Trump EO expands ban on DEI Training to Federal Contractors

[Michelle]

This EO applies to federal contractors.

www.npr.org/2020/09/22/915843471/trump-expands-ban-on-racial-sensitivity-training-to-federal-contractors

Specifically if you teach about systemic racism or white privilege you will lose federal dollars. Section five requires submission of your training materials for review.

This is truly 1984 level bullshit.

[underwaterrhymes]

I seriously feel like my head is going to fly off my body.

[carmenere]

That is a HUGE overreach.

[wildrice]

I don't even know what to say. It is insane to me that we are steadily moving in the wrong direction on so many things.

As a state university we are not a federal contractor (obviously) but we do accept federal money. This does not affect us, correct? There is a lot of this kind of training and discussion going on right now, mostly handled by our office of inclusion but some overlaps with things I do in my job.

[aurora]

This is awful. He can't leave office soon enough.

[formerlyak]

Sept 23, 2020 7:52:46 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I don't even know what to say. It is insane to me that we are steadily moving in the wrong direction on so many things.

As a state university we are not a federal contractor (obviously) but we do accept federal money. This does not affect us, correct? There is a lot of this kind of training and discussion going on right now, mostly handled by our office of inclusion but some overlaps with things I do in my job.

I was wondering this also because it mentioned recipients of federal grants in the full text.

[VillainV]

Meanwhile, all of this is mandatory in the military.

[Michelle]

Sept 23, 2020 8:23:53 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Meanwhile, all of this is mandatory in the military.

The EO requires it be removed from the training given to Uniformed Services too.

[Michelle]

Sept 23, 2020 8:10:44 GMT -5 formerlyak said:

Sept 23, 2020 7:52:46 GMT -5 wildrice said:

I don't even know what to say. It is insane to me that we are steadily moving in the wrong direction on so many things.

As a state university we are not a federal contractor (obviously) but we do accept federal money. This does not affect us, correct? There is a lot of this kind of training and discussion going on right now, mostly handled by our office of inclusion but some overlaps with things I do in my job.

I was wondering this also because it mentioned recipients of federal grants in the full text.

Your legal department will know if any of your grants include such provisional language.

If you have affirmative action plans, it probably affects you.

[konapoppy]

I am VERY curious what will come of this. Many huge institutions are federal contractors. Will the employees be aware and do walk outside/strikes? What will the legal teams do? This seems to be the biggest collision so far, but everything has been insane.

This is devastating..

[ssmjlm]

Sept 23, 2020 8:24:42 GMT -5 Michelle said:

Sept 23, 2020 8:23:53 GMT -5 VillainV said:

Meanwhile, all of this is mandatory in the military.

The EO requires it be removed from the training given to Uniformed Services too.

All of our inclusion/EEO discussions have been provided by internal personnel.  Either the EEO office or other leaders.  So they're not paying anyone for it, so they can still give.

ETA: Not military, but a fed.

[erbear]

So when do you think this gets expanded to schools? I assume that's the ultimate goal...

[anonymous]

Things are going to get so much worse. I am truly frightened. I wish some of our allies would step in

[wanderingback]

Sept 23, 2020 8:35:27 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

I am VERY curious what will come of this. Many huge institutions are federal contractors. Will the employees be aware and do walk outside/strikes? What will the legal teams do? This seems to be the biggest collision so far, but everything has been insane.

This is devastating..

I mean pretty much the same thing happened with Title X and the "gag" rule.
Yes those of us in the reproductive healthcare "movement" have caused a big ruckus and are still mad about it. But at the end of the day, it still stands and many big places receive(d) Title X funds. People have lost out on healthcare directly because of this gag rule and the world just keeps on spinning.

[taratru]

This is the kind of shit I was trying to express my fear about yesterday. It's like ::::waves hands:::: all of this stuff is just business as usual while we are distracted daily by the buffoon in charge. What other nasty things are they going to slip in?

