(no subject)

[eirias]

There's something that's been rattling around my brain this week, something to do with situations in which leadership sees a problem, acknowledges the problem publicly, and chooses a response that everybody knows will not address the problem. Examples that come to mind:

• A doctor's office puts up a notice that masks are no longer required, and requests that patients work to prevent the spread of COVID by washing hands;
  
• A DEI committee for a mostly-White university spends years discussing practical barriers to attendance, but can only agree on updating the photos on their brochures to include some students of color;
  
• An oil company touts its efforts to prevent climate change by promoting recycling plastics.

In one specific DEI case, $LargeLocalEmployer got caught on tape stating something to the effect that the goal of their DEI workgroup was to absorb the shock of the societal reaction to George Floyd without changing anything, so that business as usual at the workplace could continue.

Is there a term for this, in activism, or in sociology?

Comments

[groovesinorbit]

Performative might be a good adjective. I would also go with gaslighting.

Plain old racism works for the second one and the $LargeLocalEmployer.

Greenwashing might apply to the third.