Take A Peak Inside The CRT Training That American Express Forced Upon Its Employees

quote:

---

American Express subjected its employees to a series of critical race theory training sessions that encouraged staff to rank themselves on a hierarchy of "privilege" and apply that hierarchy in the workplace, with the more "privileged" employees deferring to staff from "marginalized groups."

---

quote:

---

According to internal documents reviewed by Christopher F. Rufo, a senior fellow at The Manhattan Institute, and first reported in The New York Post, Amex executives created an internal "Anti-Racism Initiative" subjecting employees to a training program based on CRT tenets, including intersectionality, which categorizes people as "oppressors" or "oppressed" based on racial, gender, sexual, and other identities.

---

quote:

---

In the trainings, the outside consulting firm Paradigm urged Amex employees to construct their own intersectional identities, mapping their "race, sexual orientation, body type, religion, disability status, age, gender identity [and] citizenship" on an official company worksheet. Employees could then determine whether they have "privilege" or are members of a "marginalized group." Whites, males, heterosexual people, Christians, able-bodied people, and citizens would presumably count as "privileged."

---

quote:

---

In another session, consultants instructed employees to change their behavior in the office based on their relative position on the intersectional hierarchy. According to Rufo, the session included "a blue flowchart with specific rules for interacting with black, female and LGBT employees: If members of a subordinate group are present, workers should practice ‘intersectional allyship’ and defer to them before speaking."

---

quote:

---

The training sessions also warned white employees to avoid certain phrases as "microaggressions." Forbidden phrases include: "I don't see color"; "We are all human beings"; and "Everyone can succeed in this society if they work hard enough."

---

quote:

---

Rufo noted a high-profile "anti-racism" event, in which Amex executives invited Khalil Muhammad – a great-grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad – to speak on "race in corporate America." He argued that capitalism was founded on racism and that "racist logics and forms of domination" have shaped Western society since at least the Industrial Revolution.

---

quote:

---

Muhammad said, "You are complicit in giving privileges in one community against the other, under the pretext that we live in a meritocratic system where the market judges everyone the same." Muhammad argued that the credit card company should reduce standards for black customers and sacrifice profits in the interest of race-based reparations.  "If American Express cares about racial justice in the world, it can’t simply say the market’s going to define how we price certain customers, who happen to come from low-income communities," he said.

---

quote:

---

Amex's "Anti-Racism Initiative" training module recommends a series of resources for employees to "learn about covert white supremacy" (quoting Ibram Kendi) and dedicate themselves "to the lifelong task of overcoming our country's racist heritage."

---

quote:

---

In October 2020, Amex announced a $1 billion "action plan" to increase diversity, invest in more minority-owned businesses, and donate to nonprofits that promote "social justice."

---

quote:

---

"As an American Express shareholder, this is deeply disturbing," Danhof told Fox News. "Critical Race Theory trainings, such as the ones American Express subjected its employees to, are blatantly racist. Full stop." "Furthermore, the fact that they paid an outside firm - with shareholder money mind you - to come and conduct seminars that divided American staffers by race, gender, and who they prefer as sexual partners is insane," the shareholder added. "The company's management must explain how spending scarce resources to divide its staff along racial lines, potentially creating a hostile work environment, possibly increases shareholder value. Furthermore, to invite a speaker like Khalil Muhammad to rail against American capitalism shows just how much socialist and even Marxist thought now permeates American businesses."

---