to help build an inclusive workplace. It is comprised of a number of short vignettes, each a few minutes long. The training includes access to LinkedIn Learning on a variety of topics, including on diversity, equity, and inclusion. We will continue to refine this curriculum.
Again how about we try to drink less Coke!