Marjolein Dennissen

105 Diversity killjoys? discussion about organizational processes that (re)produce exclusion and inequality. Despite the organizational problems brought up by the network members, the director repeats his specific question about the level of bother with regard to the Black Pete -debate. Then, the director interrupts a quite emotional story by a network member on her encountering inequalities at work by asking if, “there is anyone who wants a croquette?”. Not only do these statements and interruptions downplay the experiences of ethnic minority employees (cf. Siebers & Dennissen, 2015; Wekker, 2016), they also steer the conversation away from what actually happens in the organization itself. The director has explicitly invited the network members to share their experiences and opinions about the current status quo in their organization (“That is why I am asking about your perception”), but when the conversation touches upon organizational issues, the director either interrupts with an off topic question, or he keeps asking about more general and societal issues. He thereby displaces the attention (Ahmed, 2009) fromorganizational issues. In doing so, he, as member of the organizational board of directors, evades his responsibility to take up the issues raised by the ethnic minority network and to put change of organizational barriers on the broader organizational agenda. In the following paragraph, I present another instance of how appealing to organizational responsibility is practiced, yet with an alternative approach. “I want to be your captain” The second instance of appealing to organizational responsibility occurred during a meeting between the LGBT network and the CEO in Govt. The LGBT network wanted to organize a meeting with the organizational management for two main reasons. On the one hand, they wanted to introduce the LGBT network and demonstrate the importance of an LGBT network, in particular with regard to the organization and organizational practices. On the other hand, they alsowanted to get the opportunity to explore the standpoint of themanagement about LGBT- and diversity-related issues. One of the issues that the network members address during the meeting, is the importance of a safe work environment for LGBT employees: The network shows screenshots retrieved from the organizational intranet with hostile reactions on messages from the LGBT network. The CEO reacts: “I am extremely annoyed by this! It is a small group of trolls who do this. Whatever you do, they always react negatively. (…) But I also call upon you. Why don’t we address each other?” Also a message in which the existence of the network is denied is displayed and members state that this is an example of the internal battle they have to fight: “We are tired of fighting. I have already fought that battle at work with my boss who reacted on my coming out with ‘that is not possible within this [organization]”. Ethan is also present and tells emotionally about his coming-out and the importance of the support of the LGBT network to continue with his battle. The CEO reacts with: “It gives me goosebumps to hear this… It affects me when you say that you were on your own. The formation of a network is urgent, in particular if you are trying to initiate a network for somany colleagues. (…) Look, I want to arrange as little as possible. You are and will remain