July 9, 2020

"The City of Seattle held a racially segregated employee training session aimed at White staffers and instructing them on 'undoing your own whiteness'..."

"... in order to be held accountable by people of color, according to documents obtained by a public records request... According to the documents, the Office of Civil Rights hosted a two-and-a-half-hour 'Training on Internalized Racial Superiority for White People.' In the email invitation to the event, the office asked 'city employees who identify as white to join this training to learn, reflect, challenge ourselves, and build skills and relationships that help us show up more fully as allies and accomplices for racial justice.'... Diversity trainers instructed White employees in 'practicing self-talk that affirms our complicity in racism.'... In order to be considered 'accomplices,' White employees must give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,' 'expectations or presumptions of emotional safety,' 'control over other people and over the land,' and 'relationships with some other white people.' White employees were also urged to give up 'niceties from neighbors and colleagues,' 'the certainty of your job,' and 'accepting jobs and promotions when we are not qualified, including racial equity jobs.'... Employees were taught how to 'interrupt' their whiteness by being 'honest and implicate yourself either in the moment or in past experiences in which you acted or thought similarly.' 'Don’t blame others. Don’t distance. Don’t make yourself seem "better." None of us is,' a handout said. 'You are also white and what someone else did today you may do tomorrow.'... 'Internalized Racial Superiority,' was defined by perfectionism, individualism, imposition, arrogance, paternalism, silence, intellectualization, control, violence, comfort, appropriation, cognitive dissonance, objectivity and 'anti-blackness.'"

Fox News reports. It's not clear from the article, but I think these sessions were voluntary. If they were required, it looks as though they were only for people who "identify as white." A possible loophole. Is it like gender, where you can apply your own standards and go by how you feel and not be stamped permanently by what you were assigned at birth? Probably not! I'm just guessing I could be cancelled just for asking that question.

Anyway, isn't it awful to think that you could be accused of white supremacy if you're into individualism and objectivity?! You're going to get leaned on now for silence and for wanting comfort. And God forbid you should buy into "intellectualization," but hey, wait a minute, isn't this whole presentation of "whiteness" and "internalized superiority" an intellectualization? I know, just asking the question, has me putting myself above that which I'm calling intellectualization — that is, I'm intellectualizing on the intellectualizers. And I'm being arrogant — and arrogance is on the list of attributes of "Internalized Racial Superiority." I'm in big trouble!

I'd like to know who accepted the invitation to go to these sessions (assuming they are voluntary). Specifically, I'd like to know the gender balance of these meetings. If they were, as I am guessing, overwhelmingly female, then I'd like to see some intellectual analysis of whether this training is a mechanism of the subordination of women. And, by the way, I already suspect that it is a device of white supremacy. Why wouldn't it be if white supremacy is systemic?

ADDED: I didn't want to copy too much of the text, but I realized I stopped where I did because I was offended by what came next, the city's idea of "Internalized Racial Inferiority." I can't tell from the article what was said about these attributes, so I hate even to show you the list: "colorism, isolation, protectionism, addiction, self-doubt, self-hate, rage, shame, denial, assimilation, ethnocentrisms, distancing, exaggerated visibility, hopelessness, apathy, erasure, invisibility, 'anti-blackness.'" Is that supposed to be how black people feel or think or what white people think black people feel or think? I don't know what was taught in these sessions, but the list, laid out like that, is very offensive, and I'm not seeing how these concepts can be used in a teaching session that is not instantiating the very system of white supremacy it purports to dismantle.

185 comments:

Danno said...

Identify as white...

I prefer to be identified as Caucasian as I like to be associated with a description that is capitalized.

campy said...

If the sessions were overwhelmingly female, that probably reflects decades of anti-male discrimination in hiring and promotion on the part of the city.

traditionalguy said...

Learn Mao’s Little Red Book self hatred tips...or we will cancel you. Commies have no originality.

Danno said...

If we are lucky, L'il Rocket Man will nuke that city and no one will care.

rhhardin said...

The trouble is the internalized inferiority of black people, which is projected on white people.

iowan2 said...

I'm a black, 18 year old lesbian.

I've been in Agriculture sales and service since 1977, so shutup.

Jeff Brokaw said...

If the re-education camp is not “required” you’d better do it anyway, if you know what’s good for you.

Have white folks figured out yet that there’s a race war on, and you’re in it?! This will spread to corporate training. You will be made to care.

gspencer said...

Relax, it's only a little bit unconstitutional.

Rory said...

"White employees must give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,' 'expectations or presumptions of emotional safety,' 'control over other people and over the land,' and 'relationships with some other white people.'"

Life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness.

GBnative said...

Mao more than ever.

This time, it will be done right.

Jeff Brokaw said...

This is 100% racist by definition — if words still actually have accepted meanings — and should be illegal if it isn’t already.

It’s time to stop apologizing and feeling guilty, as a class of people. It only empowers them.

NotWhoIUsedtoBe said...

Self-loathing isn't my thing. I don't believe America wants or needs a caste system.

JML said...

I’m in the clear- the person on detail who replaced me is...not sure I can say this any longer...black. I’m not virtue signaling, just stating a fact regarding my moral superiority to those liberals who have not given up their jobs. Oh, and I retired early too, for less money. So there.

wendybar said...

So we ARE being put into reeducation camps by the left.

Wince said...

"A possible loophole."

A "possible loophole" in what, running afoul of anti-discrimination law because it's "voluntary"? As if blowing the boss can be "voluntary"?

The content seems to project inferiorities on non-whites while creating a hostile, discriminatory environment for whites.

An abomination of the first order. Let the litigation begin!

clint said...

If they're taking attendance, are the sessions really voluntary?

Browndog said...

What's worse?

Trying to convince someone they are a bad person, and responsible for all the evils in the world because they are white?

Or, convinced you're a bad person, and responsible for all the evils in the world because you are white?

campy said...

