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In 2017, Working for a well-known media company, I went to my home country of Nigeria for vacation. When I left, my hair was smooth and straight. When I came back, I had very long braids. “Oh my God, I Love that! “A white woman said to me in the kitchen, but went in without my consent. Another person with wide eyes asked: “How long does this take?” This is so cool! “And began to invade my space for inspection. It seems that neither of these women thought her behavior was culturally insensitive-this is part of the obstacle that plagues people of color in the workplace. We learned to smile, and Keep it in motion during those uncomfortable moments.
For a long time, the company has failed to solve such problems.Instead, they rely on One size fits all Diversity, Fairness and Inclusiveness (DEI) training-mind-numbing slide shows, dull videos and obscure certificates signed at the end.These procedures are usually Easy to forget, Lack of measurable impact, with, research shows,not effectively. After the murder of George Floyd (George Floyd) last summer sparked national outrage, American companies are more inclined to adopt these superficial solutions.Company soon committed to An inclusive work environment, filled with black and brown faces on social media pages, praised allies and kept social distance City Hall in the game.
However, recently, some large companies are trying something new: virtual reality. VR creators say, what if companies can hire employees instead of sliding under the influence of unconscious bias? experience Discriminate against yourself? By focusing the views of people of color in digital simulation, technology companies claim that they can help companies be fairer, less active, and better measure DEI promises.
This method is a further enhancement of the comics on the PowerPoint deck. However, these problems are much deeper than inadequate inclusive training, and to solve these problems, advanced technology is needed.The virtual world cannot teach white Americans to see what they don’t want to see real The world; see that black people exist outside of racial stereotypes and cruelty to us.
Virtual Reality Tools to increase racial understanding are not new.Technology startups and well-known companies such as Debias VR, Commanding heights, Oculus I am a man, with Google: Immersive VR Ethnic identity The potential of simulation to promote racial empathy has been explored.However, human growth is through hate crime, Is also racist.
2020 year report According to a report released by the International Data Corporation, the demand for virtual reality experiences is growing, and sales of VR headsets are expected to grow at a rate of 48% per year for the next four years. Coupled with the increased awareness of US companies on the shortcomings of DEI, this makes this an ideal time for technology companies to retry-this is a good business.
Practice laboratoryFor example, it is a new platform based on virtual reality that allows users to adopt identities of different ethnic and gender backgrounds to face prejudice. After beta testing of Zoom, Amazon, Google, Uber and Target, it was officially launched in February.The founders-black woman Elise Smith (Elise Smith) and first generation Chinese woman Heather Shen (Heather Shen)-said their Key experience DEI training program It is an immersive solution that will eliminate the existing learning gap.
Shen told me: “The immersive nature of practice is to learn sympathy.” “We don’t just say briefly,’Well, you have an immersive experience.'” In their VR world, employees put on headsets and put on The form of others(For example, a headscarfed woman or a Sikh male head wrap), or act as a bystander in a given scene, part of the experience is to observe their avatar in virtual reality Virtual mirror. They interacted and responded loudly to other avatars. Finally, an assessment is required, requiring employees to reflect on what they have just experienced, hoping that over time, the reflection will show more considerate users.
Courtney CogburnShen and Smith consulted with a social scientist and social work professor at Columbia University, and he was skeptical of the method. She said: “For me, the question mark is,’Is racial sympathy possible?’.” “I don’t think you need to understand what it feels like to be a stickman in order to see it and evaluate it, not against it. I am not satisfied with this.”
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