The man who said "no" to DEI training, and four lessons for employers
Employer's DEI mandate scores a win. A white guy refused to take his employer's mandatory "unconscious bias" training, and he was fired. He sued the employer for retaliation, his lawsuit was dismissed, and this week an appeals court affirmed the dismissal . The plaintiff knew virtually nothing about the training that he refused to get, the court said, and therefore he had no "objectively reasonable belief" that the training was discriminatory. That knocked out his retaliation claim. He also failed to show that his complaints about the training were the reason his employment was terminated. If his retaliation claim hadn't already been nixed, this would have done it, too. It's no secret that employer diversity initiatives are facing a lot of challenges nowadays, and some of the challenges have been successful. This is especially the case since the U.S. Supreme Court's decision last summer in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard University ...