In The Accountant's World

I am a member of a NY State professional organization (Certified Public Accountants). I was shocked when I saw a social media post on June 4th that enraged me. The president of the Society posted a statement of how systematic racism has pervaded our country and has caused discrimination and fear among people of color. It was accompanied by the usual rhetoric and included a section on action steps to combat this “systematic racism”. Those steps included talking about privilege and disparities and all the accompanying rhetoric. Now that I am reading this again, I am again enraged.

I reached out to her to express my concerns.

1. Why does our Society need to make a statement?

2. In my judgement, the term “systematic racism” is a talking point perpetuated by the left and

3. As far back as I can remember, the Society has provided programs for underprivileged college students, in order to assist them in breaking into the profession. We are an organization that exists to benefit our members, and not to produce political statements.

Her response was that they felt that “they had to say something”. I asked her who are the they and whether she was pressured to release those statements. She said that the “they” were the diversity & inclusion committee, to which I asked who the makeup of the committee was. I don’t recall how she responded.

I sensed I was getting nowhere, as all she was responding with was that, “we felt this was the best course of action, as we had to do something”. I also expressed my concern that the post sounded and looked like the same language was used by other organizations. This is all very upsetting to me, as I fear that organizations are being pressured to bow to these groups of activists.