Does Diversity Training Work? Does Anyone Know?

In all experiences I’ve had with black, Latino and East Indian employees the response to these trainings has ranged from indifferent to overwhelmingly negative. Feedback has ranged from “its cringey” to “I feel like the team looks at me different now.” Especially negative feedback was from an Asian employee who was told she exhibited “bias associated with whiteness.”

Not even going to bring up the feedback from white people.

The positive feedback you get to these things is from other HR managers and DEI managers who like to pat themselves and each other on the back.

My take on them is they are unlikely to survive the recession and will be remembered as a relic of the times. Using them as a shield from lawsuits has not materialized as in some cases these programs can lead to their own discrimination suits.

IANAL, but my understanding is that Diversity Training exists to reduce the company's costs due to discrimination lawsuits, and to make the company look caring and inclusive. Actually working has never been a metric of interest (to management).