#diversity training

By Bianca Quilantan

02/01/2025 07:38 PM EST

Some federal employees at the Education Department have been placed on administrative leave for previously attending a diversity training.

Several employees began receiving leave notices late Friday and reported them to their local union president at the American Federation of Government Employees, confirmed Brittany Holder, deputy communications director at AFGE, which represents federal workers at the agency.

Like ok yes I know the male and female ones but… are the others common symbols and I’m just out of touch for not knowing them? Why do the bisexual ones seem like polyamory?

I’m really tired about the hysteria over critical race theory (CRT). I conducted GOOD diversity training for years at the university where I work. Those trainings were designed to bring people TOGETHER–NOT to divide them. 

Unfortunately, there are some poorly trained people who do diversity training and it is the horror stories from some of these bad trainings that the right has bundled into the boogeyman of “CRT” and used to try to ban ALL diversity training and discussion of racism in school–and to ban the teaching of anything but a whitewashed “patriotic” history.

What is good diversity training?

Good diversity training ISN’T a one-hour lecture on white privilege where the audience is afraid to speak up for fear of being called racist. Good diversity training involves HOURS of honest DIALOGUE between people from different races, ethnicities, genders, sexual orientations and socioeconomic backgrounds. Therefore, the Black student who was followed around a store by a manager simply for “shopping while Black” can tell their story as well as the White kid who was teased for being “White trash” because they grew up in a trailer park. People from diverse backgrounds learn to have empathy for each other when they really LISTEN to each other’s stories in a safe environment.

Good diversity training allows for true examination of one’s prejudices (regardless if one is from a dominant or marginalized group), without the fear that one will be pounced on simply for acknowledging that one has those prejudices. If we can’t acknowledge our prejudices and examine them openly, we cannot begin to change them. When people are free to talk about their prejudices (with rules of respect for ALL sides) they usually begin to let go of  their prejudices rather than angrily doubling down on them.

We used to conduct these discussions over LONG PERIODS OF TIME–either weekly meetings that lasted a semester or long weekend retreats, with follow-up meetings afterwards. When people shared their stories they realized they could relate to each other.

Their shared experiences brought these college students TOGETHER. By the end of these trainings, people from different races and ethnicities, different genders, different sexual orientations and different socioeconomic backgrounds FELT CLOSER TO EACH OTHER. Many students (including white students) told me and others that it was the most meaningful experience they had had in college.

It makes me feel incredibly sad that the right is using “CRT” as a wedge issue to ban any form of discussion of race or any diversity training from schools. I can understand the concerns about bad diversity training but you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater. GOOD DIVERSITY TRAINING ISN’T DIVISIVE–IT BUILDS UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN PEOPLE AND HELPS BRING PEOPLE TOGETHER. Ultimately, isn’t that what most of us want?

[BTW, the actual legal theory that is CRT is not taught in K-12 (it is way too complex to teach there). But it is taught at universities (usually in law school). But adults should be able to debate the merits and deficits of CRT in classes at universities. That’s what higher education is about. CRT or any other theory shouldn’t be simply “banned” from being taught. Adult students at universities are old enough to decide for themselves whether they buy into any given theory.]