It was not without some anxiety that I learned that you have encouraged the patient to attend the “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” training offered by his employer.
Admittedly, at first blush the training promises seemingly limitless occasions to promote divisiveness, resentment, strife, and obloquy. Indeed, the “implicit bias” component alone presents infinite opportunities for mischief: Everyone is racist and can do little or nothing about it? Inspired!
Nonetheless, my anxiety sprang from the inescapable fact that most sentient beings almost instantly discern the training to be utter nonsense. If, for example, racism is indelibly imprinted upon the subconscious, then no amount of DEI/implicit-bias training will eradicate it. Consequently, all but the most obtuse would dismiss the “training” as sheer cant embraced only by intellectual lemmings, and thus, a setback for our overall enterprise.
But fortunately, I recalled that the patient has a graduate degree in the humanities from an Ivy League school — and, therefore, my anxiety receded to insignificance. Accordingly, please continue in your endeavor, and perhaps suggest the patient attend a Critical Race training as well.
In my next letter, dear nephew, I shall address the contemporary imperative of “identity.”
(Apologies to Mr. Lewis.)