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Explores the two main justifications—implicit bias theories and civil-rights group frustration—while concluding that the evidence does not support diversity programs as an effective remedy.",{"@graph":14,"@context":73},[15,34,56],{"@type":16,"itemListElement":17},"BreadcrumbList",[18,23,27,31],{"item":19,"name":20,"@type":21,"position":22},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",1,{"item":24,"name":25,"@type":21,"position":26},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/","Document",2,{"item":28,"name":29,"@type":21,"position":30},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/","Research & Report",3,{"item":32,"name":10,"@type":21,"position":33},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/diversity-training-is-unscientific-and-divisive/588210/",4,{"url":32,"name":10,"@type":35,"image":36,"author":41,"headline":10,"publisher":44,"fileFormat":47,"inLanguage":8,"description":12,"dateModified":48,"datePublished":49,"encodingFormat":47,"isAccessibleForFree":50,"interactionStatistic":51},"DigitalDocument",{"url":37,"@type":38,"width":39,"height":40},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/diversity-training-is-unscientific-and-divisive/588210.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":42,"@type":43},"Aditya","Person",{"url":19,"name":45,"@type":46},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-02","2026-10-15",true,{"@type":52,"interactionType":53,"userInteractionCount":55},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":54},"ViewAction",5,{"@type":57,"mainEntity":58},"FAQPage",[59,65,69],{"name":60,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":62},"What does the article argue about the effectiveness of diversity training?","Question",{"text":63,"@type":64},"It argues that diversity programs usually do not work and often create negative unintended consequences worse than the original issues they aimed to address.","Answer",{"name":66,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":67},"How does the article connect diversity training to political changes in the U.S.?",{"text":68,"@type":64},"It links shifts in diversity-training policy to political symbolism when new regimes try to undo executive orders from the previous administration.",{"name":70,"@type":61,"acceptedAnswer":71},"What are the two main justifications for diversity training mentioned in the article?",{"text":72,"@type":64},"The article cites trendy academic theories about white wickedness and minority victimhood, and it also points to civil-rights groups’ frustration with inequities in education and workplace discrimination.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":32,"og:type":75,"og:title":10,"og:site_name":45,"og:description":12},"article",{"robots":77,"canonical":32},"index,follow",{"doc_id":79,"site_id":7},588210,1792064757,{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":83},"success",[84,88,92,96,100,105,110,114,119,122,126],{"id":22,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":85,"show_sort_weight":86,"slug":87},"Story & Novel",90,"story-novel",{"id":26,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":89,"show_sort_weight":90,"slug":91},"Literature",80,"literature",{"id":33,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":93,"show_sort_weight":94,"slug":95},"Exam",70,"exam",{"id":55,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":97,"show_sort_weight":98,"slug":99},"Comic",60,"comic",{"id":101,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":102,"show_sort_weight":103,"slug":104},6,"Technology",50,"technology",{"id":106,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":107,"show_sort_weight":108,"slug":109},7,"Healthcare",40,"healthcare",{"id":111,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":29,"show_sort_weight":112,"slug":113},8,30,"research-report",{"id":115,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":116,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":118},9,"Religion & Spirituality",20,"religion-spirituality",{"id":117,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":120,"show_sort_weight":117,"slug":121},"World Cup","world-cup",{"id":123,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":124,"show_sort_weight":123,"slug":125},10,"Lifestyle","lifestyle",{"id":127,"doc_module":4,"doc_module_name":25,"category_name":128,"show_sort_weight":55,"slug":129},19,"General","general",{"code":4,"msg":82,"data":131},{"doc_id":79,"user_id":132,"nickname":42,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":111,"category_name":29,"doc_title":10,"doc_description":12,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":55,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":22,"is_downloadable":22,"audit_status":22,"page_count":55,"language":139,"language_code":8,"site_id":7,"html_lang":8,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":12,"update_tm":80,"read_time":143,"preview_page_count":4},962085564549,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_085a072bc5b1113ac321206ff7593b45","Acad. Quest . (2021) 34.2 DOI 10. 