If the sessions were overwhelmingly female, that probably reflects decades of anti-male discrimination in hiring and promotion on the part of the city.


This.

If we put the "fairer sex" in charge, the world will be more peaceful and prosperous, so I was told.

Sebastian said...

"I'm in big trouble!"

You are. And as Van Jones explained, black men are in the greatest danger from white women like you, so white women's trouble is bound to get bigger.

MayBee said...

It has certainly helped the City of Seattle, which seems to be a well-run city with very little civic strife and terrific at protecting the weakest among them.

I'm Full of Soup said...

Seattle is 70% white, and 15% black or hispanic. Hard to imagine a city in Africa or Asia doing this for another racial minority group.

Bob Boyd said...

Anyway, isn't it awful to think that you could be accused of white supremacy if you're into individualism and objectivity?!

That's the whole point.

hawkeyedjb said...

"This will spread to corporate training."

Oh, most certainly. Slightly tamer versions already exist, but they won't stay tame. Pretty much every large tech company will be taking orders and instituting mandatory sensitivity/diversity/bias awareness training.

I used to work for Microsoft. I doubt I could today, because I've made statements in the past that indicate my political leanings. You know those "diversity statements" that academics must write before they can be considered for a professorship? They're coming to corporate America. In 10 years, you won't be able to apply to a tech company without one.

AMDG said...

Telling people people that their most important characteristic is their race will not end well. Tribalism is cancer.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

If we are being literal, there are no white or black people, but we are all between those two extremes. We are all “people of color” because there are no colorless people. The color differs from one to another. But we have a color. And it definitely ain’t black of white, at least according to Pantone.

Birches said...

Here's the soft bigotry of low expectations. Instead of trying to get everyone to a place where "guaranteed physical safety,' or 'expectations or presumptions of emotional safety," are the norm, we have to lower everyone else's standards so people of color can feel better. I mean that's how I take these ideas, which taken to a logical end is actually monstrous.

This is initial training for neo Nazis. Seriously.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

I mean logically, the opposite of a “person of color” is “a person of NO color” not white. White IS a color. And I have never met a person who was white OR black. That’s why they changed it to a “cultural” designation and capitalized Black. But how can you judge my “culture” by my skin color?

Michael K said...

City Journal explains that Math is white supremacy in Seattle.

the school system released a curriculum explaining that “math is a tool for oppression”; and the city-owned power company hired a team of bureaucrats to fight “structural racism” within their organization.

I wonder if the power company is allowed to use math?

Howard said...

Early adoption is always ridiculous, so we should go back to the comfort of structural racism.

tommyesq said...

Wow. Fourteen years ago we were promised racial healing if only we elect Obama. Now we are back to separate but (un)equal.

gilbar said...

is Anyone on Earth Surprised that democrats favor segregation? Again? (still?)

DanTheMan said...

I have to wonder how black people feel about middle class white women putting themselves in charge of fighting racism?

Isn't that white supremacy?

Expat(ish) said...

I have a close friend who works in SFO in the startup scene. He's a super duper conservative who has been in the closet for 20+ years to preserve his job prospects. He is in his mid-50's and working in a 200+ person startup where the average age is 24.

His retirement plan is an age discrimination lawsuit - he has over 100 emails calling him "grandpa" and "old man" etc etc. He's waiting for the next funding round so they have a spare million or two of payola available.

I can only imagine the lawsuits waiting this crazy racist stuff that HR is rolling out.

-XC

Lucien said...

Can’t we find a final solution to this whiteness problem?

I'm Not Sure said...

I'm sure this is just the sort of program needed to improve race relations. Good job, Seattle!

Tommy Duncan said...

Electroshock treatments might be more efficient, with lobotomies for the stubborn cases.

Howard said...

Africans are superior beings not contaminated by Neanderthal DNA. Due to the accidents of history and geography, the inferior beings came to dominate and subjugate the superior beings, driving down their relative IQ. This is why bigotry and prejudiced is worst against Blacks because of the white inferiority complex. Hate emerges from fear. This is why you cucks blow the current protests out of proportion and pine for a violent shooting race war. The fear from you weak-assed pinheads is if we give Blacks a break and even chance for success by changing the structural imbalance, they will "take over". White supremacy is really just white fragility.

JRoberts said...

I anticipate my company will "cordially require" me to participate in similar training within the next 12 months.

I have my retirement notice ready as a response to the invitation.

tim maguire said...

It's not clear from the article, but I think these sessions were voluntary.

Ah ha ha ha ha ha haaaaaa!!!!! Yeah, "voluntary"!! That's a good one!

Sure, whitey, if you don't care about your racism, that's ok, you can skip it. What's your name again, so I can make sure they know not to expect you for the voluntary training?

mikee said...

To eliminate most racism in the US, insist the government stop using racial classification for any purpose (except, say, for descriptions of skin color in APBs by police). Same for academia. Society can take care of the very, very little (in comparison) interpersonal racial animus remaining, as it is mostly a class-based issue for poor people.

gilbar said...

Why Is it; that when you see a BLM protest march, the protesters are overwhelmingly White women?

The last pic i saw, i counted
13 White women
2 Black women
2 Black men
2 White men

Who is Protesting? and for What?

Fernandinande said...

Here's a City Journal article on that same government sponsored (therefore "sytemic") anti-white racism.

I'm in big trouble!

According to Time magazine, you don't need to intellectualize to be a horrible violent racist white person, you just need to be a white woman.

Laslo Spatula said...

Is there another country on the globe that trashes its culture and bends beyond backwards for 13% of its population?

Or, for that matter, redefines gender and sex for 0.6% of its population?

The pendulum only goes so far in one direction.

I am Laslo.

Darrell said...

Sorry. Not sorry.

Ron Winkleheimer said...

What Jeff said.

