Lockheed Martin and the woke industrial complex

Christopher Rufo writes another expose of wokeism’s inroads on corporate America. This one is about Lockheed Martin.

According to documents Rufo obtained, last year Lockheed sent white male executives to a three-day diversity-training program aimed at deconstructing their “white male culture” and encouraging them to atone for their “white male privilege.”

Lockheed’s executives apparently received the full, no-holds-barred White males suck treatment. This included deconstructing employees’ “white male privilege” through a series of “privilege statements,” then working to rebuild their identities as “agent[s] of change.”

The Red Chinese are good at this sort of thing.

Among the sins the corporate executives were asked to own up to was this: “My culture teaches me to minimize the perspectives and powers of people of other races.” That’s the opposite of what is happening in classrooms all over America. The statement in question wasn’t true when my daughters attended public school in the 1990s. It wasn’t even true when I attended public school in the 1960s, although I don’t doubt that it was true in many school districts.

The executives were instructed to read statements intended to drive home the idea that white male culture is “devastating” to racial minorities and women:

The trainers had the Lockheed employees read a series of “I’m tired” statements from fictitious racial minorities and women. The statements included: “I’m tired of being Black”; “I’m tired of you making more money than me”; “I’m tired of people disparaging our campaigns (like Black Lives Matter)”; “I’m tired of Black boys/girls being murdered”; “I’m tired of people thinking they’re smarter and more qualified than me”; “I’m tired of hearing about how we need a wall at the southern borders but not on the northern borders”; “I’m tired of the desire or comment to remove race—the concept that we should be ‘colorblind.’”

Attributing these whiny and in some cases silly statements to “racial minorities” and women disparages members of these groups. A reasonable executive might wonder why he should hire anyone this tired and this dispirited.

Were there any fictitious statements like “I’m tired of being denied college entrance because I’m Asian” or “I’m tired of having admissions officers rate me low on ‘personal qualities’ because I’m serious”? I’m guessing there weren’t.

The trainers disparaged “white male culture” because it consists of traits such as “rugged individualism,” “a can-do attitude,” “hard work,” “operating from principles,” and “striving towards success,” which are superficially positive but are “devastating” to women and minorities. But why should these positive traits be “devastating” to women and minorities? The premise seems to be that women and minorities feel threatened because they don’t possess them to the same extent as white males.

Here, again, the instructors are doing what they accuse “white male culture” of doing — teaching white males to minimize the powers of people of other races.

What would be “devastating” is a world in which corporations repudiated or downplayed the value of hard work, a can-do attitude, operating from principles, and striving towards success. If Lockheed’s executives reject these concepts, which are likely responsible for much of their personal success and the success of their company, then Lockheed’s future is bleak.

And if hucksters like the guys who reeducated Lockheed’s execs succeed in spreading their defeatist, racialist doctrines throughout our schools and our corporations, America’s future is bleak, as well.

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