The company I work for is trying to revamp itself and so, they created a video with key-points of the company's future, goals and expectations.
All employees are required to watch the video along with a powerpoint presentation. Today was my turn to attend to the session.
At the end of it, we were separated in groups and told to share our thoughts. We were clearly stirred towards sharing our positive thoughts -even though it was supposed to be a feedback 'workshop.'
Most people were saying how they loved the video, how clear it was, how positive it was, blah blah blah.
All I could think of was that we watched a 20 minute video of three extremely well dressed white people, with high positions reading from a teleprompter. You could tell by the movement of their eyes. It was all rehearsed, it was all acted out. No true meaning behind their words, merely repeating words appearing in the monitor.
These words, however, aimed at 'brainwashing' us and used the power of suggestion to promote certain behaviours or thoughts. The words 'proud,' 'community' and 'inspiration' were repeated constantly.
What struck me as awkward was that a filthy rich white man was talking about community, being part of the local community, and a second later he was saying we have to reduce our discounts to increase profit.
I wanted to scream at the screen "You have no fucking clue what community is you entitled prick!"
It's like seeing a warlord preaching about peace.
Oxymoron doesn't even begin to describe it.
What struck me as unacceptable though, was that there were only white people on the video. Even when they were showing ads relevant to the company, not even once was a POC featured.
And thus, when they asked us for our opinion, I mentioned that there wasn't enough racial diversity on the video. The two middle aged white men who are higher-ups in our division and were part of our team started mumbling "What do you mean?" "Can you explain this?" and they looked terrified.
I told them "I mean there were only white people on the video, we need more diversity as a company."
And even though they shook their head, supposedly agreeing with me, when they time came for all teams to share bullet points of their opinions, mine was painfully ignored.
I also dared ask them about the 'inspiring the community' part of the pretentious speech on the video, and they referred to charity (a.k.a giving away money that will be a tax right off), but absolutely no interactive activities provided by our company for the local community.
Basically, they want to be an elitist 'club' for the rich, all the while pretending to care for the local community by doing the bare minimum to prove said 'care.'
And unfortunately, this is how most corporations operate.
Welcome to the real -capitalist- (dystopian) world...
All employees are required to watch the video along with a powerpoint presentation. Today was my turn to attend to the session.
At the end of it, we were separated in groups and told to share our thoughts. We were clearly stirred towards sharing our positive thoughts -even though it was supposed to be a feedback 'workshop.'
Most people were saying how they loved the video, how clear it was, how positive it was, blah blah blah.
All I could think of was that we watched a 20 minute video of three extremely well dressed white people, with high positions reading from a teleprompter. You could tell by the movement of their eyes. It was all rehearsed, it was all acted out. No true meaning behind their words, merely repeating words appearing in the monitor.
These words, however, aimed at 'brainwashing' us and used the power of suggestion to promote certain behaviours or thoughts. The words 'proud,' 'community' and 'inspiration' were repeated constantly.
What struck me as awkward was that a filthy rich white man was talking about community, being part of the local community, and a second later he was saying we have to reduce our discounts to increase profit.
I wanted to scream at the screen "You have no fucking clue what community is you entitled prick!"
It's like seeing a warlord preaching about peace.
Oxymoron doesn't even begin to describe it.
What struck me as unacceptable though, was that there were only white people on the video. Even when they were showing ads relevant to the company, not even once was a POC featured.
And thus, when they asked us for our opinion, I mentioned that there wasn't enough racial diversity on the video. The two middle aged white men who are higher-ups in our division and were part of our team started mumbling "What do you mean?" "Can you explain this?" and they looked terrified.
I told them "I mean there were only white people on the video, we need more diversity as a company."
And even though they shook their head, supposedly agreeing with me, when they time came for all teams to share bullet points of their opinions, mine was painfully ignored.
I also dared ask them about the 'inspiring the community' part of the pretentious speech on the video, and they referred to charity (a.k.a giving away money that will be a tax right off), but absolutely no interactive activities provided by our company for the local community.
Basically, they want to be an elitist 'club' for the rich, all the while pretending to care for the local community by doing the bare minimum to prove said 'care.'
And unfortunately, this is how most corporations operate.
Welcome to the real -capitalist- (dystopian) world...
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