What happens when HR calls you in and asks you why you didn't attend the "voluntary" self-denunciation session and you tell them, "because its a bunch of horseshit"?

Michael P said...

The greatest trick the devil, I mean the white supremacists, ever pulled was getting the general public to accept the idea that everything is a racist system of white supremacy. How can one hope to change literally everything to fix racism?

Nichevo said...

In order to be considered 'accomplices,' White employees must give up...



Not seeing the upside.

Shouting Thomas said...

You aren’t required to go, but HR and your supervisor will note if you don’t and the gossips among your co-workers will make sure your refusal is broadcast throughout the office.

In your job review, your supervisor will suggest that you lack the proper enthusiasm to be a true team player.

Promotions will go to others. You won’t get that raise.

frenchy said...

At what point do they begin telling their own children to follow the rules, do their homework, and get good grades? I have never seen or heard it. Ever.

Fernandinande said...

If we are lucky, L'il Rocket Man will nuke that city and no one will care.

Some fiddling with google maps shows that Seattle is the closest US city to N. Korea....but they'd be killing their own kind.

TickTock said...

Agree with Brokaw, saying it is voluntary doesn't mean that your boss won't communicate, indirectly, that it would be a good idea to go so that his/her department looks better.

RNB said...

Learn a new word: Voluntold.

Gk1 said...

Wasn't it Roberts who made a majority statement that the best way to stop discrimination is not to, you know, discriminate? I can't wait for the backlash to this lunacy. A few civil lawsuits will put this right.

Fernandinande said...

The tweeterings of the City Journal author, Christopher F. Rufo

"Are white employees speaking too much? That's probably the internalized racial superiority of "imposition" or "paternalism."

Are white employees speaking too little? That's oppression, too, because "silence" is "violence.""

"So far, the City of Seattle has refused to provide the names of the diversity trainers, the budget for the program, or the video of the session."

MadisonMan said...

Baffling. To think City Resources go into creating this kind of thing.

Althouse writes: If they were, as I am guessing, overwhelmingly female, then I'd like to see some intellectual analysis of whether this training is a mechanism of the subordination of women.

I agree this was likely largely female. But I see the overwhelming participation of White women in this as a ploy on their part to take down (White) men who will not cooperate, by cancelling them out with the racist (as if) epithet.

OldManRick said...

A Hispanic boss I had in the 1970's ago said that the one of the reasons Hispanics were not achieving as much as Anglo-Saxons were was an attitude displayed in the community.

He said that while Anglos followed the "Keep up with the Jones" ethic, Hispanics followed the "Keep down with the Sanchez's" ethic. Anything you did to improve yourself in the Hispanic community was mocked and belittled, while in the Anglo community you were free and encouraged to compete as much as you could.

Seattle is trying to bring the "Keep down with the Sanchez's" ethic to whites.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Thanks to the collective left, we're back to segregation.

Gahrie said...

I demand that Seattle change it's name. Chief Seattle was a slaveowner.

Todd said...

"The City of Seattle held a racially segregated employee training session aimed at White staffers and instructing them on 'undoing your own whiteness'..."

I guess it is time to rip down all of the MLK statues, street names, etc. cause his dream is not only dead but the left-wing-nuts have driven a stake through its heart.

john said...

It depends. If they got paid time off, the session could have been well attended.

JAORE said...

the office asked 'city employees who identify as white to join this training..

Well on Tuesdays I identify as white. On Wednesday I identify as mixed race. Still figuring out the other days. When will this training be held?

Many anthropologists still say all hominids originated in Africa,so I'm obviously AA all the time.

Boy won't figuring out reparations be fun?

Big Mike said...

It’s Seattle! Given the self-evident incompetence of the police, I don’t see how anyone feels ‘guaranteed physical safety.’

Jamie said...

Holy effing ess.

Is there any possible recovery from where we are now?

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"White employees must give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,' 'expectations"

In other words, expect a lot more crime. And if the criminal isn't White, don't expect the police to do anything about it.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

lulled to sleep by wokeness

Char Char Binks, Esq. said...

Vote for Biden. He’ll put an end to this!

Quayle said...

“... must give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,' 'expectations or presumptions of emotional safety,' 'control over other people and over the land,' and 'relationships with some other white people.' White employees were also urged to give up 'niceties from neighbors and colleagues,' 'the certainty of your job,...”

How can one give up that which one never owned or controlled in the first place? We each own desires and motive, attitude, and effort. All else we don’t own. Comfort we don’t own. Relationships we don’t own. Niceties from neighbors we don’t own. We own expectations but mostly if we choose to let them get high we later suffer for it. Give them up, we are told. My answer: I never owned them.

Skeptical Voter said...

Did they copy the lesson plan from the "Struggle Sessions" in Mao's Cultural Revolution?

Or was this just another somewhat unpleasant way for city employees to goof off for a couple of hours. No reason to appear "better" by actually attempting to do your job. On the other hand, the Seattle employees involved here were probably working harder than your average California DMV clerk.

Eleanor said...

What is a white woman supposed to do if her choices are to give up her promotion for a black person or a white transwoman? Was that covered in the training?

Richard said...

Of course the sessions were "voluntary". However, they were taking down the names of everyone who did not volunteer.

TrespassersW said...

Do I "identify as white?"

Negative. I am a meat popsicle.

Oh Yea said...

They aren't voluntary if you expect to have any career future.

Original Mike said...

I identify as a meat popsicle.

Original Mike said...

I am sooooo glad to be retired.

wild chicken said...

give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,'


Oh, I see. Like Mexico, only more expensive.

F said...

I went through sensitivity training (USG employee at the time) in the early eighties. While I thought it was well done, I also found it Orwellian.

Ingachuck'stoothlessARM said...

