Walt Disney Co. has reportedly joined corporate America’s rush toward critical race theory, teaching staff that America is rooted in “systemic racism” and that white employees must show special deference to their black colleagues.
Disney training materials obtained by journalist Christopher Rufo include a program called “Reimagine Tomorrow,” which features instruction on “microaggressions,” “white fragility” and “allyship.” It refers to America’s “long history of systemic racism and transphobia” and calls for creating “equality of the outcome,” rather than equal treatment and equal opportunity.
White employees, who are asked to complete a “white privilege checklist,” are taught to squash any suggestion that accusations against them might be false. “Examine and work through feelings of guilt, shame and defensiveness to understand what is beneath them and what needs to healed,” the training materials say.
Disney also instructs white employees to promote the skills and qualities of their black colleagues when those colleagues aren’t present “to provide visibility and sponsorship.” Staffers also are told to “learn what to say and what not to say” to their black co-workers. They’re also advised to automatically give “validation” if a colleague shares an experience. “Do not question or debate black colleagues’ lived experience,” the guide says, including any suggestion that a particular comment or action wasn’t race-based.
Phrases such as “all lives matter” and “I don’t see color” are condemned as “colorblind ideologies and rhetoric” that are “harmful and hurtful.” Employees are advised not to rely on black co-workers to educate them about race, which would be “emotionally taxing.”
Resources recommended for further study include the New York Times’ historically inaccurate “1619 Project,” the Black Lives Matter website, an article calling for police departments to be defunded, and materials for indoctrinating children in critical race theory.
Rufo said Disney also distributed a worksheet telling white employees to defund the police, participate in reparations and “decolonize” their bookshelves. The company also sponsored a “21-day racial equity and social justice challenge,” in which participants are told they “all have been raised in a society that elevates white culture over others.”
In addition to the white-privilege checklist, employees are given a document on how they can help “make change” by pivoting from “white-dominant culture” to “something different.” Among the values condemned as perpetuating “white supremacy culture” are competition, perfectionism, individualism and “skeptical management.”
Disney is far from alone in pushing critical race theory on its employees. Government agencies, school districts and companies across the US have adopted such programs. For instance, Coca-Cola had mandatory training in which employees were told to be “less white.”
President Joe Biden restored such training at federal agencies immediately upon taking office in January, when he rescinded a ban ordered by former President Donald Trump. Republican controlled states, such as Idaho, Oklahoma and Iowa, have taken steps in recent weeks to ban such teaching in their schools and universities.
Disney has already run afoul of conservatives with its recent tendencies toward wokeness, such as firing actress Gina Carano for her politically incorrect opinions and smearing some of its classic movies, such as ‘Dumbo’ and ‘Peter Pan’, as racist.
