To boycott Coca Cola products

My sources were the articles in the Independent and the Guardian and also some online news services reporting the incident in the US. The training video was circulated to Coke staff and was seen by a YouTuber who blew the whistle after seeing the content. The phrasing they used included ‘be less oppressive, be less ignorant, be less white, thus aligning those negative traits with being white. The training course was posted online by LinkedIn who later gave a statement saying that the course had been removed from their website after a request from a ‘third party’. I have no problem with the sentiment but I do have a problem with the insulting language used, especially on discovering that Dr DiAngelo’s interviews were edited by Coca Cola without either her knowledge or permission, and used for their own ends.

Last time I drank coke was in the 60s in Greece on holiday.

We buy one full fat large coke and one diet version if the children come to us at Christmas and when it’s gone it’s gone.

I gave up trying to be less white years ago. If I sit in the sun, I burn, the burn fades and I am lily white again! Is there an official body I can apologise to??

Now my OH finds me a shaded spot and I just read and snooze the day away! Hopefully can repeat the exercise before too long.

Since my daughter used it to clean her bike I went right off the filthy stuff.

how much were you drinking Sarnia?

It is very good for getting rid of bad headaches, two paracetamol and a can of full sugar coke or pepsi and it really shifts it.

When I had a kidney stone removed, the doctor said he would like to ban Coca-Cola. Might just as well drink battery acid in his opinion. Never touched it since.

NotSpaghetti

What is very woke Sago?

It’s a misprint. Should be very coke.

What is very woke Sago?

It’s very woke.
However Coca Cola is a disgusting drink that should be banned.

The course in question was available on LinkedIn Learning.

LinkedIn Learning is an online platform where many, many different kinds of training courses are published by many, many providers.

Coca Cola most probably had a corporate agreement with LinkedIn that allowed their employees to access all the courses.

One of the courses, nothing to do with Coke, had the offending phrase in it.

Somebody complained. LinkedIn took the course down.

Bunch of Conservatives in the US got wind of it and stirred up a storm in a teacup.

But I agree with this Maggie

the be less white statement was just a rather heavy-handed and attention grabbing way of saying that we should strive to be more aware of white privilege and racial bias that exists in every society. I doubt it was meant to offend and I wouldn’t be boycotting any company who promoted that message in good faith.

I hope you don't mean me Maggie when you say some took it as:

proof positive that Coca Cola employees were not told to look at this training video

Because some trainers probably did tell people to look at it. The article says that they weren't directed to it by Coca Cola.
When I've delivered training I will have used materials suggested/proscribed by my organisation and then supplemented this with not just my own material but often other material I've found elsewhere that I thought was appropriate.

That's what I actually assumed when I read the article.

Training, even in a large organisation, often depends partly on the individual trainer.

Who do I believe? Well, until I see some sort of concrete evidence one way or the other, I prefer to keep an open mind.

For what it’s worth, OP, I’d say the be less white statement was just a rather heavy-handed and attention grabbing way of saying that we should strive to be more aware of white privilege and racial bias that exists in every society. I doubt it was meant to offend and I wouldn’t be boycotting any company who promoted that message in good faith. What’s important is that issues such as this can be discussed openly and calmly, with neither side resorting to insults and abuse.

Having worked in a large multi national, I have experienced the hoops that training sessions have to go through to be released for use. So, who do we believe; a multi national with decades of training experience and a legal team who will have checked everything a dozen times. Or a motley selection of professionally insulted right wingers?

Also, having seen screenshot of the offending slides, if they were being used by Coke then they need to hire some better graphic designers.

Read my link again.

I don’t need to, Alegrias As I said:

It does not actually address the LinkedIn training video implicated in the controversy, which has now been taken down, and whether it contained a be less white message or whether this was promoted by Coca-Cola.

Several posters on this thread seem to have taken your linked article as proof positive that Coca Cola employees were not told to look at this training video. It’s not. Coca Cola claim they did not direct employees to watch the video, some employees say they did. So we don’t know, do we? ??‍♀️

I'd like to teach the world to sing
In perfect harmony
??

Well if you read the article, they're not being duped are they; a great example of not reading past the headline, if you pardon me for saying so.

Quote from the Indy article:

In a statement to The Independent, the drinks giant said the seminar was not part of Coca-Cola's “learning curriculum.”

The Confronting Racism course, with Robin DiAngelo, was publicly available on the employment site LinkedIn until recently, it has since been removed.

So we are expected to believe that a trusted newspaper such as The Independent has been duped into believing this story.

Maggiemaybe

The Indy explains better than I can.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/coca-cola-racism-robin-diangelo-coke-b1806122.html%3famp

Read my link again.

USA Report quotation:

A Coca-Cola spokesperson told Snopes users had “the ability to navigate outside of the intended curriculum, which may have given the false impression that certain videos were part of the training.”

LinkedIn later removed the course from its online offerings.

LinkedIn, not Coke.

The Indy explains better than I can.

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/www.independent.co.uk/life-style/coca-cola-racism-robin-diangelo-coke-b1806122.html%3famp

Short and sweet indeed

The OP's attempt to fan the flames backfired!

I hope this thread isn't removed.

Lucca

Have a look at the link Alegrias provided. This never happened !

Not the case, unfortunately.

The link Alegrias posts debunks the myth that the CEO of Coca Cola called those objecting to the alleged training right wing nuts. It does not actually address the LinkedIn training video implicated in the controversy, which has now been taken down, and whether it contained a be less white message or whether this was promoted by Coca-Cola.

Well said Alegrias you put it better than I could

Well, in case this thread disappears....

Why don't people just check things before seeing insult and injury at every turn? It took me 2 minutes to disprove this. All those accusing us of seeing racism everywhere; what's everywhere is a persecution complex.

As for reverse racism ; there is no reverse racism, just racism. And this isn't it.

Might be best to ask for this to be removed as it’s taken out of context and not a true reflection

Pammie1

Short and sweet. Expecting to get flamed quite a lot. Coca Cola has incorporated ‘be less white’ into their training videos. I find it really offensive and tantamount to reverse racism. AIBU to boycott Coke products from now on ?

Not true, so yes YABU.