'Trying to erase me': some more Woke complications

The country music group formerly known as Lady Antebellum filed a lawsuit against Anita White, a blues singer who goes by Lady A, and asked the court to uphold their trademark for the name.

https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trying-to-erase-me-lady-antebellum-sues-black-singer-in-name-dispute

rcocean said...

As anyone who's worked in Government and/or corporate American, there's voluntary and then there's "Voluntary". Sure, you're not FORCED to attend, but if you don't you've marked yourself out as "Not a team player" not "Supportive of the organizations goals" and you can pretty much forget about getting promoted or that desired job. Of course, in this case its even worse. By not attending, you've marked yourself out as "A possible racist" and "Someone we should keep an eye on".

Legally, I suppose the "voluntary" aspect allows them to avoid lawsuits, but as a practical matter, its mandatory.

pdug said...

Wikipedia says of "Intellectualization"

"Among the intellectual defenses against analysis are a refusal to accept the logic of emotions, attempts to refute the theory of psychoanalysis, or speculating about one's own problems rather than experiencing them and attempting to change."

seems to fit White Fragility: attempting to refute white fragility is a sign that you are trapped in white fragility

NCMoss said...

In my diversity training class I identified as the Elephant in the room and swiftly got thrown out. Bigots!

rcocean said...

People think this is unconstitutional. Wrong. Grandma O'Connor ruled years ago that discriminating against white people is A-0K because she thought it A-OK. Maybe, she said, in 20 or 30 years we can actually enforce the Civil rights law and forbid ALL discrimination.

robother said...

Rod Dreher points out that, if you substitute the word "jewish" for "whiteness" in the materials, you have a perfect simulacrum of an early 30s plan to condition Jews and Germans alike to the need for a Final Solution. Or, as Hannah Arendt might say, don't be misled by the sheer banality of the program: it is absolutely evil.

Original Mike said...

"isn't it awful to think that you could be accused of white supremacy if you're into individualism and objectivity?! "

Imagine being black and being told you are incapable of intellectualism and objectivity.

Tommy Duncan said...

I've been retired for about 7 years, so it has been a while since my last diversity training session. In those sessions we were expected to smile, appear attentive and nod our heads in agreement. It was very clear in the sessions that discussion was not welcome. It was a short journey from that experience 7 years ago to these sessions in Seattle.

The Cracker Emcee Refulgent said...

"This will spread to corporate training. You will be made to care."

I don't know. This strikes me as something only government could suggest with a straight face. In my company, certainly, the derision and sarcastic riffing would reduce such a seminar to a HR disaster in record time.

Bay Area Guy said...

The woke Left is racist.

Ken B said...

You keep using that word ‘voluntary’ ...

Original Mike said...

"Cognitive dissonance" is a trait of racial superiority? I don't get it.

Jupiter said...

Ann Althouse just realizes that she is a white supremacist.

Gk1 said...

And to think I considered San Francisco an overgrown tree house full of children. They are pikers compared to the dumpster fire of Seattle. From CHOP to closing down I-5 until people get mowed over by a car and now this idiocy.

We really have to thank Ann for filling the gap the Drudge Report used to fill in highlighting the idiocy of the progressives on a daily basis.

Charlie said...

Seattle had a nice run.

M Jordan said...

I’m sitting here at a big, beautiful lake, boats and skiers sailing by, me just enjoying the morning breez from the water and feeling arrogant as hell. To hector morals is to produce the exact opposite effect.

Clyde said...

Fuck that shit! It’s like the idiots want to create White nationalism where little or none existed before. I’d tell those assholes, “I come from a long line if ornery people. Don’t push your luck!”

M Jordan said...

Is it permitted to change what you identify as on a per-need basis? Surely it is since everything's fluid.

Nonapod said...

I'd like to know who accepted the invitation to go to these sessions (assuming they are voluntary).

Obviously the problem for the people attempting to weaponize white guilt with something like this sort of reeducation nonsense is that it isn't manditory... yet. As you point out, a white person who may be "into individualism and objectivity" and has any sense of self worth is obviously never going to attend such a bizarre excercise in self flagellation. Such a person is either going to find it infuriating or just roll their eyes. And the white people who do attend such an event are already submissives anyway, so the people running it are preaching to the choir, the choir being a collection of self hating masochistic weirdos.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

The local news stations, all of whom are arms to the democrat party, don't supply much news these days. They actually have segments of lecture-hall where they lecture how we are all undeniable racists in need of re-programming.

Joe Smith said...

Some of these municipalities and corporations need to be sued into poverty.

I worked at a high school ten years ago. One of the counselors was always agitating about social justice, etc.

Apparently with the school's approval she would send out emails, flyers, organize events, and speak at assemblies on the subject.

She was out of central casting; a lesbian who let you know it. Very smart and razor sharp when discussing her field. But unlike most of her ilk (social justice warriors, not lesbians) I've run into, she was a very nice person.

She went to the kind of elite east coast (non-ivy) school that kids line up to attend and parents shell out $60k/year for the privilege.

In other words, she should have been real-life smart, but was stuck in a fantasy world of academic theory.

And her writing! There is an entire language to wokeness that most people don't speak or understand. So many big words and phrases seemingly stuck together at random. Lots of $2 words when 10-cent words would have sufficed.

I was editing an article she wrote and she kept using 'pedagogy' every other sentence. I switched that out for the appropriate form of 'teaching/teacher/teaching method,' etc., and she asked me why. I told her that 'teaching' is a word most people won't have to look up and it would make her piece easier to read. She wasn't happy.

Along these lines, in 2018 two researchers submitted fake papers to show the absurdity of the types of papers being published by supposedly academic journals.

Per the Daily Mail: "The year before they had published a paper called 'The Conceptual Penis as a Social Construct' in the journal Cogent Social Sciences.

Their scribblings included the phrases ‘gender-performative, high fluid social construct’, ‘exclusionary to disenfranchised communities’, and ‘isomorphic to performative toxic masculinity’.

They even associated male anatomy with climate change.

