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How Nonprofits Can Stop Trump’s Effort to Roll Back Diversity Training (nonprofitquarterly.org)

 

The abbreviation “EO” often stands for “executive order.” But when used in connection with President Donald Trump’s Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, which perversely protects racism and sexism, EO could just as easily mean “extremely Orwellian.”

We start with the chaos that is already occurring. The immediate—and predictable—result of a series of White House directives is that federal agencies have started canceling trainings, including the US Environmental Protection Agency, National Park Service (on disability access to parks and sexual harassment), and Veterans Administration.

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) blocked a September 29 training session on implicit bias in the criminal justice system that was to be conducted by a judge who has provided the training for years. Initially, DOJ assured the judge his training could proceed “as long as he promised not to use such words as ‘white privilege’ and ‘critical race theory.’” But when the EO was issued, DOJ told him his “bias-training class for federal prosecutors now needed ‘additional approval.’”

Beginning on September 4, the director of the White House Office of Management & Budget (OMB) ordered that all “Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund any training on ‘critical race theory’ and ‘white privilege,’” which the directive labeled as “divisive, un-American propaganda” (M-20-34, the “First Memo”).

The barrage continued on September 22 when Trump signed his Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping (EO). It prohibits federal departments and agencies, the military, federal contractors, and to some extent federal grant recipients from providing training on race or sex diversity, equity, or inclusion involving 11 “divisive concepts.” These banned concepts include anything that might make someone “feel discomfort, guilt, anguish, or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex” [Sec. 2(a)(8)].

To read more of  Tim Delaney and David L. Thompson's article, please click here.

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