In the Interests of Diversity, Misidentify Yourself

DEI is even farther along in the old and rotting world than it is in North America, where Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs are now beating a retreat since they came under assault from President Trump. In Germany, for example, it seems that any white male, any old white male, should identify himself as female, and preferably as an Arab, in the interests of make-believe diversity. More on this depressing tale of diversity gone mad can be found here.

In a world of diversity that is characterised by anticipatory obedience, anything is apparently possible. However, a massive accusation by cabaret artist Monika Gruber now eclipses everything that has been heard in the rumour mill to date.

In an interview with the “Club der klaren Worte” portal, Gruber told an almost unbelievable story: a friend of hers had written a script, “I think for German public broadcaster ARD”. It was then ‘suggested’ to him ‘whether it would be ok’ if his name was not shown in the film credits, but instead a female name, and one with a ‘migration background’, according to Gruber. In this case, it was supposed to be an Arabic name.

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According to Gruber, ARD’s alleged reasoning was: It wouldn’t go down well if you could tell from his name that an ‘old white man’ had written the script. This is not an isolated case, Gruber added in this interview – ‘I know that from a lot of people’. Men in particular would be asked to be named under a pseudonym.

Monika Gruber did not reveal who the scriptwriters she mentioned were, citing protection of identity. ARD responded to a request from German weekly Focus:

Artist names and pseudonyms are nothing unusual in the creative and media industry. ARD has no guidelines in this regard. The ARD programme management is not aware that individual scriptwriters were allegedly pressured to change their names in order to suggest a migrant background. Why Monika Gruber is making this claim – which is not substantiated in any way – and which refers to three cases she is allegedly aware of, is something she herself must answer.

And German public broadcaster ZDF, which was not named by Gruber, told Focus that it could ‘rule out’ the kind of behaviour described by Gruber. And: ‘Beyond that, we do not comment on the statements made.’

One thing is certain: The ARD media association has made diversity a joint task, as can be read on its homepage. Among other things, it says:

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A cross-station network and a new working structure should help to make the diversity society tangible in the programme and thus reach more people.

Get with the program, aging white males in the Bundesrepublik. Just as in America some enterprising high school seniors will send in their college applications under such names as “Laqwan” and “Kyeesha,” hoping to be mistaken for black applicants, and thus hoping to be given a leg up in the admissions policy (once these applicants are admitted, of course, they can revert to their real names), in Germany big broadcast networks such as ARD want to pretend to have a successful program in enforced diversity by having members of their staff and outside collaborators identify themselves with “diverse” cover names. You know where all of this is going. It’s one more sign that DEI is taking us all to hell in a handbasket. We should have no interest in promoting either real, or now false, “diversity.” Merit alone matters. We do not mind if our local basketball team is 90% black. We only want that team to win. We do not object if our university’s department of physics is largely made up of Russian Jewish immigrants. Why should we care? May the Trump administration triumph in its campaign to rid American life of this DEI madness.