"I am not taking this training because it's a joke … making non-white colleagues all victims and turning white colleagues … into villains."
That's what Charles Vavra wrote in an email to the HR Director of Honeywell International, his now former employer, after she had reminded him of the company's requirement that he complete its unconscious bias training.
Over the next few weeks, the HR Director and other company officers tried to convince Vavra to complete the training. Vavra's response? "Whatever the consequences … I will accept." The consequences were Vavra's termination.
Vavra had a strange way of showing his acceptance of those consequences. He sued Honeywell for retaliation, claiming that his opposition to mandatory DEI training constituted protected activity under Title VII.