In 2019, the FBI, as well as a group of other federal agencies, identified “Fostering a Diverse, Highly-Skilled Workforce” as one of their top priorities.
Being such an overriding concern, what content is provided at “diversity training events” and “workplace discussion groups” to insure a “diverse, high-skilled workforce?”
According to Christopher Rufo, who has made an extensive study of this topic, “the training begins with the premise that ‘virtually all white people contribute to racism’ and hold narratives that ‘don’t support the dismantling of racist institutions.’ Therefore, the trainers argue, white federal employees must ‘struggle to own their racism’ and ‘invest in race-based growth.’ The trainers then ask ‘white managers’ to create ‘safe spaces,’ where black employees can explain ‘what it means to be black’ and to be ‘seen in their pain.’ White staffers are instructed to keep silent and to ‘sit in the discomfort’ of their racism. If any conflicts arise, the trainers insist that whites ‘don’t get to decide when someone is being too emotional, too rash [or] too mean.’ Whites are told they can’t protest if a person of color ‘responds to their oppression in a way [they] don’t like.’”
To the outside observer, it is unclear how making federal employees “struggle to own their racism” will create a “diverse, high-skilled workforce.” But there is a more important question – have these extraordinary efforts at “diversity and inclusion” worked?
Not according to a report from Courtney Buble of the Government Executive; “Although diversity has been a priority at the FBI over the past decade, the make-up of the bureau’s workforce has barely changed over that time, and employees’ viewsof the agency’s support for diversity have not grown more positive…as of March 2019 the FBI’s overall workforce was 55.6% male and 44.4% female. This is compared to 56.1% male and 43.9% female in December 2009…(a)s for racial demographics, the FBI’s workforce was 75% white in 2009 and 74.4% white in 2019. Additionally, whites held 79.5% of the top GS grade positions in 2009 and 77.6% in 2019…(i)n February 2020 special agents were 79.1% male and 20.9% female. This was a slight improvement from 79.6% male and 18.8% female in 2010. For ethnic minorities, there were 17% in 2010 and 18.4% in 2020, according to FBI statistics.”
Further, a study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and published in 2019 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed that “diversity training does not generally result in much change in work environments…(t)he researchers found little evidence of behavior change in any of the organizations where employees had taken the diversity training program. In the program geared toward reducing biases against women, the researchers found that employees were willing to admit such biases, they just were not willing to do anything about them…(i)n the part of the study focusing on racial bias, the researchers found that employees were willing to admit having racial biases, but no measurable changes in behavior were seen during follow-up.”
This lack of success has not stopped the FBI, and other federal agencies, from forcing their employees to continue to attend “diversity and/or inclusion training events” and “participating in workplace discussion groups focusing on diversity.” If ten years of failure has not persuaded the FBI to try another tact, could there be some other reason for these endless workshops and trainings?
Christopher Rufo provides one explanation; “The larger goal is explicit: The diversity apparatchiks want to convert ‘everyone in the federal government’ to the work of ‘anti-racism.’ While that sounds innocuous, it emphatically is not what most Americans understand by the term. ‘Anti-racism,’ as the diversity hustlers define it, doesn’t teach Americans to judge each other according to the contents of their character. Rather, the ideology stands for precisely the opposite: a rigid and simplistic account of race, in which minorities are permanent victims and whites are forever tainted by racism. By promoting this toxic nonsense, activist bureaucrats seek to transform the federal government into power centers for this new racial orthodoxy.”
Given the lack of success of diversity and inclusion training, and based upon the nature of its underlying assumptions and goals, it was no surprise that in September of 2020, President Donald Trump “issued an executive order prohibiting federal agencies and contractors from using workplace training materials that include ‘divisive concepts’ such as the U.S. being ‘fundamentally racist or sexist,’ or that ‘an individual, by virtue of his or her race or sex, is inherently racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or unconsciously. ‘The order cited several examples from (Christopher). Rufo’s work, such as a seminar at the Treasury Department that, according to the executive order, ‘promoted arguments that ‘virtually all White people, regardless of how ‘woke’ they are, contribute to racism.’’
However, given the priorities of the Biden Administration, which is dedicated to continuing the work of the Obama Administration, President Joe Biden issued an Executive Order on his first day in office reinstating the Diversity and Inclusion Training for all federal employees – including members of the FBI.
Apparently, 10 years of a failed policy is irrelevant to Joe Biden – the work of “anti-racism” must go on, no matter who objects, and no matter how little actual diversity is created.
As for the FBI, according to The Guardian, there has been a “sharp decline in the number of applicants for special agent positions, long considered among the most prestigious in American law enforcement…from a peak of 68,500 in 2009 to a mere 11,500 in 2018.” However, “(t)he FBI is not alone in this…(t)he army, navy and other military branches have seen recruitment shortages.” In fact, “Police forces around the country have also had trouble recruiting of late. The total number of full-time sworn officers has dropped 23,000 since 2013 to about 700,000 according to NPR, who called the officer shortage ‘a quiet crisis in American policing.'”
Perhaps potential Special Agents are just not interested in sitting through “diversity and/or inclusion training events” and “participating in workplace discussion groups focusing on diversity.” Maybe there are other factors in play here as well – but in any event, the question remains – how do you create a “diverse, high-skilled workforce” when you can’t even get most people to accept the job and sit through your indoctrination classes?
Judge John Wilson (ret.) served on the bench in New York City
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