LinkedIn takes down white author's slides telling people to be 'less white' and 'less oppressive' from its learning site after backlash against Coca-Cola for using the video in diversity training
A set of controversial training slides by a white academic encouraging people to be 'less white' has been removed from LinkedIn's learning platform after Coca-Cola came under fire for making them available to its staff.
The slides in question, which went viral on social media after they were revealed by a 'whistleblower' working for the soft drink giant in the US, told viewers that being 'less white' meant being 'less oppressive', 'less arrogant' and 'less ignorant'.
The slides come from a series of LinkedIn-hosted videos titled 'Confronting Racism with Robin DiAngelo', a white academic who argues that even well-meaning white people are complicit in racist structures unless they actively work to be 'anti-racist'.
After calls for boycotts and lawsuits against Coca-Cola, the firm said it merely provided access to the slides on the LinkedIn Learning platform as part of its diversity training, rather than making them required viewing.
But the slides have now been taken down altogether 'at the request of the third-party content provider we licensed this content from', a LinkedIn spokeswoman told Newsweek on Monday.
Coca-Cola is under fire for uploading a resource video encouraging employees to 'be less white'. Slides from the 'inclusive workplace' video went viral on social media over the weekend after they were shared by a 'whistleblower' working for the soft drink giant
The slides appear to come from an 11-minute video titled 'Confronting Racism with Robin DiAngelo'. One slide claims that whiteness is associated with arrogance, defensiveness, ignorance and a lack of humility
The Coca-Cola logo can be seen in the top right of the screenshot. The company has confirmed that it uploaded the video to their 'LinkedIn Learning platform', but insists it is not a part of the company's compulsory curriculum
A spokesperson told The Washington Examiner that the video was accessible to Coca-Cola employees as part of their 'Better Together global training', which is designed 'to help build an inclusive workplace'
The slides appear to come from an 11-minute video titled 'Confronting Racism with Robin DiAngelo'. DiAngelo, an author and consultant, argues that even well-meaning white people are complicit in racist structures unless they actively work to be 'anti-racist'
As conservative voices including Jack Posobiec and Tucker Carlson voiced their anger at the slides used by Coca-Cola, some Donald Trump supporters urged others to shun the drink - with Posobiec claiming that 'Coke just threw 100 years of marketing out the window'.
One woman going by the Twitter name of 'Censored Conservative' went even further by pouring a can of Coke down the toilet, declaring that 'I'm never going to try to be "less white". I am who I am, what God made me'.
Coca-Cola last month unveiled new diversity targets for the law firms it hires, threatening to cut its payments by 30 per cent if outside firms fail their evaluations.
The rules require at least 30 per cent of the legal man-hours paid for by Coca-Cola to be carried out by attorneys from 'diverse' backgrounds.
But while the firm boasts of its efforts to 'help build an inclusive workplace', it swiftly distanced itself from the controversial slides - which were part of a set of videos apparently written by DiAngelo herself.
One of these videos was an 11-minute clip called 'Understanding What it Means to be White, Challenging What it Means to be Racist'.
One slide features the title 'Try to Be Less White', before another claims that whiteness is associated with arrogance, defensiveness, ignorance and a lack of humility.
Another slide states: 'In the US and other Western nations, white people are socialized to feel that they are inherently superior because they are white'.
It continues: 'Research shows that by age 3 to 4, children understand that it is better to be white.'
An advert for the course boasts that DiAngelo 'gives you the vocabulary and practices you need to start confronting racism and unconscious bias at the individual level and throughout your organization'.
DiAngelo is the author of the book 'White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard For White People To Talk About Racism'.
Published in 2018, the book was widely read at the height of the George Floyd protests last summer, but also attracted criticism for 'talking down' to black people and focusing on white people's problems.
'I grew up poor and white. While my class oppression has been relatively visible to me, my race privilege has not,' she says of herself.
'In my efforts to uncover how race has shaped my life, I have gained deeper insight by placing race in the center of my analysis and asking how each of my other group locations have socialized me to collude with racism.'
One Donald Trump supporter was so incensed by Coca-Cola's use of the slides that she poured a can of the soft drink down a toilet in protest
Coca-Cola's headquarters in Atlanta is pictured. A company spokesperson stated: 'We will continue to listen to our employees and refine our learning programs as appropriate'
Coca-Cola has confirmed that the video was accessible to its employees on the LinkedIn Learning platform, but insist it is not a part of the company's compulsory curriculum.
It said access to the videos was provided as part of its 'Better Together' training which consists of 'a number of short vignettes, each a few minutes long'.
The training program is designed 'to help build an inclusive workplace,' a statement said.
'The video in question was accessible on the LinkedIn Learning platform but was not part of the company's curriculum,' they said.
'We will continue to listen to our employees and refine our learning programs as appropriate.'
The slides were re-tweeted by Harmeet K. Dhillon, a leader of the Republican National Committee in California.
'This seems like blatant racial discrimination to this employment lawyer,' she stated.
The slides were re-tweeted by Harmeet K. Dhillon, a leader of the Republican National Committee in California
Another concurred, writing: 'This is a gold mine for any decent civil rights lawyer. Where are the lawsuits??'
A third popular tweet simply stated: 'I always preferred Pepsi'.
However, some argued that they still supported workplace initiatives to teach employees about diversity and racial sensitivity.
'I think the word choice is poor, but the concepts will hopefully be enlightening. There are many who do not realize their own racial prejudices, and I'm not kidding,' a proponent tweeted.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson displayed the slides on his show last night, using them to complain that 'corporate America is getting more radical'.
'How do you have a country... if you're taught by your leaders to hate each other because of your differences,' Carlson asked.
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