by Christopher Paslay
Under the banner of “antiracism,” Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights is now explicitly endorsing principles of segregationism, group-based guilt, and race essentialism—ugly concepts that should have been left behind a century ago.
Christopher F. Rufo, the director of the Discovery Institute’s Center on Wealth & Poverty and a contributing editor for City Journal, recently obtained new documents from Seattle’s segregated “whites-only” trainings, which induct white employees into the cult of critical race theory.
As Rufo writes on his website:
Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights has developed a “race and social justice” curriculum for all 10,000 city employees.
I’ve obtained new documents from the city’s segregated “whites-only” trainings, which induct white employees into the cult of critical race theory.
The trainers require white employees to examine their “relationships with white supremacy, racism, and whiteness” and explain how their “[families] benefit economically from the system of white supremacy even as it directly and violently harms Black people.”
Under the banner of “antiracism,” Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights is now explicitly endorsing principles of segregationism, group-based guilt, and race essentialism—ugly concepts that should have been left behind a century ago.
Clearly, this is a violation of The Civil Rights Act of 1964, which exists to outlaw discrimination based upon a person’s race, color, religion, sex, or country of national origin. It explicitly expands these protections to employment programs. Under Title VII:
It shall be an unlawful employment practice for any employer, labor organization, or joint labor-management committee controlling apprenticeship or other training or retraining, including on-the-job training programs to discriminate against any individual because of his race, color, religion, sex, or national origin in admission to, or employment in, any program established to provide apprenticeship or other training. (42 U.S. Code §2000e-2(d).)
Here are some of Seattle’s ‘Internalized Racial Superiority for White People’ training documents:
This slide below introduces the segregated training based on race, and asks white participants to introduce themselves and name their preferred “pronouns,” callously assuming the participants are even comfortable doing so (or communicating in such a manner).
This slide below, titled “Internalized Racial Superiority,” teaches that all whites internalize a “system of white supremacy,” and insists that all segregated white participants in the room suffer from such stigmatizing things as “cognitive dissonance,” “arrogance,” “violence,” and “anti-blackness,” among a dozen others.
This slide, titled “What We Do In White People Space,” encourages the segregated whites in the room to process white feelings (like sadness, shame, paralysis, confusion, and denial), to accept retraining (to learn new behaviors, concepts, missing histories, and ways of seeing that are hidden from them in white supremacy), and to take action to shift power (get politically active in helping redistribute resources, change who’s in power, and alter situations).
This slide, titled “Our Relationship With White Supremacy, Racism, and Whiteness in this Moment,” asks the segregated whites in the room to respond to one prompt. Prompt #1 asks: How are you aware of the ways that your family benefits economically from the system of white supremacy even as it directly and violently harms Black people and non-Black people of color and Indigenous people? Prompt #2 asks: How are you aware of your “white silence” (not naming race, racism or the system of white supremacy or taking action to end it) when it comes to comments and actions that cause harm to Black people? And prompt #3 asks: How is your “white fragility” showing up at work? (White fragility is a reflexive, defensive and sometimes deflecting response that we as white people can experience when feeling challenged about our relationship to race, racism and the system of white supremacy.)
It’s unclear whether any Seattle employee has filed a lawsuit against the city thus far. However, Christopher F. Rufo is planning to file a complaint against Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights. In a July 29 Tweet, Rufo writes:
In the coming weeks, I will be filling an official civil rights complaint against Seattle’s Office of Civil Rights. They have created a new form of “institutional racism” that violates the core principle of “equality under the law.” It’s time to fight back.
It’s only a matter of time before others take Rufo’s lead and stand up against such divisive and polarizing racial discrimination. Proactively advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion is one thing (and should be encouraged and applauded), but reeducating employees with toxic racial bigotry that clearly violates Title VII under The Civil Rights Act of 1964 should not be tolerated.
Inside White Fragility 