Another paper published in the journal Fat Studies claimed that body building is 'fat-exclusionary'."

Hilarious...

GingerBeer said...

"Your silence is violence. Oh, and shut the fuck up!"

Sam L. said...

It's Seattle. They're all crazy there. Something in the water, likely...

LA_Bob said...

"And, by the way, I already suspect that it is a device of white supremacy."

So, it's just a ruse? A ploy to calm the restless natives?

Figures. But I;m sure the natives are not fooled.

Jay Vogt said...

. . . .somebody capitalized "White".
WTH?

CWJ said...

"White employees must give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,' 'expectations or presumptions of emotional safety,'"

Now square that with hostile work environment sexual harassment. It would be a hoot if the same people did both this training and the sexual harassment training.

Lance said...

White employees must give up 'comfort,' 'guaranteed physical safety,' 'expectations or presumptions of emotional safety,' 'control over other people and over the land,' and 'relationships with some other white people.' White employees were also urged to give up 'niceties from neighbors and colleagues,' 'the certainty of your job,' and 'accepting jobs and promotions when we are not qualified, including racial equity jobs.'

"What the honorable member is saying is that he would rather the poor were poorer provided the rich were less rich." Margaret Thatcher 1990 (Youtube)


Mark O said...

If there is systemic racism then the system is, by definition racist. So, anyone in the system or who defends the system must be a racist white nationalist.

Jason said...

Liberals are constantly projecting their own insane, vile racism and bigotry on normal people.

Rory said...

"Have white folks figured out yet that there’s a race war on, and you’re in it?! This will spread to corporate training. You will be made to care."

It's certainly intended to look like one, but this is mostly based on economics.

We need a good name for upper economic class bigots. "Snob" is correct enough, but it carries a Frasier Crane-connection to high culture. I think "toff" is a little better, but not well-known in the US.

Marty said...

When I was in the Air Force, we all were required to go to racial sensitivity training which basically consisted of some black NCO's quizzing white airman about street names for various drugs (legal and illegal) and prostitutes. I think this was in 1970 or 1971 - been a long time and I can't remember if it happened just before I went to Alaska or just before I went to Germany. I pissed them off by knowing most of the drug answers - they didn't know I was the son of a pharmacist, the grandson of a pharmacist (and more) and had to be extremely careful in the 60's to know and avoid all types of drugs (because my father's license and work could be at risk if I weren't). And I told them I would never need to worry about the prostitute questions because I had no intentions of engaging their services. I tried to keep silent about the implicit racism of their whole premise and my disgust at the whole session, but I remember it got quite heated. You had to eat a certain amount of shit to survive the military in those days. My point is that this type of crap is not all that new although it looks much more extensive now. And Jeff has it right: these things are not voluntarily no matter what they say.

Carol said...

The trouble is the internalized inferiority of black people, which is projected on white people.

They must be feeling terrible! There there go paint some slogans on the street.

Iman said...

I recall a conversation with a Nortel Networks sales engineer back in the mid-‘90s. He was based in Georgia and Nortel - a Canadian company - felt it important that they put their Southern US employees through a week’s worth of in-their-faces hectoring and ridicule (think Marine Corp bootcamp) about their racism, as a form of diversity training.

An interesting approach, to say the least.

Yancey Ward said...

Voluntary is just a code word for required. If you didn't show up, good luck with keeping your job.

Unclebiffy said...

Don't you like the new normal. If you're white you're a racist. If you don't admit it, it's because of your white privilege. Circular logic.

PM said...

Nothing new. The women's movement showed the way.
Except where I worked, we were required to attend sexual harassment symposia.

ALP said...

I prefer to be identified as Caucasian as I like to be associated with a description that is capitalized.

**************
Caucasian is a puny 3 syllables. Go all the way with European American, a hefty 8 syllables.

Fernandinande said...

Poor Seattle, a city named after a slave owner in a county named after a slave owner in a state named after a slave owner.

Susan said...

I identify as non-rascist.

AlbertAnonymous said...

This shit has to end... when will the adults take back control of the room? Seriously?

I have to take these BS “unconscious bias” courses every year, and I thought they were BS. But this stuff?

Fuck right off...

dbp said...

My kids inform me that race is a social construct. While it is true that most people would describe me as "white", I have never thought of myself in that way and indeed, it seems distasteful to identify as any race.

I am not sure how I would rank the following attributes: Man, Married, Father, American, Former Marine, Employed, College Graduate, Scientist, Physically Fit, Handy, Good at Cooking and probably a few more, but Caucasian would come after all of these in importance.

So, the short answer is that I would skip the "training". If I was forced to attend, I would be politely disruptive. Defining things such as; individualism, intellectualization and objectivity as particularly "white" is itself a racist insult to minorities. These things are virtues and no race has a monopoly on them. It is also paternalistic to claim that "whites" have a monopoly on faults which are possible (and present to some degree) in all Humans.

Kevin said...

Wait, let's check something...

"The City of Berlin held a racially segregated employee training session aimed at Jewish staffers and instructing them on 'undoing your own Jewishness' in order to be held accountable by non-Jews, according to documents obtained by a public records request. According to the documents, the Office of Civil Rights hosted a two-and-a-half-hour 'Training on Internalized Racial Superiority for Jewish People.'"

Just as I suspected.

I'm sure the Germans began with voluntary attendance as well.

Geoff Matthews said...

The point of these sessions is to make you shut up. By making individualism evil, how can you argue for it? By making perfectionism evil, how can you argue for it? By making intellectualism evil, how can you argue for it?

These 'training' sessions should be mocked and criticized widely.

Birkel said...

Very clever, Althouse.
You rightly perceive the KafkaTrap.

Kevin said...

The trouble is the internalized inferiority of black people, which is projected on white people.

The trouble is the internalized inferiority of black people, which is constructed by one group of white people and is projected on another group of white people.

