DEI training has shifted from promoting equity to being weakly replaced with critical social justice, which today’s guest claims is inherently racist. Dr. Erec Smith, an anti-racist activist, shares how business owners can foster a diverse company culture – without the guise of generic performative activism. KEY TOPICS The ways that contemporary DEI trainings are “inherently racist.” How to “climate check” your company. Ways to organically foster diversity in your company – WITHOUT QUOTAS. CHAPTERS 00:00 Introduction and Mission of Decidedly 00:52 Boring Required Trainings 04:13 Dr. Eric Smith's Experience with DEI Training 06:11 Prescriptive Racism 09:09 Limitations of Modern DEI Initiatives 12:29 Shortcomings of Critical Social Justice 19:00 Changing Definitions of Words 27:54 White People’s Involvement in DEI 29:20 The Pressure to Conform 32:42 Root Motivations of DEI 35:07 Fostering a Diverse Business 37:58 The Culture of Your Company 41:25 Getting 1:1 with Your Team 44:00 Social Groups 48:00 Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone 51:02 Bridging Relationships 52:58 Empowerment Theory CONNECT WITH US www.decidedlypodcast.com Subscribe on YouTube Join us on Instagram: @decidedlypodcast Join us on Facebook Shawn’s Instagram: @shawn_d_smith Sanger’s Instagram: @sangersmith Thank you to Shelby Peterson of Transcend Media for editing and post-production of the Decidedly podcast. SANGER’S BOOK: A Life Rich with Significance: Transforming Your Wealth to Meaningful Impact SHAWN’S BOOK: Plateau Jumping: What to Change When Change Is What You Want MAKING A FINANCIAL DECISION? At Decidedly Wealth Management, we focus on decision-making as the foundational element of success, in our effort to empower families to purposefully apply their wealth to fulfill their values and build a thriving legacy. LEARN MORE: www.decidedlywealth.com SUBSCRIBE TO THE NEWSLETTER:https://visitor.r20.constantcontact.com/manage/optin?v=001aeU_pPBHJPNJWJBdVbaci6bjGIuEJurH12xHBWDEVT_NxyCadMd7wLSZjcEZglkSjDjehuIbTHD8nABOIdV69ctfYpSzg24RCIytetBUrlIPPKgaGzjGZ8DkM0Wp1LMjbErcYUur7PbZGjeVo4gyXlz821AoJGZR CONNECT WITH EREC SMITH, PH.D. Website: www.freeblackthought.com Erec Smith is a research fellow at the Cato Institute and an Associate Professor of Rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania. Although he has eclectic scholarly interests, his primary work focuses on the rhetoric of anti-racist activism, theory, and pedagogy, as well as the role of rhetoric in a free, pluralistic, and civil society. He co-founded Free Black Thought, a nonprofit highlighting viewpoint diversity within black communities. Free Black Thought includes a compendium of black artists, writers, academics, and public intellectuals not discussed in mainstream media. The organization also has a Journal of Free Black Thought, which publishes anything–from poetry to scholarly work—that discusses or displays a variety of viewpoints within the black diaspora. Smith is the author of A Critique of Anti-Racism in Rhetoric and Composition: The Semblance of Empowerment (2020), a book in which he scrutinizes contemporary modes of anti-racism in his field. The book was conceived after Smith's observations of his field led him to conclude that anti‐racist initiatives did more to disempower students and faculty than empower them. Smith is an advisor for both the Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism and Counterweight, an organization that advocates for classical liberal concepts of social justice.
