> I had to "confess" that I'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career.

So, basically inquisitor wannabees and pseudoscience cultists. Your colleague dodged a bullet.

The idea that claiming that you are racist makes you not racist is totally gaga, random, and based in magical thinking, not in science. It only helps to hide in plain sight the real racists making much easier to admit it for everybody.

> I had to "confess" that i'm racist and promise to do better or it would have consequences for my career. Sidenote: I volunteer at a refugee center and took in a syrian family.

It's almost like making generalisations about people's actions only by their skin colour or ethnic background is somehow wrong. Weird to think that basically anyone studying social science or humanities is being taught this stuff and that it is at this point basically accepted as fact.

This is terrifying, almost cult-like.

The fact that this is what "fighting racism" looks like when forced hysterectomies are performed on undocumented immigrants in concentration camps show that it's not really about racism for the people that are doing this.

Is there any real proof that these diversity sessions actually help people work in diverse environments? The way you describe this, it reads like a really, really weird cargo cult where just confessing to one's supposed racism will somehow make you more open to people of differing backgrounds. How exactly does this help?

They are called Struggle Sessions[0].

> Struggle sessions were a form of public humiliation and torture used by the Chinese Communist Party (CPC) at various times in the Mao era, particularly during the years immediately before and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and during the Cultural Revolution. The aim of struggle sessions was to shape public opinion, as well as to humiliate, persecute, or execute political rivals and those deemed class enemies.

> In general, the victim of a struggle session was forced to admit various crimes before a crowd of people who would verbally and physically abuse the victim until they confessed. Struggle sessions were often held at the workplace of the accused, but they were sometimes conducted in sports stadiums where large crowds would gather if the target was well-known.

0: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session Sorry for the Wikipedia reference.

I've been in such trainings, and I've seen lots of people get offended at hearing "you benefit from racism" as if it meant "you're racist".

Racists in positions of power may tilt the playing field in your favor whether you've asked for it or not. And it may not even be you personally, but people in your neighborhood, your social groups in general.

> I had to "confess" that i'm racist

Good old Struggle sessions: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Struggle_session

This is basically a Chinese struggle session.

If you have the opportunity, please find a way to be a whistle-blower. IANAL, but this seems like a textbook "hostile work environment" and there are lawyers out there who are definitely interested in fighting this nonsense. Your sympathetic back story would definitely help.

There's also push back at the federal level against this, and public awareness is growing.

Even worse. If these high ranking people are so afraid for their careers that they will say these things even if they don't believe them then the few people who do believe it are indeed quite powerful.

> So even if that Dean said he is a racist, he's probably not unless you warp the definition of racism.

Please elaborate on what you mean by "warp the definition of racism".

Well that's the thing. These diversity training people do use a different definition of racism then what you are thinking of. The diversity training definition of racism doesn't simply mean prejudiced, it means a part of a system of power that benefits people considered "white" at the expense of others. By that definition, most white people are probably "racist". If you understand the context used when they call themselves "racist", it's really not that big of a deal. It's basically just them saying, "I'm white, and I recognize that society treats me a little bit better cause of that".

I will say, I think it's strange they are asking them to admit to being racist, and "be better". It's a systemic thing, so it requires systemic change. Asking them to say they are racist and that they need to be better seems unneededly divisive.

Edit: As others have pointed out, the last sentence is kind of wrong. The paraphrase should probably say, "I recognize I'm a part of a system or systems that uphold racism". Look at the ADL's definition for racism to see what I mean:

https://www.adl.org/racism

By their definition, you are racist if you help uphold any of the "systems, institutions, or factors that advantage white people and for people of color, cause widespread harm and disadvantages in access and opportunity."