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Read and Watch: White Workers in Denver Force Diversity Video To Be Shelved

Posted Nov. 29, 2007 – After a barrage of complaints from White people who say a film used to teach diversity makes them look like the only people capable of racial insensitivity, the city of Denver has pulled it from the training course.

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The video – “Laughing Matters: Think About It” – features a White, blue-collar bigot who cracks jokes about Blacks, Jews, women, gays and overweight people.

Dennis Supple, a White maintenance mechanic who works for the city of Denver, is one of those who complained that the video did not show that others, besides Whites can be prejudiced. He took his complaint to City Councilman Charlie Brown, who pressed the city to scrap the video.

It's not a fair portrayal of White male trades workers," Supple told The Rocky Mountain News. "This is just like treating White male trades workers like Stepin Fetchit, like we're all a bunch of drooling, stupid fools. Well, that's not the case.

Supple might have been successful in killing the training video, but he’d like to see the city take one more step.

That's half of what I wanted," he said. "The other half – and I still want this – is for them to apologize to all the White male trades workers who had to watch the video.

Click here to watch the full eight-minute diversity video, then click "Discuss Now" to tell us if you agree that the film should have been pulled.

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