[Michelle]

Sept 23, 2020 9:35:46 GMT -5 wanderingback said:

Sept 23, 2020 8:35:27 GMT -5 konapoppy said:

I am VERY curious what will come of this. Many huge institutions are federal contractors. Will the employees be aware and do walk outside/strikes? What will the legal teams do? This seems to be the biggest collision so far, but everything has been insane.

This is devastating..

I mean pretty much the same thing happened with Title X and the "gag" rule.
Yes those of us in the reproductive healthcare "movement" have caused a big ruckus and are still mad about it. But at the end of the day, it still stands and many big places receive(d) Title X funds. People have lost out on healthcare directly because of this gag rule and the world just keeps on spinning.

I think some of it depends on your organization's risk tolerance.

For example, we have DEI training and actually invested thousands in a learning map to walk people through how our DEI programming supports the strategic goals of the organization, drives and strengthens our values, and will enrich our ultimate vision for the service we provide our patients and community.

After George Floyd's murder, a subcommittee of our board of directors became very assertive about including Anti-Racism and privilege as intentional parts of the system-wide training, whereas we initially had planned on rolling those topics out for optional attendance for those who want to learn more about those topics. It was impressive that our board was taking such a stand, but now we have to go back and say - hey, required training for management that includes these subjects could put our federal grants (NIH research grants, and we get a LOT) at risk. 

I am letting legal services work that out. And while I started our DEI programming, I stepped aside to let a woman of color lead the efforts. I don't envy the task she has now. Because you can be DAMN sure we have employees who will report us. We had multiple ethics line calls about how offended people were that we would take a political stand by having our CEO explicitly say we can't ignore our privilege anymore and the systemic racism that threatens lives and causes extreme inequity in our society. As a non-profit, we aren't supposed to engage in political issues. And people were willing to speak up about that.

If they can confidentially report us to OFCCP, you can be your ass they will. And we have major Trumpers here in Texas as you know...


In a positive light, the EO does say that diversity and inclusion training is good and necessary. But trainers are now going to have to walk a tight rope to say - examine your unconscious biases as a person and work on those so you can have an inclusive environment, but if you have a question about unconscious bias in our systems and processes, we have to parking lot that and take it to a 1-1 discussion outside of our training.

[babsbunny]

I just read the whole order - wow. Any employee can rat out their employer if they think their training includes the banned stuff. I can live with most of the language, but a few parts bothered me.

This is early on in the definition of "Divisive concepts" which are not allowed to be taught.

(5) members of one race or sex cannot and should not attempt to treat others without respect to race or sex

I think this refers to the conversation around the phrase "color blind," which is mentioned in the opeing paragraphs when it talks to examples of "bad" training concepts.

It also reads as though this ban directly attacks the use of the phrase "white priviledge" (but training maybe could include just the term priviledge and be ok).

Another part that bothered me was the opening rhetoric trying to tie the founding fathers' "all men are created equal" with the sacrafices made in the civil war. In my head, many founding fathers had slaves, so no, they did not believe that "all men were created equal" - that conversation was not fought until the civil war.

I will be interested to see how this impacts companies. I concur with PP that it is an overreach to tell entities how to train their employees, specifically saying "you can't say this" ... or else we pull your funding.

[karinothing]

Suck it Trump my agency scheduled a training on implicit bias for next week.

[Michelle]

Sept 23, 2020 21:14:45 GMT -5 karinothing said:

Suck it Trump my agency scheduled a training on implicit bias for next week.

I think you can still easily do implicit bias training.

What trainers will need to learn how to do is refrain from speaking about white privilege, or they can address it but frame it as, “this is my personal opinion but nor or formal organizational position.”

[karinothing]

AND our implicit bias training was just cancelled ...

[Michelle]

Sept 29, 2020 8:03:16 GMT -5 karinothing said:

AND our implicit bias training was just cancelled ...

As was his intention. GRRR.

Hopefully they are doing what a lot of people are, which is 1) waiting until the election happens to determine if they have to revise their training, or
2) revising their training and rescheduling.

Please oh please let this orange racist get voted out.

[WhatYouSee]

My company Unconscious Bias training session just got cancelled too. They say they need to review the training to ensure compliance.