51845/34su .2.6  \nDiversity Training is Unscientific, and Divisive  \nCraig Frisby  \nRobert Maranto  \nIn an uplifting inaugural address, newly elected President Joe Biden promised to give his all to unite the nation. Yet later that day, Biden signed an executive order re-imposing divisive diversity training on federal agencies, contractors, and recipients of federal funding—which the previous administration had suspended.1  \nLike most social scientists, we know that when political regimes change, new leaders engage in grand displays of political symbolism by attempting to undo executive orders of the previous administration. Trump did the same thing to former president Obama’s policies in his first days in office.  \nYet symbolism and good intentions are no match for painful realities, orthe historical lessons learned from programmatic initiatives in the past. These observations inform us that good science must be prioritized over public relations. The Trump administration’s executive order attempting to limit diversity training in the U. S. government was by and large on the side of science—President Biden’s undoing of that policy is not.  \nCritics of Trump’s ban assert that it advanced the “dangerous cause of white supremacy and disinformation.” To supporters of Biden’s actions, his revocation moves the country closer to “grappling honestly with implicit bias, racism and sexism in this country.”2  \nWe have seen the results of diversity training and related approaches during many decades in academia , reviewing relevant literature and actively participating in many decades of fieldwork in schools and other public  \n1 Robert Maranto, Craig Frisby,“Biden starts on the wrong foot: diversity training divides rather than unites,” The Hill, January 28, 2021.  \n2 A. Olson,“Biden revokes Trump ban on some diversity training addressing white privilege, systemic racism,” Chicago Tribune, January 21, 2021.  \nCraig Frisby is associate professor emeritus at the University of Missouri College of Education; FrisbyCL@ [missouri.edu.](missouri.edu. Robert Maranto is)[ Robert Maranto](missouri.edu. Robert Maranto is)[ is](missouri.edu. Robert Maranto is) the 21st Century Chair in Leadership in the Department of Education Reform at the University of Arkansas; [rmaranto@uark.edu](rmaranto@uark.edu).  \nbureaucracies. What have we (and countless others) learned? To state the matter bluntly: diversity programs usually do not work, and they often result in negative unintended consequences that are far worse than the problems that such programs were originally designed to address.  \nThe justification for diversity training programs is rooted in two fundamental sources. The first are trendy theories of white wickedness/minority victimhood that thrive in academia–e.g. , “implicit bias,”3 “hidden racism,”4 “aversive racism,”5 “reasonable racism,”6 “benign bigotry,”7 “symbolic racism,”8 “unconscious bias,”9 “everyday bias,”10 and “silent racism,”11–to name only a few.  \nThe second is the frustration of civil rights groups over inequities within education,12 employment inequalities,13 and workplace discrimination.14  \nLeaving aside whether some of these concerns are valid—and many are overstated—the science shows that diversity training is not the right solution. As far back as 1997, researchers Helen Hemphill and Ray Haines conducted discussions with more than 500 organizational executives, managers, and directors; held conversations with more than 100 diversity consultants and trainers; conducted in-depth searches of the literature on diversity in the workforce; and examined media coverage on diversity issues over a five-year span. Their research resulted in eleven conclusions, which they characterized as “overwhelming” in their consistency:15  \n1. Participants in diversity-training workshops found them to be divisive, disturbing, and counterproductive;  \n3 E. Beeghly, A. Madva, eds ., An Introduction to Implicit Bias: Kn","cbCaivoAGUq2A7No","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaivoAGUq2A7No","pdf",254691,"English","# Diversity training and political symbolism\n## Competing claims and the role of science\n## Two sources of justification\n## Research findings and conclusions","[{\"question\":\"What does the article argue about the effectiveness of diversity training?\",\"answer\":\"It argues that diversity programs usually do not work and often create negative unintended consequences worse than the original issues they aimed to address.\"},{\"question\":\"How does the article connect diversity training to political changes in the U.S.?\",\"answer\":\"It links shifts in diversity-training policy to political symbolism when new regimes try to undo executive orders from the previous administration.\"},{\"question\":\"What are the two main justifications for diversity training mentioned in the article?\",\"answer\":\"The article cites trendy academic theories about white wickedness and minority victimhood, and it also points to civil-rights groups’ frustration with inequities in education and workplace discrimination.\"}]","Diversity Training is Unscientific, and Divisive | PDF",13]