In today’s episode of, Black People Ya’ll Know Better, Hyatt Hotels Vice President of Global Diversity and Inclusion executive Tyronne Jenkins Stoudemire took it upon himself to do a diversity training exercise straight from the Pepsi Diversity Playbook of, “Dude, What In The Hell Were You Thinking?” (Who is the President of Global Diversity and Inclusion? The former PR guy that worked for Papa John’s?”)
Tyronne is on stage with the Governor of Illinois Bruce Rauner to discuss workplace diversity at a Black History Month event in which he thought showing the impact of inclusion could be explained using a glass of milk and chocolate syrup. Because you know, any time you are trying to explain very serious topics like racism and inclusion to White people the most effective thing you can do is whip up a glass of chocolate milk. The milk represented the White, male leadership of most corporations and the chocolate syrup that Tyronne squeezed into the bottom of the glass represented People of Color, Women, LGBTQ, little children, dogs, cats, zebras, mermaids and herds of elephants.
Tyronne then reaches the climax of his presentation when he stirs up the chocolate syrup and the milk and, drumroll please…no more racism! The chocolate syrup and the milk have seamlessly combined, and I promise as he stirred that glass of milk I could hear the shackles of oppression falling off, women of color getting paid what they rightly deserve, Confederate statues being torn down, and the chorus of We Are The World in the background. Who knew it was just that easy?
One person online said it reminded them of something Michael Scott would do on The Office and I died laughing! Excellent description! LOL!
Not to be outdone in the fucked-upnessof this presentation foolishness, Governor Rauner proceeds to drink the milk and says, “It’s really, really good. Diversity. Won’t you grab you a glass today!” Okay, Governor Rauner didn’t say that last sentence, but I couldn’t help myself. I am sure Kendall Jenner is somewhere right now thinking, “So I should have handed the officer a glass of chocolate milk instead of a Pepsi.”
The entire scene is laughable but what makes it even funnier and a bit scarier is Tyronne Jenkins said he has been using the “milk and diversity does a body good,” routine for 16 years. All I could think was, “Killmonger did not die for this.” We are not about to round out Black History Month with this foolishness. Let me tell you, Tyronne doesn’t have any Black friends because someone would have told him, “Dude have you lost your damn mind? It’s just some shit Black people are NOT going to do!”
Black People are NOT:
- Adding brussel sprouts to mac and cheese
- Taking selfies while standing on the ledge of a highrise
- Wearing shorts and sandals in the wintertime
- Going to check ANYTHING out if they hear a random noise at a friend’s house
- Rooting for any other family if one of the teams is Black on the Family Feud
- Camping at a desolate cabin where a murderer does a killing spree every summer
- Sticking around to find out what is going on if other Black people are running
- Drinking any tea stirred and offered to them by White people
- Eating shit people bring from home for work potlucks
- Kissing their dogs in the mouth
- Ever going to believe Nefertiti looked White so stop with the replicas
- Mixing up a glass of chocolate milk for an exercise on diversity, race, and inclusion
I understand the symbolic gesture Tyronne was going for; however, there are dozens of exercises that can be effective and have an impact on how White people understand race, racism, diversity, intersectionality, and inclusion in the workplace; this exercise isn’t one of them. LOL! There are countless people that spend their lives discussing these issues and designing programming to combat racism in the workplace. Hire someone like @ReignofApril who can effectively teach your organization about racism and inclusion or check out someone like Jane Elliot who has dedicated her life masterfully teaching about racism. Do not turn race and inclusion into a gimmick. I can see the new company slogans right now, “Got Racism?” “Diversity-It’s What’s For Dinner.” “Inclusion-It’s Mmmm Mmmm Good.”
No, Tyronne. Just no.