Hatred is a Business Issue—It Affects Us All….Will You Speak Up?

Hatred is a business issue.

I’m not talking about the profits it generates for Meta and Twitter because of its outsized share of hate sharing—that’s a given. I want to focus on hatred in the workplace…the purposeful or inadvertent channeling of outside cultural issues or other things into the relationships between fellow employees, team members, and colleagues that can lead to hate, distrust, and sometimes even fear.

Over the past few years, I have become acquainted with some of corporate America’s leading DE&I leaders. Each has been outstanding. All have been open and clear in pursuing a better workplace for all. No one had a biased or skewed view toward any specific group in their company, positive or negative. All were looking at innovative and real ways to collaborate and expand their curriculum and programming for the benefit of all.?

Interestingly, one of their key shared issues was how to keep ERGs (Employee Resource Groups) from becoming siloed in their own pursuit of DE&I….as the siloes create distrust and distance between people…the opposite of what these leaders want to foment.?

My relationships began as a direct outcome of my involvement in a Social Justice Program/Movement called Shine A Light On Anti-Semitism .?

The premise of this program is simple, unique, and powerful. Rather than call out individual Anti-Semites (sometimes a point of contention based on a variety of issues), Shine A Light is focused on dispelling the darkness of the hate itself, making crystal clear what is Anti-Semitic beyond a doubt, where the grey crosses into the red and where the warnings need to begin.?

Shine A Light asks for simple action. If you hear it, witness it, or hear of it—you have an obligation to speak up, walk out of the meeting, and make it clear it’s unacceptable to you, your company, to anyone.?

The insight driving it all is equally simple and powerful. There are no single haters. Most haters are serial in nature—hate one, hate many. Racists tend to be homophobic…Islamophobic…

Anti-Semitic…and onwards. Start with any group, and the progression is pretty straightforward.?

The DE&I leads embraced this thinking and enthusiastically joined the Shine A Light Initiative.?

All of which is why I have chosen to write about this for my IMAGINE.?

I have written before about my encounters with Anti-Semitism in our industry. In fact, I was a feature interview in a PBS Special, “The Real Men and Women of Madison Avenue ,” where I described what it was like.?

Bottom line: I dealt with it by never letting any bias, of any kind, permeate the workplace I was accountable for as I advanced in the business, and making clear that those who spread it were not welcome….client or colleague and over the years there have been both.?

And yet, there are those who, somehow, still exclude Anti-Semitism from their focus and forgive, overlook, or dismiss what to some is blatant expressions of the same.??

And now to the specific event that shook me and what I hope will be a clear case in point.

Several weeks ago, a close friend of mine attended a meeting at his company where a particular historic event was being discussed in light of what learnings should be gleaned for today so that bias and racism would no longer play a role in immigration and acceptance/integration in society.???

It was an interesting and productive discussion with a most moving exhibition until one participant stood up and said.... Jews have too much power, and I don’t agree with how they use that power. (I’m not using quotation marks, but I can assure you, it’s accurate.)

MAXIMUM KNEE-JERK ALERT! No politics, please.?

My friend was stunned...to say the least. Did I report that he happens to be Jewish? He looked around the room expecting the moderator to say something—if nothing less than—what does that have to do with the subject at hand??

Crickets.

The Global Head of DE&I was also present and heard the statement during a Q&A session, but didn’t seem phased either.?

My buddy then reached out to that very same DE&I leader who represented him as much as anyone else in the company and asked: Why hasn’t anything been said? Why has no one challenged the statement.?

The reply might be worse than the original outburst. You see, the company representative said, I have followed up in light of the query. It seems the person in question had worked for a Jewish charity and believed that more was done for Jews claiming atrocities against themselves than had been done for anyone else.?

Then this global director added: That’s a common understanding.?

Furthermore, Israel is celebrating its 75th anniversary without a Constitution, and the imbalance of power was what had been referenced, and it was important to understand that criticism wasn’t Anti-Semitism.?

Criticism of policy is, in fact, fair game. Israelis have taken to the streets for months, protesting their country’s policies. But follow the thread…Jewish power, no empathy for others, Israeli aggression, and none of it had any real bearing or connection to the topic.?

To me (call me overly sensitive, if you need to), that’s Anti-Semitism. Plain and simple. Classic and modern expressions of Anti-Semitism.

Hatred is a business issue.?

It affects us in the workplace and spills over into our lives. That’s how I began. The curation of hate, that is, the pathological fixation on any one group of people to the exclusion of others, regardless of the subject discussed, is hatred, dear reader. In this case, Anti-Semitism...in another, it could be racism, Islamaphobia, or anything else.?

And in my world none of it is acceptable.

We cannot allow ourselves to condone such behavior. We cannot look the other way. No matter who is being trolled, if you let it go once…the next time, it could be you.?

Many of my younger readers might not know the following poem, translated from its original German, and the story behind it. Some of the older readers might, in either case:

“First they came for the socialists” is a famous quote from Martin Niem?ller , a German Lutheran pastor who opposed the Nazi regime during World War II. The quote is often used to describe the dangers of political apathy and the importance of speaking out against injustice.

The quote is part of a longer poem that Niem?ller wrote in 1946. Here is the full text of the poem:

"First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out— Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me."?

We all need to speak out—together and in unison—for all of us. Nothing confounds hatred more than the lack of it.?

Don’t be left alone….?

What are your thoughts??