Push-Back!

Trump’s Executive Order to ban diversity training is getting a lot of negative push-back from businesses…

'It's already having a massive effect,' corporate America demands Trump rescind executive order on diversity
USA Today
By Jessica Guynn,
October 9, 2020


Michelle Kim received an email this week from a corporate client who asked her to make sure her anti-racism talk would comply with the White House’s new executive order prohibiting the use of terms such as “white privilege.” She offered to cancel the agreement instead.

“Even if I could deliver a compelling talk without using the term, I could not agree with the spirit of the ask,” Kim, an author and CEO of Awaken, which provides interactive diversity, equity and Inclusion workshops, wrote on Twitter. “I understand the predicament companies are in right now – ‘Does this expose us to legal risk?’ ‘Will we get sued?’ ‘Will we lose our government contracts?’”

President Trump’s decision to restrict the federal government and its contractors from engaging in what he calls “divisive” and “un-American” diversity training is sending a chilling effect throughout corporate America just as companies were stepping up efforts to address racial disparities following the death of George Floyd, a Black man, under the knee of white officer in Minneapolis in May.

The order created uncertainty in businesses and businesses don’t like uncertainty and they spoke up,

Push back is growing from civil rights leaders and industry groups. Dozens of civil rights groups including the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund and the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law this week condemned the executive order as another sign of Trump's "support for white supremacists while demonstrating deep hostility to civil rights and racial justice."

On Thursday, a group of 11 technology, software and advertising industry groups that represent thousands of government contractors, called on the Trump administration to rescind it. The executive order “fails to acknowledge the realities of ongoing racial inequality and inequities in America and represents an unwarranted intrusion into private sector efforts to combat systemic racism,” according to the letter sent to the Office of Management and Budget and the Labor Department. 

Now why would Trump ban diversity training?

It is almost like he is a white supremacist and does not want a diverse work force and wants racial unrest.

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And speaking of diversity who do you think would be a good pick to head the Department of Education   unity on diversity, someone who is pro-diversity or anti-diversity?

Education Dept Puts Anti-LGBTQ Activist At Head Of Diversity And Inclusion Council
Some employees said the pick is disheartening and ironic.
HuffPost
By Rebecca Klein
October 9, 2020


In early 2020, leaders of the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced that they would be taking control of and reorganizing the agency’s employee-led Diversity and Inclusion and Employee Engagement Advisory councils. The two committees were combined into one and, in August, senior counsel Sarah Perry, a new hire with a long history of anti-transgender activism, was appointed as a co-chair, HuffPost has learned.

Multiple employees at the Office for Civil Rights (OCR), the department’s agency dedicated to enforcing civil rights laws in K-12 schools and universities, told HuffPost that appointing someone who has actively worked against LGBTQ people to help lead diversity and inclusion efforts is ironic and disheartening.

Perry previously worked at the Family Research Council, a Christian fundamentalist organization that preaches against the rights of the LGBTQ community, where she often spoke publicly about her opposition to transgender people.

I just don’t understand why anyone who is trans, lesbian, bi, or gay would vote for someone who wants them back into the closet?

As James Baldwin said…

We can disagree and still love each other, unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist.