US President Donald Trump has ordered federal agencies to stop racial sensitivity training, calling them “divisive” and “anti-American propaganda”.
In a two-page document from Office of Management, issued by Budget Director Russell Vought, the President requested that all government agencies identify such training programs and cease any funding.
The statement, which was addressed to the heads of federal executive departments and agencies, aims to put a stop to “millions of dollars of taxpayers’ money”.
“It has come to the President’s attention that Executive Branch agencies have spent millions of taxpayers dollars to date “training” government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda” the statement begins.
“All agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on ‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’ or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil,” it says.
Trump believes these training programs “engenders division and resentment” and that diversity training and training in “whiteness” — “seeks to undercut out core values as Americans and drive division within our workforce.”
President Trump has been public about his rejection of his views that systemic racism in the US is a problem. In the past, he has publicly reiterated his feelings that the US is not an inherently racist nation.
Just over 10 percent of congress members are black. The Black to White wage gap remains pretty much the same as it was half a century ago.
The memo, released on Friday, comes as racial protests have swept across the nation and around the world in the last few months.
Trump has categorically rejected Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s remarks that there is “systemic racism” in America’s police departments and workplaces.
Forbes contributor Dana Brownlee described racism in her Op Ed, as “the root cause issue that’s gone ignored, swept aside, minimized, misunderstood, avoided, even rejected for far too long.”
Brownlee believes racism is a “ …cancer that has grown and spread throughout many organisations in part because workplaces (and organisational leaders) have been unwilling to sit down and take in the bad news, then start working on a treatment.”
“Antiracism initiatives require doing just that – actively acknowledging, then working against racism. While that shouldn’t seem radical in 2020, Trump’s recent announcement is just one example of the resistance.”
American writer Steph Frosch took to Twitter, saying “…under Trump’s presidency, the proper way to be “American” is to be Pro-Racism.”