The diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) coordinator for Austin’s Parks and Recreation Department invited employees to participate in racially segregated “anti-racist” trainings.
The coordinator sent an email on January 25 inviting workers to two “Antiracist Affinity Spaces” trainings — one for white employees, and one for “people of color.”
“For People of Color: Once a month, PARD employees of color will meet up at various city sites,” for the purposes of “fostering dialogue,” “networking,” and sharing “personal and professional experiences with racism,” the email stated. The employees in this racial group were also told that they would learn about “mentoring and job opportunities for professional development.”
“To cultivate a brace and safe space for attendees, we kindly ask that you do not attend these spaces if you are not a Person of Color,” the email added.
Further on in the email, the DEI coordinator indicated that white employees would meet up once a month to share “their ongoing learning around anti-racism, explore their role in disrupting racism in and outside of work, hold one another accountable in this work and actively practice being in solidarity with PARD employees of color and communities of color.” No mention was made of professional development opportunities for white employees.
According to one employee who spoke with Fox News Digital regarding the email, “staff of all races are upset” with the manner in which the trainings were offered to employees.
Dennis Farris, the President of the Austin Police Retired Officers Association, expressed surprise in comments made to Fox News Digital that the Parks and Recreation Department would spend resources on a training that is “divisive at best and racist at worst,” when the city is facing “issues with homeless living in the parks.”
“[R]ecently a young man was attacked with a machete that has changed his life forever and this is what the parks department worries about,” he said, referencing a brutal January 9 assault that left a teen hospitalized after he was attacked by an individual wielding a machete while on a trail in Austin’s Auditorium Shores park. “Plus it seems the equity and inclusion office isn’t for ‘white folks’, their words, and is more interested in pitting co-workers against each other. Could you imagine if you flipped the flyer and said people of color weren’t allowed at the meeting for white people what the reaction would be? This should be no different. It appears they are actively promoting discrimination against “white folks, again their words,” he added.
