THE REPLACE RACISM SESSIONS

DON’T JUST REMOVE RACISM, REPLACE IT.

People assume that DEI and implicit-bias trainings will create more unified, more humane, and more thriving environments. The research and recent experience show they frequently fail—and often increase the very tensions they aim to resolve. They lack a coherent account of universal human nature, remain largely reactionary, overlook worldview, focus almost exclusively on what is broken, and create friction with merit and excellence.

The alternative is not to ignore human variation. Exceptional organizations treat diversity as a strength only when unique gifts are developed and unified toward a shared vision. This requires holding two truths in the right order: our common humanity and our real diversity.

That is the work of the Replace Racism Sessions.

Working from first principles, these sessions foster both the shared human element and genuine human diversity—in fullness and in unity of purpose. They replace thin or polarizing frameworks with the Flourishing of Human Diversity.

Who These Sessions Serve

The content is foundational and adaptable across the settings where diversity training is most often requested or required:

Organizational leaders and teams. Those who must address diversity and culture topics but want substance that builds trust and shared purpose rather than performative or polarizing exercises.

Social workers and human-services professionals. Professionals navigating real human difference in clinical and community settings who need a framework that affirms equal dignity while taking cultural and personal uniqueness seriously—without the division and demoralization that conventional approaches often produce.

First responders. Those who serve on society’s fault lines and regularly encounter the consequences of polarized narratives about human nature, justice, and identity. These sessions provide clearer sight, moral confidence, and a unifying alternative that strengthens rather than undermines the human foundation of the professions.

Educators and those who work with teens and young adults. Adults helping young people form identity and meaning in a culture that often offers either shallow colorblindness or fragmenting identity frameworks. The sessions supply a coherent, hopeful alternative grounded in shared humanity and real uniqueness.

The same core material can be offered as keynotes, focused lectures, half-day or full-day trainings, or multi-session series, with emphasis adjusted for the audience while preserving the philosophical center.

Six Essential Areas of Clarity

  1. The proper order of merit and human diversity. Merit must include and follow diversity rather than stand against it. The equity worth pursuing is access to genuine opportunity, not engineered sameness of outcomes. Diverse gifts, ordered toward a shared vision, become a strength.

  2. The humanity of our diversity. Clear understanding of both what we are (equally dignified human persons) and who we are (unique, singular persons). This frees people from both homogenizing colorblindness and the fragmentation of treating groups as ultimate.

  3. The universality of the human experience. Moving beyond mere tolerance or perpetual “anti-” postures toward a constructive, pro-human stance: pro-human nature, pro-human equality, pro-human dignity, pro-human diversity, and pro-human flourishing.

  4. Cultural and thought diversity without moral relativism. The capacity to appreciate and navigate cultural, religious, and ideological difference while retaining the ability to make real moral and intellectual distinctions—and to unify diverse perspectives toward common purpose.

  5. Human diversity and cultural diversity distinguished. Clarity about how these realities differ and where they overlap, and the practical ability to begin from shared human questions rather than contested answers—the heart of genuine cultural humility.

  6. Flourishing-focused solutions. The ability to locate real root causes of conflict and stagnation, then replace barriers with unifying, humane alternatives—so that people and organizations become better by going through difficulty rather than merely managing it.

Outcomes

  • Robust clarity regarding what we are as human beings and how we locate our essential equality and shared dignity

  • Meaningful articulation of who we are as singular persons, and how that uniqueness can foster both unity and fullness in our institutions

  • Clear understanding of the nature and rightful aim of human flourishing

  • Insight into the nature of worldviews and the distinction between human diversity and cultural diversity

  • Intellectually empowering responses to all things racism, including the essential framework necessary to replace it altogether

These sessions build common ground, strengthen morale and trust, and replace polarizing frameworks with a dignified understanding of human nature and human diversity.

Next Step Contact us to explore fit and format, here.

Or, consider our CE-eligible online versions through our Academic Studio.

REFERENCES

DEI and Implicit Bias Trainings are Making Things Worse

  • The Lost Generation, by Jacob Savage here.

  • The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?, by Nicholas Confessore, here.

  • Why Doesn’t Diversity Training work? by Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev here.

  • None of These Goals are Illegal: Universities Struggle to Respond to Funding Threats, by Bianca Quilantan and Madi Alexander, here.

  • As Trump Attacks D.E.I., Some on the Left Approve,here.

  • They Helped Create DEI—and Even They Say It Needs a Makeover, by Callum Borchers, here.

  • Six Lessons for a Cogent Science of Implicit Bias and Its Criticism, by Bertram Gawronski, here.

  • Sexy But Often Unreliable: The Impact of Unreliability on the Replicability of Experimental Findings With Implicit Measures, by Etienne P. LeBel and Sampo V. Paunonen, here.

  • 12 Reasons to Be Skeptical of Common Claims About Implicit Bias, by Lee Jussim Ph.D, here.

  • Why DEI Training Doesn’t Work—and How to Fix It, by Mahzarin Banaji and Frank Dobbin, here.

  • Disney Making Changes to its DEI Efforts on Axios, here.

  • The Implicit-Bias House of Cards. DEI trainings don’t work because one of the concepts on which they are based is junk science, by David Randall, here.

  • McKinsey’s Diversity Matters/Delivers/Wins Results Revisited, by Jeremiah Green and John R. M. Hand, here.

  • DEI Isn’t Working Inclusive Economics Might, by John Hope Bryant, here.

  • D.E.I. Is Not Working on College Campuses. We Need a New Approach, here.

  • Are We All Unconscious Racists? No: there’s scant evidence to support the trendy implicit-bias theory, by Heather Mac Donald, here.

  • A large collection of articles critical of Implicit Bias trainings is foundhere.

  • A breadth of intellectual content on these matters are available at New Discourses here.

The State of our Workplaces and Mental Health Point to Deeper Cultural Challenges that must be resolved

  • A mere 30% of employees are said to be engaged in the work, while 51% are disengaged and 16% are actively disengaged. For more click here.

  • 20% of the world’s workforce are said to experiences daily loneliness. For more click here.

  • Research is also showing that anxiety or depression are rapidly increasing, especially among young working-age people, for more click here.

  • And all of this is happening in the context of deeper cultural progression toward disunity, tension, meaninglessness, and boredom. For more click here.