September 5, 2020

Trump Administration Calls Government Diversity Trainings “Un-American Propaganda” and Cancels Them

Meanwhile, white supremacists pose the most immediate threat to American safety.

Donald Trump

President Donald Trump talks to a crowd of supporters after arriving at Wilmington International Airport, Wednesday, Sept. 2, 2020, in Wilmington, N.C. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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The Trump administration has found yet another way to ratchet up racial tension in the country. This time, it’s by targeting race-related trainings for federal employees, calling anything with a focus on white privilege “un-American propaganda,” according to a memo from the White House Office of Management and Budget, released late Friday night.

“These types of ‘trainings’ not only run counter to the fundamental beliefs for which our Nation has stood since its inception, but they also engender division and resentment within the Federal workforce,” OMB Director Russell Vought wrote in the memo. Vought added that all federal agencies will be tasked with coming up with a list of contracts that involve subject matter like “white privilege” or “critical race theory” and then do everything within their power to cancel those contracts.

The inspiration for this Friday night announcement may have been a Fox News appearance on Tuesday night by Chris Rufo a filmmaker and fellow with the right wing Discovery Institute. He was on Tucker Carlson and suggested that federal employees were being indoctrinated with dangerous left wing ideology. “It’s absolutely astonishing how critical race theory has pervaded every institution in the federal government,” Rufo said. “What I have discovered is that critical race theory has become, in essence, the default ideology of the federal bureaucracy and is now being weaponized against the American people.” After Friday’s announcement, President Trump triumphantly tweeted. 

The news comes as another branch of the federal government cautions about the rise of white supremacy. The Department of Homeland Security is set to release a report that identifies white supremacists as the most serious terror threat facing the country. In three drafts of the report obtained by Politico, DHS says hate groups and white supremacists pose a more imminent threat to American safety than any foreign entity—including China and Russia. “Foreign terrorist organizations will continue to call for Homeland attacks but probably will remain constrained in their ability to direct such plots over the next year,” all three documents say, according to Politico.

These divergent messages from the federal government clearly appear to be tactics to energize the Trump base just before the election. They come on the heels of a violent summer, roiled by protests against police violence and confrontations with armed vigilantes. That “American carnage” Trump described in his inaugural address? This is it.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

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