In case you hadn’t noticed, society and your employer now judge you entirely by your skin color. At most Fortune 100 companies, the skin color with which you were born determines your starting and endpoint. And if you are a white, non-executive employee, you must immediately confess and atone for the sins of your ancestors.
A cache of internal documents obtained by Christopher F. Rufo pulls the curtains back on AT&T’s racial re-education program — a new racist mandatory course that claims that “American racism is a uniquely white trait” and that attempts to normalize dangerous ideas like “defund police.”
AT&T provides its employees with access to a learning resource called Listen Understand Act
The Listen Understand Act program bases its core principles on critical race theory, intersectionality, systemic racism, white privilege, and white fragility. Again, this is happening at AT&T, the largest telecommunications company in the world.
AT&T CEO John Stankey, a white man, launched the program last year, telling employees that private corporations such as AT&T have an “obligation to engage on this issue of racial injustice” and to push for “systemic reforms in police departments across the country.” Stankey, who took over as CEO in July 2020, urged his workers to make the most of the resources provided by AT&T’s anti-racism portal.
As individuals, we can make a difference by doing our part to advance racial equity and justice for all. If you are looking for tools to better educate and inform yourself on racial equality, resources are available at Listen. Understand. Act. We also encourage you to actively participate in our recently launched Equality First learning experience, a new initiative to increase awareness and action around our value to Stand for Equality.
But why would private companies obey such overtly racist commands?
In short, Stankey and other Peter principle suits are fragile and afraid. They believe that they must point a finger at their white employees. Otherwise, critics might uncover other unsavory decisions and practices at the company. Some blue-check might even level the execs racists themselves. Not a single one of these corporate stooges believes he could weather a 48-hour storm of flimsy op-eds.
Thus, people in power implement racist policies to show they aren’t racist. Remember, only one crowd gets to decide who is and is not racist. The dictionary has no say. To the New York Times and other racial tyrants, treating individuals equally, regardless of race, is no longer enough.
One of the recommended articles was from the Chicago Tribune, entitled: ‘White America if you want to know who’s responsible for racism, look in the mirror’
The details of the AT&T program are appalling. According to a senior employee, AT&T assesses its managers on diversity issues and requires them to make sure white employees confess their complicity in “white privilege” and “systemic racism.” It doesn’t matter how many times executives prove there is no white privilege at their corporation, someone must still answer for the times it existed in the past. AT&T is not merely encouraging white employees to apologize for their skin color. The company is actually demanding it. The same senior employee explained:
As part of the overall initiative, employees are asked to sign a loyalty pledge to ‘keep pushing for change,’ with suggested ‘intentions’ such as reading more about ‘systemic racism’ and ‘challenging others’ language that is hateful.
“If you don’t do it,” the senior employee said, “you’re [considered] a racist.” In other words, do as AT&T says, or the company will punish you in the name of fighting systemic racism. On the first page of AT&T’s Listen Understand Act internal portal, the company tells employees to consult a Chicago Tribune column entitled “White America, if you want to know who’s responsible for racism, look in the mirror.” According to author Dahleen Glanton,
White people, you are the problem. Regardless of how much you say you detest racism, you are the sole reason it has flourished for centuries.
The portal recommends a ’21-Day Racial Equity Habit Challenge’, during which time participants are encouraged to interact with anti-racism activists and question their own actions
In the ‘Act’ section of the training program, Rufo reported, AT&T encourages employees to participate in a ’21-Day Racial Equity Habit Challenge’. The plan, he said, relies on the concepts of ‘whiteness,’ ‘white privilege,’ and ‘white supremacy, and those participating must commit to ‘do one action [per day for 21 days] to further [they’re] understanding of power, privilege, supremacy, oppression, and equity.’ The portal also recommended books such as White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo, and White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White, by Daniel Hill.
The challenge begins with a series of lessons on ‘whiteness,’ which claims, among other things, that ‘white supremacy [is] baked into our country’s foundation,’ that ‘Whiteness is one of the biggest and most long-running scams ever perpetrated,’ and that the ‘weaponization of whiteness’ creates a ‘constant barrage of harm’ for minorities.
AT&T is yet to respond to DailyMail.com’s request for comment about Rufo’s report but has made no secret of its activist leanings. On August 23, as part of a comprehensive review of corporate America’s anti-racist activities, The Washington Post reported that AT&T had made lobbying for police reform part of some of their employee’s jobs. AT&T’s Western region president, Ken McNeely, told the paper that employees in the legislative and public affairs teams had the lobbying for police reform included in their annual review.