Go to the mobile version of this Web site.

Login | Contact Us | Site Map | Paid archives | Electronic edition | Subscription Questions | Extras

Home › News › Local News

Denver pulls controversial diversity video

By Daniel J. Chacon, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published November 27, 2007 at 5:07 p.m.
Updated November 27, 2007 at 5:07 p.m.

Text size  

Please download the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, or enable JavaScript for your browser to view the video player.

More Local News

More stories »

Denver has decided to shelve a diversity-training video that portrays a white man as the sole bigot among a cast of blacks, Hispanics and women.

The decision to pull the video, titled Laughing Matters — Think About It, comes after Dennis Supple, a white man who works for the city, complained that it was racist and violated his civil rights.

The video has generated intense media interest from local and national outlets, including CNN, The Washington Times and the Greg Knapp Experience, a nationally broadcast radio program.

"We have clearly struck a nerve," Kathy Maloney, spokeswoman for the Career Service Authority, said today in a news release.

"We want to use this revived attention and passion from our employees to open dialogue with the result being the best end product possible," she said. "We will suspend the use of the video until we can facilitate this collaboration at an upcoming summit."

The video is meant to show employees how humor at the expense of others diminishes respect in the workplace.

The character who breaks all the rules is Billy, a white, blue-collar worker who's a narrow-minded goofball.

Supple, a heating, ventilating and air conditioning mechanic, said he was glad the city was pulling the video.

But he said the city's Diversity Advisory Committee, which developed the video in collaboration with Channel 8, the city's television channel, owes all white, blue-collar workers who had to watch the video an apology.

"It was wrong to begin with," he said.

Comments

  • November 27, 2007

    8:03 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    nicolec writes:

    While this may be a little cheesy, calling it racist is defensive and unnecessary. I actually like that in the end they try to demonstrate the Billy is not at heart a bad guy, just insensitive to how his jokes are received. I also think they make it clear that Billy doesn't do this because he is white but rather because he is "that guy" who we've all worked with who sometimes says things that upset others. Billy is actually quite diverse in his insults even making fun of a new *white* guy on the job. The video even goes so far as to suggest that women sometimes fuel sexist comments- which can be true and needs to be said.
    I'm willing to bet that Supple saw this, was reminded of things he has said in the past, felt defensive and rather than recognizing that he sometimes does cross the line, reacted by threatening to sue. What a waste of time. Anyone who actually thinks about it knows that humor is often used to be hurtful or shocking. That goes across race, class and gender. Did anyone actually think that Billy represents all "white, blue-collar workers"?
    Finally, what does Supple mean about his civil rights being violated? What right was violated? Did he have to pray? Will he lose his job for speaking out? Was he illegally searched?

  • November 27, 2007

    9:38 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    ghoax writes:

    about time :) how many times have we heard the shrieks from every one but a straight white male about civil rights violation? The lawsuits show the track record, a white male can barely look, walk or breathe without risking some sort of civil rights, discrimination lawsuit. The single white male has always been the one they have to make fun of, make look stupid, the PC AND behavior control is beyond ridiculous anymore.. But that being the case, fair is fair, if it's good for the goose, it's good for the gander and in relative terms , other minorities have won their "civil rights" lawsuits with much much less...so in that respect YES his civil rights were violated, as the only white straight male and the only one doing anything wrong. Calling the white man a bigot or a racist or a sexist is the same thing...particularly since the white straight man is not ALLOWED to use any language that isn't PC (although the minority groups are free to use whatever language they choose) So I say, since common sense seems to be a thing of the past and the PC will never go away...good job, it's about time...and the show is clearly racist and puts whites in a bad light, I'm pretty sure the word "cracker" is in there subliminally.