And which ultimately does nothing for black people.

Birkel said...

gspencer,

You have greater faith in CJ Roberts than do I.

Kevin said...

This meeting was just a trial run to see how many people showed up and how long they'd stay.

Now they know how to properly construct and calibrate the ovens.

Mary Beth said...

perfectionism

Let's encourage everyone to half-ass their jobs now. (Because I don't believe that actual perfectionism is that common that it would need to be first on the list. I think they're referring to what would have been called "acting white" in high school.)

Not Sure said...

So now Harrison Bergeron is expected to self-handicap in order to achieve racial justice.

This sends an unmistakable message about how the people who wrote this monstrous document view BIPOCs.

Anonymous said...

It's not clear from the article, but I think these sessions were voluntary.

You can be sure that names were taken, lists created and personnel records updated, which makes it a long way from voluntary. I expect that this sort of "right think" is going to be a requirement for promotion.

n.n said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
n.n said...

Diversity (i.e. denial of individual dignity, denial of individual conscience) and exclusion is a progressive condition under the Pro-Choice religion.

PhilD said...

How long before 'whites' will have to wear a 'Yellow Badge'?
And 'voluntary'? Like in it's a pity if you'd get fired but, hey, you don't have to go, you Untermensch.

I think this BS is just begging for a civil rights complaint.

bagoh20 said...

Congratulations, Seattle. You have managed to be more racist than a KKK meeting.

You are defining the value, virtue, and responsibilities of people entirely by skin color. Beside being logically flawed, this gives you immoral justification to treat them in horrible ways, based on race. These meetings and "training are just that: treating people horribly base on nothing but race. That is far worse than all the current racism supposedly being fought with these methods. Some people need to sue. Can you imagine using the "identify-as-loophole" if this was being done to blacks or women. Yea, that would fly.

Krumhorn said...

I wonder if gun and ammunition sales will abate as folks abandon their desire for personal safety?

I sure hope so. I need more ammo and the shelves are empty. I’m also eager to get my hands on a Sig Sauer P320 XCompact which is currently unobtainable. My whiteness is intact.

- Krumhorn

n.n said...

Identify as white...

Or they will identify you as "white" (e.g. White Hispanic) when it is politically congruent to their cause.

n.n said...

Female, transgender, and rainbow (i.e. excluding black, brown, and featuring the shredded remains of white).

Tommy Duncan said...

Is there room in America for individuals who want to be judged by the content of their character rather than the color of their skin?

Stephen St. Onge said...

"If there is systemic racism then the system is, by definition racist. So, anyone in the system or who defends the system must be a racist white nationalist."

Brilliant. Gets right to the heart of the matter.

Now, Report For Reeducation Immediately. You have indulged in Crimethink! Logic is racist.

Fernandinande said...

My post seems to have disappeared! Oh teh horror.

From City Journal:

Cult Programming in Seattle

The author's tweeterings show some of the racist paperwork.

I'm in big trouble!

Time magazine says you don't have to pseudo-intellectualize to be an evil violent racist, you just have to be a white woman: "How the 'Karen Meme' Confronts the Violent History of White Womanhood"

Hammond X. Gritzkofe said...

So, there IS systemic racism in Seattle city government. First identify everyone by race. Segregate by race. Then mandatory sessions for self-shaming and Airing of Grievances. Feats of Strength - window smashing, looting, barricade construction - already checked off.

I cannot say I am old enough to remember Krystalnacht, but I did see the video. Then as now instigated by small number of professional agitators, often non-local.

But I do remember a mandatory self-shaming "race relations" session at Laughlin AFB TX in early 1980's, That was racially integrated tho.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Browndog said..."If we put the "fairer sex" in charge, the world will be more peaceful and prosperous, so I was told."

Yeah…

Original Mike said...

Blogger robother said..."Rod Dreher points out that, if you substitute the word "jewish" for "whiteness" in the materials, you have a perfect simulacrum of an early 30s plan to condition Jews and Germans alike to the need for a Final Solution."

I used to wonder how a place like Nazi Germany could ever happen. I don't wonder anymore. This is scary shit.

Nichevo said...

Next step is robots.

From The Animatrix (2003)

https://www.matrixfans.net/the-animatrix/the-second-renaissance/transcript/

(After humans lose the Decisive Battle)

Sentinel: Your flesh is a relic, a mere vessel. Hand over your flesh and a new world awaits you. We demand it.



And the white people who do attend such an event are already submissives anyway, so the people running it are preaching to the choir, the choir being a collection of self hating masochistic weirdos.

If I ever have to do this I will video/audio record, overtly or covertly.

Freeman Hunt said...

Race woo. Maybe there's a crystal or an indulgence you can buy.

Nichevo said...

Blogger Sebastian said...
"I'm in big trouble!"

You are.

She deserves it. She asked for it.


Blogger MadisonMan said...
Baffling. To think City Resources go into creating this kind of thing.

Althouse writes: If they were, as I am guessing, overwhelmingly female, then I'd like to see some intellectual analysis of whether this training is a mechanism of the subordination of women.

I agree this was likely largely female. But I see the overwhelming participation of White women in this as a ploy on their part to take down (White) men who will not cooperate, by cancelling them out with the racist (as if) epithet.


As long as it's not white men imposing it on them, all's jake. White women apparently looooove to submit to the Other.

Stephen St. Onge said...

"Can’t we find a final solution to this whiteness problem?"

Final Solutions are a white construct, and your longing for one shows your internal whiteness superiority complex.

Chris N said...

As a consultant on similar seminars, I applaud the organizers for their empathy, knowledge and kindness.

At Teledildonics, I took a militaristic approach to race retraining: 1 week in the woods. No food. No water. One long march to freedom.

Namaste.

-Drake Whiteman, PhD

HR Race Consultant To The Stars

Tyrone Slothrop said...

