Soft drink conglomerate Coca-Cola’s diversity training brought out all the delicate white flowers after it suggested that employees be “less white.”
YouTuber Karlyn (not to be confused with Karen) Borysenko posted the controversial course, titled Confronting Racism, offered by LinkedIn Education and created by Robin DiAngelo on her Twitter account.
She allegedly received screenshots from an unidentified source at Coca-Cola.
“BREAKING: Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to “try to be less white,” she wrote on the social media platform.
??? BREAKING: Coca-Cola is forcing employees to complete online training telling them to “try to be less white.”
These images are from an internal whistleblower: pic.twitter.com/gRi4N20esZ
— Karlyn supports banning critical race theory in NH (@DrKarlynB) February 19, 2021
The right-winged woman then took to her YouTube channel to whine about the aforementioned training course.
I walk through the images in this video: https://t.co/tBwQ0FGV2N
— Karlyn supports banning critical race theory in NH (@DrKarlynB) February 19, 2021
She also posted various slides from the course, which technically challenged white people to forego their biases and inherent racism.
“In the U.S. and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white,” read one of the slides.
Another slide included tips to “be less white, be less arrogant, be less certain, be less defensive, be more humble, listen, believe, break with apathy” and “break with white solidarity.”
(Tips that went entirely above Borysenko’s head.)
The self-proclaimed “unwoke activist” continued her social media fragility rant. She wondered out loud to her followers about which other organizations are using DiAngelo’s training.
“One thing you all should keep in mind is that Coke probably isn’t the only company using this training with their employees. It’s on LinkedIn Learning – any company can pay for it. What other companies are making their employees do it,” Borysenko wrote.
Her tweet from Friday has garnered over 18,000 retweets and more than 35,000 likes.
As Borysenko tweeted, the white tears flowed down her Twitter feed.
Well I guess they already deleted it, and rightfully so. pic.twitter.com/xfK4Da6syh
— Szymek ???? (@sgszewczyk) February 24, 2021
As trump used to say “you’re fired” whoever came up with the idea to make that training
— Suzie Reynolds (@Suz1eQ210) February 24, 2021
I don’t know how to be less white, and don’t care to figure it out. I can however figure out how to drink less coke.
— Jamie McDonald (@JamieMc24213300) February 23, 2021
I will be less Coke that’s for sure – these are offensive and are reverse racism certain to increase the divide
— 4freedomofspeech (@4freedomofspee1) February 24, 2021
Somehow it has become acceptable to be blatantly racist towards white people
This is hurting our society and needs to stop
— Mark Schaberg (@TrueFreedom626) February 19, 2021
According to Newsweek, LinkedIn removed the “White Fragility” author’s training from its site after receiving backlash.
“The Confronting Racism course featuring Robin DiAngelo is no longer available in our course library, at the request of the 3rd party content provider we licensed this content from,” Nicole Leverich, vice president of corporate communications, told Newsweek.
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The spokeswoman continued, “We provide a wide variety of learning content, including more than 270 courses on the topics of diversity, inclusion and belonging. We will continue to add new courses to help people learn the skills they need to be more successful in their career, including the foundational skills we all need to be effective allies and help build a more equitable future.”
DiAngelo seemingly throws Coca-Cola under the bus, alleging that she wasn’t aware that it used her likeness in the diversity training course.
“The slides included were not created by Dr. DiAngelo,” DiAngelo’s rep told Newsweek.
“She was unaware that the videos had been re-edited in this way or that they were being marketed as a course/training on anti-racism since the way the content was put together did not accurately represent the way she would facilitate that type; of work.”
Coca-Cola has denied that the training was required for its workforce. Borysenko told Newsweek that numerous employees argued that it was mandatory.
The organization told Fox Business that the slides being tied to Coca-Cola’s training program “are not part of the company’s training curriculum.”
“Our Better Together global training is part of a learning plan to help build an inclusive workplace. It is comprised of many short vignettes, each a few minutes long,” the company said. “We will continue to listen to our employees and refine our learning programs as appropriate.”
To push diversity and inclusion initiatives forward while combating white supremacy, companies, including Coca-Cola, will have to directly address pushback from those who have relied on white fragility to back others down. The online reactions from white folks are proof that the organization was on to something.
