Experienced Subversive Racial Insensitivity at the Center for Teaching and Learning - Anonymous employee Columbia University Employee Review

The center was very proud of its diversity efforts but did very little to proactively raise diverse voices and cultivate safety through inclusion within the organization. Some of the leadership was incredibly ignorant about race issues or used subversive tactics to minimize opinions that diverged from what leadership wanted, despite constantly preaching the importance of diversity and lifting up the less fortunate. A few also openly critiqued others, putting down and belittling other leaders and employees likely as a form of gaining power without demonstrating humility and amenability to accept their own areas of improvement. The culture was incredibly hypocritical, fitting neatly into the stereotype of performative work around racism. Personally, this was my absolute worst experience dealing with diversity and exclusion in the workplace, coming from a place with leaders and culture that advocated for diversity. It felt like a goal was to humiliate people who they deemed to be out of line. DEIA was used as an empty, Machiavellian tool, and it felt like too many people were somehow beat down, too afraid, too concerned with advancing or protecting themselves, or too complicit to do anything about it.