On September 4th, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Russell Vought sent out a memorandum to the Heads of Executive Departments and Agencies. The memo called for the halting racial of sensitivity trainings that discuss topics such as white privilege and critical race theory.
The memorandum calls the training “divisive, anti-American propaganda”, but in all honesty, every reason that is provided for eliminating such training prove that they are anything but.
Citing press reports which state that employees are required to attend “trainings where they are told that ‘virtually all White people contribute to racism’” and are “required to say that they ‘benefit from racism’”, the memorandum attempts to point out the “faults” in such training. But learning about these types of things isn’t a bad thing.
Knowing about the privileges one has is important. No one is saying that it is your fault that you have them, all they are asking is that you acknowledge their existence. It is an important place to start, if any change is to be made.
In addition, the White House memorandum calls for officials to identify any “agency spending related to any training on “‘critical race theory,’ ‘white privilege,’” or any other training that focus on race in the United States, in order to dissolve them in the future. This is such a big mistake in my opinion.
If officials in the White House can’t acknowledge something as small as the privileges that come with decades of oppressing other races, how can we as a society move forward? In this social climate, racism is something that is necessary to tackle, and yet the people who can make actual change refuse to accept even the beginnings of the movement. It is heartbreaking to see such an absolute denial of something that is so vital in this society.
I know I am but an overzealous high school student with no say in the workings of our government, however, I must confess that there is a peace that comes with rambling on about one’s opinions. With that being said, I’ll end with this thought. There is absolutely nothing “anti-American” about learning how racism affects society, in fact, it’s probably one of the most American things you can do.
Sources
Josh Dawsey, Jeff Stein. “White House Directs Federal Agencies to Cancel Race-Related Training Sessions It Calls ‘Un-American Propaganda’.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 5 Sept. 2020, http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/09/04/white-house-racial-sensitivity-training/.
Schwartz, Matthew S. “Trump Tells Agencies To End Trainings On ‘White Privilege’ And ‘Critical Race Theory’.” NPR, NPR, 5 Sept. 2020, http://www.npr.org/2020/09/05/910053496/trump-tells-agencies-to-end-trainings-on-white-privilege-and-critical-race-theor.
Image Credit
https://pixabay.com/photos/white-house-mansion-president-home-754766/
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