I am disgusted by those who would pigeonhole me as "white". This is inaccurate and patently discriminatory. In the first place, I am not white, I am different shades of pink. In the second place, it denies me my cultural heritage, of which I have every right to be proud. From now on, I reject the appellation "white". I insist on "Caucasian", or, even better, "European-American".

Birkel said...

Krumhorn rightly notes the sale of guns and ammo as a prophylactic measure against this sort of tyranny.

I do not expect the gun store shelves to be full for quite some while.

I Callahan said...

Tangentially related:

Michigan's Governor Whitmer used the recent uptick in Covid cases to announce that more minorities are affected by this disease. Her solution? Require "implicit bias" training for all healthcare workers.

LINK

We really are ruled by idiots...

Ken B said...

“ Is there any possible recovery from where we are now?”

Lebanon.
Yugoslavia.
Northern Ireland.
Rwanda.

Lots of choices.

Gahrie said...

At some point, these assholes are going to convince White people that being White matters. Then things get really ugly.

Rory said...

"Well on Tuesdays I identify as white. On Wednesday I identify as mixed race. Still figuring out the other days."

In the winter I'm a Buddhist. In the summer I'm a nudist.

DanTheMan said...

> I need more ammo and the shelves are empty.

You have friends in Grand Island, Nebraska. Hornady stands ready to help you break your dependence on ammunition manufacturers.

Components are getting scarce, but they are still available.

Anonymous said...

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER!

Gahrie said...

He said that while Anglos followed the "Keep up with the Jones" ethic, Hispanics followed the "Keep down with the Sanchez's" ethic. Anything you did to improve yourself in the Hispanic community was mocked and belittled, while in the Anglo community you were free and encouraged to compete as much as you could.

The Black community uses the phrases "Acting White" and "Uncle Tom".

Michael K said...

seems to fit White Fragility: attempting to refute white fragility is a sign that you are trapped in white fragility

This resembles psychoanalysis and probably is as phony. Being skeptical of analysis was a sign you needed more of it.

pious agnostic said...

I'm old enough to remember being encouraged to attend struggle sessions concerning my internalized sexism and my culpability in creating an unsafe working environment for women.

Now they can't decide what a woman is.

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

OldManRick said...

A Hispanic boss I had in the 1970's ago said that the one of the reasons Hispanics were not achieving as much as Anglo-Saxons were was an attitude displayed in the community.

He said that while Anglos followed the "Keep up with the Jones" ethic, Hispanics followed the "Keep down with the Sanchez's" ethic. Anything you did to improve yourself in the Hispanic community was mocked and belittled, while in the Anglo community you were free and encouraged to compete as much as you could.


Your boss was mostly right. However, I grew up in the South and knew plenty of people who took umbrage towards those who moved into town. They'd go on and on about how everything in town was terrible and how everything was better in the country. I even knew one individual who assured me that there was nothing better than a late night dash across the backyard during the middle of winter, just so he could move his bowels in an real old-fashioned outhouse. Them new fangled indoor toilets was for snobs! So it's not like there was no pressure on White people, most of them just didn't listen to it.

Heating Up said...

How can one seriously think we are not headed for a civil war. I will not let a Maoist revolution destroy my home, our lives depend on it.

Tina Trent said...

It has been 28 years since I was first told by a City of Atlanta department head that she wanted to hire me for a job but they wouldn't hire a white woman for it.

I'm amazed that anyone is surprised by this. If you're under 60 this has been a workplace reality for much of your working life.

Anita Dunn, Chair of the Biden Election Committee, is a Maoist. An actual Maoist. She's given public speeches at which she quotes from the Little Red Book.

Back in 2008, when she was part of Obama's inner circle, people told me I was delusional whenever I pointed this out. Maybe not so much anymore. We're going to end up in camps.

Jim at said...

Eventually, the warring tribes on the left - currently falling all over each other in the Woke Olympics - will turn on each other and destroy themselves from the inside.

It can't happen soon enough.

Bruce Hayden said...

“I do not expect the gun store shelves to be full for quite some while.”

I was at the local mercantile today, purchasing some new toys (9 mm G19 and 7.5” .300 AAC AR pistol). Guys there were talking about their demand right now. The older one expects their shelves to stay fairly bare until the election, and fill up again only if Trump is re-elected, and esp if the Republicans can hold or acquire one house of Congress. Most major calibers are in short supply, both in terms of firearms, as well as ammunition. interestingly, the reason that these guys had these guns is that apparently, here in rural MT, there seems to be a preference for the old stuff - revolvers and lever action rifles/carbines. Not much in .AR pistols or semiautomatic handguns.

n.n said...

SEGREGATION NOW, SEGREGATION TOMORROW, SEGREGATION FOREVER!

Witch hunts, warlock trials, diversity, and human sacrificial rites, too. Here's to their conception of progress: one step forward, two steps backward.

n.n said...

Whitmer used the recent uptick in Covid cases to announce that more minorities are affected by this disease. Her solution? Require "implicit bias" training for all healthcare worker

Diversity (e.g. racism, sexism) is Progressive dogma.

Original Mike said...

Blogger Gahrie said..."At some point, these assholes are going to convince White people that being White matters. Then things get really ugly."

I vacillate between thinking these people are fucking idiots and thinking that a race war is their goal. I suppose both people exist in this movement.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Heh - @ Freeman 11:33
Racial guilt mongering is so... new age snake oil.

'you're all irremediable racists.. but here, you can save yourself... buy this _____________ and support this candidate__________________... tear down this statue_____________ you will be cleansed.
You will feel so much better'

Matt said...

I keep thinking about that community activist who spent years training the San Jose Police Department about implicit bias - teaching police officers about how racist they were and how minority communities hate them. The diversity trainer showed up at a BLM protest and ended up shot in the groin with a rubber bullet.

I'm sure it was an accident.

