Adidas promoted a black man because he was black, not because of merit, but because Adidas wanted to tally up some woke points. The decision by Adidas not only robbed employees of other races of an equal chance, but its gesture is highly insulting to blacks, who should be judged by competence, not race.
The only contribution Roland Auschel made was to cultivate division, insult black people and punish more potentially deserving employees. The black employee may not have even been aware that he was being fast-tracked on the basis of color.
“Adidas exec promoted black manager as ‘contribution to diversity’: report,” by Ariel Zilber, New York Post, November 30, 2022:
A longtime executive at Adidas told staffers he promoted a black employee to a managerial position so that the company can make a “contribution to diversity,” according to a report.
Roland Auschel, the head of sales at the Germany-based sports apparel maker, reportedly made the remark during a meeting with 200 managers in 2019, the Financial Times reported.
“It was completely inappropriate,” one employee who was at the meeting told FT.
Auschel’s comment spurred Adidas to launch a two-year investigation that ended with the high-paid exec keeping his job, according to FT.
The company told FT it hired “a reputable law firm” to probe allegations concerning “potential breaches of internal conduct guidelines” as part of a “comprehensive and independent” investigation….
Alkflaeda says
Completely unfair to the person they promoted, as well as to his colleagues. What happens to him if, due to this company culture, he hasn’t been properly prepared for the new role (which NB is not the same as saying that he is not capable)?
gravenimage says
So true.
James Lincoln says
Hello everyone, this is the captain speaking.
In the spirit of full disclosure, I wanted everyone to know that I was promoted not because of my aviation skills, but because of my race.
Enjoy the flight!
Alkflaeda says
Love it.
gravenimage says
Woke Adidas exec admits promoting black man as ‘contribution to diversity’
………………………………….
Unfair to those more qualified, unfair even to the employee promoted above his competence or training level. He *may* be able to rise to the occasion, or he could essentially have been set up to fail. Ugly all around.
Scotsman48 says
Im so old that I remember the expression… TOKEN BLACK GUY… Now even the black guy has accepted the fact, and even embraced the fact, that to be such a token is the only way he can get ahead…
Content of character has gone out the window.
Alkflaeda says
My experience of working with black colleagues was that the particular type of education that they had often had, which was usually a generation behind the liberal Western self-expression is all and it is fine if you can make a case for it that I had experienced made them better at homing in on the essentials than I sometimes was (since English is my mother tongue I was better at marketing the result). Nothing to do with genetics or eugenics of course, just the politics of education – but it does highlight the fact that people from different backgrounds will often bring genuinely unique contributions, and that any form of tokenism will prevent management from deploying each person to best effect.