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JPMorgan Chase’s woke DEI style guide nixes terms like ‘manpower,’ ‘blacklist’
JPMorgan Chase employees mocked a recently-unveiled Diversity Equity and Inclusion style guide which clamps down on anti-“woke” language.
nypost.com
JPMorgan Chase’s woke DEI style guide nixes terms like ‘manpower,’ ‘blacklist’
By
Social Links for Jon Levine
Published April 27, 2024, 12:54 p.m. ET
Jumping through these linguistic hoops is no cakewalk.
JPMorgan Chase employees mocked a recently-unveiled Diversity Equity and Inclusion style guide which clamps down on anti-“woke” language.
The glossary of “not recommended” words and phrases lives on the company’s internal intranet, and was obtained by The Post courtesy of an anti-woke whistleblower.
“Our language matters. And like our diverse culture of respect, equity, and inclusion, the words and terms we use as communicators continue to evolve and become more culturally competent — reflecting our values and intersectional global workforce. To communicate with empathy, we recommend you use the most inclusive terminology,” the guide declares in a preamble.
3 JPMorgan’s glossary of “not recommended” words and phrases lives on the company’s internal intranet. Getty Images
Employees should avoid gendered terms like “man hours” and “manpower” and instead use “labor hours” and “workforce.”
References to “good schools” and “good neighborhoods” are to be replaced by the term “well-resourced.” Instead of “blacklist,” the firm recommends “disallow list.” Company “pow-wows” — which could upset Native Americans — are also a no-no.
The glossary delves into geopolitics, suggesting employees be sure to refer to the “war in Ukraine” — and refrain from calling it a “conflict.”
The glossary offered no explanation.
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Other verboten terms include “cakewalk.”
“Like ‘white glove treatment,’ this term is rooted in the history and mistreatment of enslaved African Americans in the United States. Instead use ‘easy to do or achieve,'” The bank noted. The phrase comes from a pre-Civil War dance once performed by slaves.
Even compliments can get you into trouble. The word “articulate” is objectionable “when used to compliment members of certain communities. The remark suggests that the person in question is expected to be less competent, intelligent or well-spoken.”
3 JPMorgan’s woke style guide forbids many common terms on the grounds of racism or cultural sensitivity. AFP/Getty Images
The glossary is also replete with bloated definitions of woke warhorses like “microaggressions,” which it notes are “everyday verbal, nonverbal and environmental slights, snubs, insults actions, remarks or questions that — whether intentional or unintentional — communicate hostile, derogatory or negative messages to a person or group based in whole or in part upon the community they align with or belong to.”
Company insiders dismissed the woke words as noise.
“They are creating unnecessary friction and it’s not helping anyone,” a senior JPMorgan executive told The Post — insisting that behind the scenes the bank was still committed to the quality and merit of its people and products.
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“There is nobody internally that takes any of this seriously — at the end of the day this is a bank. There is an enormous DEI infrastructure and they have no results to show.”
JPMorgan has long boasted about its DEI bonafides. The company maintains a full webpage dedicated showing their support for the movement. In 2020, as violent Black Lives Matter riots raged across the country, the company announced a $30 billion commitment to “advance economic inclusion among Black, Hispanic and Latino customers.”
3 Bank insiders said rank and file employees mostly made fun of the woke newspeak.
“People should oppose DEI because it is the layer of professional (and well paid) racial grievance bureaucrats that have been inserted into every profession, not to improve the true goal of that organization, but to create racialized struggle sessions,” said Jason Curtis Anderson, policy director of the nonprofit One City Rising.
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A rep for JPMorgan insisted the glossary has existed internally at the company since 2021 and that following its suggestions was “entirely voluntary.”
Some of the offensive terms highlighted by JPMorgan include:
Cakewalk
White List, Black List
Conflict in Ukraine
Disabled
Good school, Good neighborhood
Grandfathered
Illegal Immigrant
Man Hours, Manpower
Crackdown, crack-the-whip