Howard said...

Blogger Tina Trent said...

Yadda yadda blah blah blorp... We're going to end up in camps.


For you, a padded cell is more likely

Jupiter said...

"I recall a conversation with a Nortel Networks sales engineer back in the mid-‘90s."

Interesting. I inherited a couple grand in Nortel stock. It is now utterly worthless.

Bay Area Guy said...

Speaking of racial issues, let us reflect on the prescient words of our Hostess regarding the "disqualified" Biden campaign:

How dare Biden rest his campaign on a blatant lie — a lie that has been used to stir up fear and racial discord?! The hypocrisy of offering to bring us together and embrace lofty values when he is either repulsively ignorant or just plain lying!

I could not finish watching that video. I tried, but I couldn't force myself. It's utterly toxic bilge.

If Biden does not come forward and retract this video and apologize and commit himself to making amends, I consider him disqualified. He does not have the character or brain power to be President.

Posted by Ann Althouse at 10:33 AM 4.25.19

Dave64 said...

When White America finally decides to go Galt and leaves all the critical infrastructure to all these mouth breathing polysyllabists … well it's going to be one hell of a meltdown. It's time to serve the divorce papers, Blue America needs a lobotomy!

Original Mike said...

If you search ''Training on Internalized Racial Superiority for White People' you don't get any hits on CNN, NBC, ABC, USAToday, etc. (I used DuckDuckGo. Using Google didn't seem like a good idea.) Did MSM report on this?

RigelDog said...

White people must give up 'relationships with some other white people.'"

You know, my three-year-old is showing signs of being a racist little shit....I see now that it is necessary to abandon her to the carnies.

Michael K said...


Blogger Tina Trent said...
It has been 28 years since I was first told by a City of Atlanta department head that she wanted to hire me for a job but they wouldn't hire a white woman for it.


My brother in law, with a Masters degree, gave up on the sergeant's exam for the Chicago PD when no white men were promoted for years. He should have left and taken a job in a small suburb as an administrator or something.

h said...

legally, what would keep me from identifying as black (say for the purposes of claiming a reparations check)? It's true (correct me if I'm wrong)that anthropologists or genetic biologists agree that everyone is descended from an African woman. So I would not be lying to say I am an American of African descent.

ccscientist said...

I'm supposed to give up the expectation of physical safety? Give up control over land--like my personal home? This is outrageous stuff. Backlash will result for sure.
As to superiority: Let us say someone is The Rock. He is physically superior to 99.99% of people. Of course he wears it well and that is great but it is false that he is not superior in that way. Other people are very very smart. Their analysis of a situation may be way better than the janitor's assessment. We should pretend no one is smarter? Harrison Bergeron here we come!

tcrosse said...

"Well on Tuesdays I identify as white. On Wednesday I identify as mixed race. Still figuring out the other days."

You are what you is.

Howard said...

I identify as mixed species.

Temujin said...

Apparently Dale Carnegie is out and Pol Pot is in.

Gahrie said...

Eventually, the warring tribes on the left - currently falling all over each other in the Woke Olympics - will turn on each other and destroy themselves from the inside.

True. The problem is, it'll be too late for the rest of us.

BrianE said...

They're just telling white folks to quit being competent.

Brian

Njall said...

My city! I’m so proud.

I work for a government organization in King County, Washington, in a technology department. Probably 90% of the worker bees are white or Asian males. 100% of our mangers are white women. Oops! Sorry - there’s that one black dude.

This hasn’t hit us yet, but I’m sure it’s coming.

Njall said...

Responding to dbp:

I agree, there is so much more to me than some bland, uninformative designation of whiteness:

Army brat - that is, in my opinion, one of my most defining features. I grew up in shitty army schools rubbing shoulders with > 50% black students. I have more in common with them than they do with a 25 year old black kid, or that I do with a 25 year old white kid for that matter.

What else? Every single man in my family, of that generation, served in Vietnam.

Rampant alcoholism? Check, for my family.

College? My grandpa, one of the most intellectually curious people I have ever met, was a high school graduate and mail carrier.

So when people talk to me of privilege, it sickens me.

It’s a mistake of logic. Picture a Venn diagram: privileged people were within the circle “white”. So, all privileged people were white, but all white people were certainly not all privileged.

Njall said...

Responding to dbp:

I agree, there is so much more to me than some bland, uninformative designation of whiteness:

Army brat - that is, in my opinion, one of my most defining features. I grew up in shitty army schools rubbing shoulders with > 50% black students. I have more in common with them than they do with a 25 year old black kid, or that I do with a 25 year old white kid for that matter.

What else? Every single man in my family, of that generation, served in Vietnam.

Rampant alcoholism? Check, for my family.

College? My grandpa, one of the most intellectually curious people I have ever met, was a high school graduate and mail carrier.

So when people talk to me of privilege, it sickens me.

It’s a mistake of logic. Picture a Venn diagram: privileged people were within the circle “white”. So, all privileged people were white, but all white people were certainly not all privileged.

Nichevo said...


Howard said...
I identify as mixed species.


Indeed. Who was the top: the rat or the baboon?

Freeman Hunt said...

It seems like undoing one's own whiteness would require not going to seminars like this. Is there anything more white? I bet you get brunch after.

Vince said...

It should be obvious to any decent Americana Citizen that this “course”is not only offensively Anti-American but unconstitutional on its face and blatantly illegal. I hope there are conservative leaning Lawyers out there that are salivating to take these Proto-Fascists in Seattle City government to court, where I'm confident they will be deservedly crushed.

Vince said...

Vincent Said:

It should be obvious to any decent Americana Citizen that this “course”is not only offensively Anti-American but unconstitutional on its face and blatantly illegal. I hope there are conservative leaning Lawyers out there that are salivating to take these Proto-Fascists in Seattle City government to court, where I'm confident they will be deservedly crushed.