"Diversity Day" is the second episode of the first season of The Office. It was written by B.J. Novak and directed by Ken Kwapis. It first aired on March 29, 2005.
Synopsis
Michael explains in his talking head that it's diversity day and that a guest speaker is at Dunder Mifflin Scranton to talk about Diversity.
Jim is on the phone, though Dwight interrupts him by shredding paper in a shredder right beside him. Jim turns off Dwight's power bar, and in retaliation, Dwight presses the switchhook on Jim's receiver, which he calls "dit for tit." In a talking head, Jim explains that he's on the phone to make a sale that he does every year which makes up 25% of his commission and even buys a miniature bottle of champagne to celebrate the occasion.
Michael walks out of his office, though walks back in and then walks back out at the same time when the diversity speaker, Mr. Brown, walks out from the conference room. He walks over to Oscar and talks with him and introduces him to Mr. Brown. Mr. Brown then tells Michael that he's ready. Jim is on the phone again with a Mr. Decker, though Michael demands he hang up and come to the meeting.
The meeting starts with Mr. Brown collecting papers from everyone. He then makes a speech, though Michael is standing right beside him and continually interrupts. When Mr. Brown stumbles with what they're going to do, Michael intervenes and wants everybody to say a race they are attracted to sexually. Dwight immediately raises his hand and says whites and Indians, with Kelly sitting right beside him. Mr. Brown stops this from continuing and asks Michael for his permission to run the session and if Michael could sit down.
Mr. Brown says that the papers he collected at the start of the session was an incident they've found offensive in the workplace. Dwight interrupts and asks if they can "steer away from gay people", though Mr. Brown says they only have an hour. Mr. Brown says that everybody wrote down the same incident, which is also the incident he was asked to deal with.
Apparently, Michael retold a famous controversial Chris Rock stand-up routine, which workers found offensive. Mr. Brown asks for the incident to be repeated, with Michael as "man listening"a and Kevin as Chris Rock. However, Michael has to stop this because he thinks Kevin is "butchering" the routine. Michael takes over, though what he says is bleeped, causing Mr. Brown to yell at Michael to make him stop.
Mr. Brown writes hero as an acronym, which spells out
Trivia
- Originally, producer Greg Daniels wasn't sure where to use Mindy Kaling on screen in the series until the point came in this episode's script when Michael needed to be slapped by a minority. "Since then, I've been on the show," Kaling says. Daniels also loves the scene where Pam falls asleep on Jim's shoulder.
- Larry Wilmore, who plays Mr. Brown, is actually a writer for the show. At the table-read for this show, they hadn't cast the part yet and Daniels just had Wilmore read for the role to fill in. After the read, Daniels thought he was perfect for the role. However, because of stipulations with the Screen Actors Guild, producers still had to have Wilmore formally audition with other actors for the role.
- Michael's attempts to upstage Brown echoes David's treatment of a visiting consultant in Episode Four, Series One of the British Office.
- The diversity training company's name (and Michael's response to it) went through a number of changes before Diversity Today was settled on, including Diversity 360 (Michael: Diversity 365), Diversity 2000 (Michael: Diversity 3000).
- The routine Michael imitates is "Niggas vs. Black People" from Chris Rock's 1996 HBO special Bring the Pain.
- Michael's diversity exercise with the index cards is similar to one sometimes done in actual diversity-training programs.
- This episode was nominated for the Writers Guild of America Award for "Best Episodic Comedy".
- These are the roles played by the Dunder Mifflin employees in Michael's diversity exercise:
Character Race/nationality Michael Martin Luther King Jr. Dwight Asian (also "Dwight" in a deleted scene) Stanley Black Angela Jamaican Kevin Italian Meredith Brazilian Pam Jewish Oscar Eskimo Devon West Nile (deleted scene)
- Wilmore would appear as Mr. Brown once again in the season three episode "Gay Witch Hunt", giving the Stamford branch the Diversity Today sensitivity training; it is implied that the Stamford branch had to sit through it because of events in Scranton.
Deleted scenes
The Season One DVD contains a number of deleted scenes from this episode. Notable cut scenes include:
- A scene at the meeting where Michael and Mr. Brown discuss erasing racism.
- A scene at the meeting where Michael creates his own acronym for sensitivity, which ends up spelling I.N.C.E.S.T.. After Pam exposes his gaffe, he tries to explain how the term works in context.
- A scene where Ryan gets kicked out of the meeting for sharing what Michael sees as irrelevant information.
- Dwight's entire filming of Michael's sensitivity video.
- An interview where Michael brags about his political adventures.
- A scene where Jim helps Pam in her game of solitaire, but Dwight tries to stop them as the game should only be played alone.
- A scene where Jim changes Dwight's forehead card from "Asian" to "Dwight", and Dwight still tries to guess what he is.
- Extended scene of reactions after Kelly slaps Michael.
Cast
Main Cast
Supporting Cast
- Creed Bratton (actor) as Creed Bratton (uncredited)