Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes ofwebsite accessibility

Segregated diversity training session at Seattle City Hall stirs controversy


Seattle City Hall
Seattle City Hall
Facebook Share IconTwitter Share IconEmail Share Icon

A controversy has flared at Seattle City Hall over how a training program meant to raise awareness among municipal employees about diversity was implemented.

The Seattle Office of Civil Rights manages the training sessions on racial bias, which on at least one occasion, was voluntary for city employees. The classes are part of the city’s Race and Social Justice Initiative, which was established 10 years ago.

But the training sessions last month have drawn scrutiny because participants were separated into groups based on their race.

One session was held online on June 12, the same day that the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest, or CHOP, was still referred to as CHAZ, or Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone. It was the same day that Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan told CNN that the protest area outside the police department's East Precinct “could be a summer of love.”

It was also the same day the mayor and city's police chief joined tens of thousands of people who were marching in silence as part of a Black Lives Matter Day of Reflection.

The email that invited municipal workers said it was for "city employees who identify as white,” giving them a specific place to sign up for the class.

The training was called Internalized Racial Superiority, and the email about it said, “We’ll examine our complicity in the system of white supremacy . . . and begin to cultivate practices that enable us to interrupt racism in ways that are accountable to Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)."

The city also offered a similar training for "city employees who identify as a person of color."

The training for that group was about how "American conditioning, socialization and history leads People of Color to internalize radicalized beliefs, ideas and behaviors about themselves, under girding the power of White Supremacy."

An email about the diversity trainings and its materials were sent to Dr. Karlyn Borysenko by a city employee who wanted to remain anonymous for fear of losing their job.

“Honestly, the content is pretty typical of what I see in these types of trainings,” said Borysenko, who is an organizational psychologist and asks people on social media to send her information about racial bias sessions they have participated in. “I do think it’s particularly egregious for a government organization to be doing it in this fashion. Seattle was overt in separating (its) trainings by race.”

In response to emails from KOMO News to the Office of Civil Rights that asked for information about the segregated training sessions, an official from the mayor's office provided materials and defended the city's approach, describing it as “race-based caucusing” that trainers have been using for years.

“These have been a part of the City of Seattle’s workplace culture for a long time,” said Kelsey Nyland, who works in the mayor’s office.

Andre Taylor, a police reform activist and founder of Not This Time, a grassroots Seattle group that works to reduce fatal officer-involved shootings, said he understands the segregated approach the city is taking but adds, “If it's done by cultures, cultures need to understand among themselves where the other culture is coming from.”

Chris Rufo, a documentary maker who filed a public disclosure request in order to obtain the diversity session's course materials, is critical of the city’s approach.

“What really disturbed me was both that they are administrating these training in a race segregated manner (and) also the content of the training,” he said.

Borysenko suggests that the city should rethink the separation approach.

“It worries me if segregation is going to become the new norm as led by the city of Seattle,” she said.



Loading ...