Here is the email I would love to send to management but won't because I would like to keep my job. So instead, I am posting it here anonymously with hopes that someone with the power to do something about D&I and our culture will read it.
I don't know if you had an opportunity to watch the "Of Many Cultures Speaker Series" by Ta-Nehisi Coates on Tuesday evening or not but I wanted to share my thoughts on the presentation and the topic in general as I have strong feelings regarding them. I felt that the presentation was very polarizing, divisive, one-sided, and biased. Now, possibly more than ever, our country is deeply divided because of recent political strife, and I believe presentations like this are fanning those divisive flames within Genentech. Ta-Nehisi not only spoke very questionable truths and cherry-picked questionable facts, but he also drove a wedge deeper between political parties and employees with differing political, religious, and cultural viewpoints.
In my opinion, presentations like the one Ta-Nehisi gave are just as inappropriate in a work setting as someone speaking on the topic of pro-life, gun rights, or religion. I believe that presentations like this will only bring additional discord among employees and our country. I did not choose to take offense to this presentation, but I do not believe one-sided liberal discussions like this will make us a better company or heal our country.
I will gladly support and march with anyone fighting racial injustice, racial supremacy, bigotry, equal rights for ALL, and upholding our constitution. Let's fight injustice everywhere, not just from one polarized viewpoint. I love that our company encourages us to combat those injustices but, that is not what this presentation was; it was propaganda.
I want to be part of making this company truly diverse by helping everyone feel included, but I feel our D&I approach sometimes does more damage than good. My definition of diversity does not start and stop with race and gender, it includes age, life experience, political view, military experience, sexual preference, religion, work experience, education, geography, culture, and much more. If we are genuinely striving for diversity, could you imagine us setting quotas to hire an equal number of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents that appropriately reflect our country and our patients? Or, inviting a conservative speaker like Ben Shapiro to speak at one of our D&I meetings and discuss the importance of injustice and diversity? My impression, and that of many others I have spoken with at Gentech, is that Sr. leadership only wants diversity of thought if it aligns with their political viewpoints and, that if you have an opinion that is different from theirs, you should leave the company.
I want everyone at Genentech to have a feeling of inclusion. Promoting polarizing rhetoric by doing things like calling our former president (that nearly half the country and half our patients voted for) a "racist white supremacist" or repeatedly announcing that this country is "systemically racist" (something 49% of the country does not agree with) does not unify us or help us meet our goal of appropriately representing the diversity of our patients, employees, or this country. For Genentech to support someone stating that those that voted for former President Trump are "greedy people who are trying to push our country over a cliff "and then for our CEO to ask if "America has made any progress since the 1860s" is completely inappropriate, unprofessional, and ridiculous. To say such things negates the people who have given their lives in this country to change inequality over the past 160 years. And for the record, I did not vote for President Trump in either of the last two elections.
If we are truly focusing on diversity and inclusivity at Genentech, let's stop driving a political wedge between people and instead focus on unification despite our different views.
This is not the proverbial "hill I want to die on," and I am not sure what to do with this information if anything at all. For the safety and future of my career here at Genentech, it might very well be best that my opinion on this issue is never shared. However, I also want to do my part to keep Genentech an amazing place to work and maintain the "speak-up culture" by sharing my feelings regarding what we might be able to do to heal our country, increase employee satisfaction, and create a more holistic view of D&I at Genentech.
