Democratic lawmakers rebuked President Donald Trump’s administration for moving to end critical race theory training at federal agencies, accusing Trump of dismissing the country’s racism, according to a statement.
Democratic Representatives Judy Chu of California, Joaquin Castro of Texas, and Karen Bass of California called on the administration to reverse the decision, which was announced Friday, and reinstitute the “anti-racism training” for government employees.
The statement, which was published Tuesday, was authored by the aforementioned lawmakers who are the Tri-Caucus chairs of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, Congressional Hispanic Caucus, and the Congressional Black Caucus, respectively.
”In the middle of a national reckoning on racial injustice, the Trump administration is trying to sweep our nation’s history of racism under the rug,” it reads.
Russ Vought, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, made the announcement Friday that he was directed by Trump to ensure that all federal agencies cease and desist from holding critical race theory trainings, which have included mandatory sessions for white employees who are tasked with recognizing their role in perpetuating racism. The administration has described the trainings as “divisive, false, and demeaning,” and “anti-American.”
The days of taxpayer funded indoctrination trainings that sow division and racism are over. Under the direction of @POTUS we are directing agencies to halt critical race theory trainings immediately.https://t.co/dyMeJka9rt
— Russ Vought (@RussVought45) September 4, 2020
“It is profoundly disappointing but not surprising that the Trump administration is out of touch with what’s important to the American people and wants to terminate the federal government’s efforts to root-out institutional racism through anti-bias training,” the Tri-Caucus’s statement continues.
“From our nation’s original sin of slavery to state-sponsored segregation and discrimination through Jim Crow laws, to the murder of people of color at the hands of police today, structural racism casts a long shadow and still continues to cause inequality and injustice to date.”
The statement criticizes Trump’s response to the coronavirus, which they say enabled the “disproportionate deaths of Black, Latino, Pacific Islander, and Native Americans,” and his use of “racist anti-Asian slurs” like “Chinese virus” to describe the coronavirus.
Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley also drew attention to the training in August when leaked documents showed that Sandia National Laboratories, which is federally funded, paid for a “White Men & Allies Learning Lab” where white male executives were asked to acknowledge the connection between “white male culture” and mass killings. (RELATED: ‘Anti-American Propaganda’: Trump Administration To End Critical Race Theory Training At Federal Agencies)