"The Office" Satire: Diversity Day

The entire basis of the show The Office is satirically criticizing the everyday experiences of the American workplace. A particularly keen example of the show's use of satire is apparent in one of the first episodes aired, titled "Diversity Day", in which a company enforces a day in which the office celebrates and learns about diversity and the different cultures of minorities in the office. Despite having hired a group leader to educate the employees, the racially ignorant and offensive manager of the office takes over the training and flips a would be helpful day into a place to insult and offend minorities in any way he could think of. The satire of this episode is apparent because it communicates that when we try to discuss the racial and ethnic stigmas and issues prevalent in our society, the conversation is often taken over by white people and makes the problem worse. Additionally, he "diversity day" the company enforced brought attention to people's tensions and prejudices without actually solving any of the problems, consequently only making people uncomfortable and reinforcing a somewhat volatile work environment. The audience of the show is therefore unconsciously educated about the problems we have with racial discussions today and given an example of what not to do.