A December 30 editorial summary by WSJ shows what the Feds are teaching in diversity training after President Joe Biden issued an executive order in June 2021.
It is offensive to ask an Asian for math help. Reverse racism does not exist. Males can become pregnant.
According to records obtained by the Wall Street Journal editorial page, these are just a handful of the lessons given to federal employees in diversity trainings and presentations in 2021. A December 30 editorial summary of the materials demonstrates how formerly fringe concepts have permeated the federal government’s bureaucracy, from the Department of Veterans Affairs to NASA and the military.
The goal of colorblindness “actually limit us,” according to a NASA training course (pdf below). Another lists “microaggressions” as asking an Asian person for help with a math or science problem and using the phrases “America is a melting pot” and “don’t you want a family?” A third gives two instances of “common leadership mistakes”: perfectionism and the idea that “data is king.”
“Value and center lived experience,” the presentation says. “Do not demand data in order to accept a person’s individual perspective or to utilize that perspective in decision-making.”
The emphasis on subjective experience is also present in the Army, where a soldier who wishes to “discuss his newly confirmed pregnancy” is included in two distinct training sessions, one for commanders and one for “special staff.” Another scenario blurs the lines between gender and biological sex by picturing a urine collector who finds it awkward to see soldiers who are not “the same biological gender as the observer.”
A request for comment from the Army received no response.
After President Joe Biden issued an executive order in June 2021 directing agencies to strengthen their diversity programming, several of these presentations followed. According to the directive, such training initiatives should give government workers, managers, and executives a better grasp of implicit and unconscious bias in addition to systemic and institutional racism and bias.
Silence is a Statement: Understanding Race in the Workplace, Bambi vs. Godzilla: Dealing with Different, Diverse, and Sometimes Difficult People, and other diversity training cost approximately $300,000 between 2020 and 2021, just from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Cartoons are frequently used in presentations to demonstrate forward-thinking ideas. The now-famous “genderbread” diagram, which has been a part of primary school curricula, is included in a training programme for the Department of Veterans Affairs. In a presentation to the National Endowment for the Arts, “equality” and “equity” are contrasted by placing two pictures of spectators at a baseball game behind a fence side by side: one where people of various heights are on equal footing, and the other where shorter people are given a bigger advantage than taller ones.
The cartoon implies that “justice” entails completely ripping down the fence.
A increasing group of diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants, some of whom currently work full-time in government bureaucracy, have led these training sessions. Janice Underwood, who was in charge of Virginia’s diversity, equity, and inclusion at the time, spoke about “having difficult conversations” at NASA in 2021.
One slide from her presentation states: “When patterns of white supremacy are named or questioned, predictable defensive responses will emerge.” Other slides claim that “reverse racism does not exist” and contend that prejudice is sustained by “individualism” and “universalism.”
In the Biden administration’s Office of Personnel Management, Underwood was appointed director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in May 2022. She is responsible for carrying out Biden’s executive order on diversity training, according to the office’s website.
Read the report given below:
IntroductiontoInclusiveLeadershipV1