I think the memo was really drafted by a city of Seattle employee. The question is, who drafted it and who was aware of it. Did the employee who drafted it face any kind of disciplinary measures? Did the higher ups approve this kind of training?

There are a lot of missing details - names and titles for one thing and whether or not this "training" ever took place much less paid for by the city of Seattle.

There is a difference between one nutty employee having nutty ideas and the city of Seattle actually sanctioning and paying for this type of training. We are left with all of these questions marks.

I wish these news stations would get out of the spin business and actually start reporting the complete picture. Context matters.

Sad, But True
 

These crazy "communists" are capable of almost anything. Their behavior is so "off the charts" that many normal people think it is not true, or being grossly exaggerated. The truth is the really are this crazy and anyone who fails to believe it, is contributing to the downfall of our country and our way of life. If the extreme left wins the presidency we will all be going to re-training classes so we can learn how to lower our standard of living so that those less fortunate will not feel so bad.

I agree, with the precept that anyone "forced" to come here against their will should be given special consideration. OK, so give me an example of anyone "alive" in America that has been forced to live here against their will.
Now, regarding the example of how they wish they still lived in one of the countries of Africa that their ancestors originated from, I wonder how these folks (if even alive) would be living. Possibly starving, warring against each other, women raped, etc. because that continent has a lot of problems. Tell me how our current generation of black Americans are not better off than they would be if still living in Africa. BUT, on the other hand, all of the black folks that were born here should take advantage of such a great country as this and assimilate into the AMERICAN culture. Our "culture" is inclusive of ALL. We have a problematic past, but there is no country in the world that has not. And there is no country in the world as great as ours. There is room on both sides of the color spectrum for forgiveness.
As one that was discriminated upon for five years after I applied for a job and had the highest exam results and one of the best resume's, I do not hold a grudge for the flawed thinking in our country regarding present perceived racial slights. One should not be held accountable for their great-grandfather's horse theft. And just because a person is white, that person should not be held responsible for racial slights that happened decades before his family even came to this country.
There is NO "systemic racism" in America. That is simply a political ploy for one political party to gain one-upmanship over the other. Sorry, but singling out a few widely separate incidents where a white takes advantage or harms a minority is not indicative of a racist pandemic.

It appears to me that whenever there is the smallest implication of a slight against a special group, there is a certain faction willing to jump to the conclusion that it is "systemic" problem. If there is a major incident that does not fit the political narrative, then that same political faction is willing to write it off as "being grossly exaggerated."
I agree with you.

I agree. The person who wrote that memo has a disturbed mind. What is their name and who do they report to? Who was that memo sent to and did that training ever take place? If so, who authorized it and who was involved in the training?

Out them.

Many years ago my husband was a department mgr at corp McDonalds. After many interviews (I won’t mention which dept but it was for a regional position) he was forced by upper management to hire a black man instead of a more qualified white man. They were going for hiring minorities. Several months later he had to fire the black man he had hired for a long list of improprieties, mainly taking a girl friend on business trips. This man was married at that time.

OK, I must be mental. I believe the one sentence in that huge murky laundry list of objectives-"Racism is not our fault, but we are responsible. " That one rings pretty true to me. Historically today's generation did NOT sail the slave boats to America. But TODAY we can NOT PRETEND that it did not happen. It happened-and it is threatening the US social fabric today. That fabric can not be continuously patched like what President L. Johnson did in the 60s. It is time to fix the problem. The CV leaves us at home to think. We have time to know philosophically that RACISM is WRONG. Some people are marching despite the CV. I will not! They are not smart. But they DO have b-lls. They are thinking that "right makes might". Strangely, we are living in a time when "might makes right". There will continue to be some local clashes. Hopefully, like in the 60s, there will emerge a new and long-lasting "love generation". It could happen!

Most of the protesters were not even alive during the civil rights movement. They have grown up, gone to school, worked with and played with a diverse crowd. It is all that they know. The protesters, themselves, are a diverse crowd.

When I hear Jesse Jackson speak, I realize how much things have changed and just how old and stuck in the past that he is. I'm in my my 50's and the world he remembers just does not exist anymore. This group of Marxists is harnessing those old wounds and fears of the past to try and destroy this country. If you "erase" the history of slave owners from the planet then you also "erase" the history of slavery. What better way to reintroduce slavery as a newfangled concept?

Ol' Remus
 

Ol’ Remus

This is a copy of an email I just received. I worked at a large corporation in a development position and was told that they had just been informed of a "quota" that must meet so forget it...your promotion is not going to happen.

With all the recent troubles we’re again being invited to an honest and open conversation about race, or said differently, the brow beatings will be resumed. Try this for honest and open: many of us, probably most of us, are tired of your whining, your so-called grievances, your violence and crime, your insults and threats, your witless blather and pornographic demeanor—all of it. You’re not quite 13% of the population yet everything has to be about you, all day, every day. With you, facts aren’t facts, everything’s a kozmik krisis, and abusive confrontations are your go-to.

Here’s the thing: some of us despise you, although fewer than you believe, but most of us plain don’t care about you or your doings. There was a time when we did care, but you betrayed our good will and played us for fools. We laugh about it now, but we actually believed you wanted equal opportunity and mutual respect and to live in harmony—all that stuff. Ain’t it a hoot? Imagine our embarrassment.

We talk among ourselves just like you do. It’s true, we have “frank and open discussions” when you’re not around. Why? Partly because it’s exhausting to tippy-toe around you. Partly because you think it’s your celestial right to tell us what we can say. And partly because you’re alarmingly aggressive or painfully dim-witted by turns. We never know which “you” will pop out of the box, or when. But mainly because you’ve revealed yourself as grasping opportunists without honor or principle. There’s your deal-breaker. There’s more.

During the recent riots you expected us to believe heisting snack food then torching the place was “standing up for justice”. When we didn’t buy it, you told us the looting and arson wasn’t done by the rioters after all, no, all the bad stuff was done by rioters from out of town. Apparently you think it makes a difference to us. And if we don’t fall for that one, you tell us you’re the real victims, you’re the ones “hit hardest” because the neighborhoods you looted and burned are, um, looted and burned.

We’ve never stood in your way but we don’t really care if you have good neighborhoods or not. The evidence says you don’t care either, unless we build and maintain them for you, what your enablers call “investments in urban communities.” They don’t mention the return on our past “investments”. Our former neighborhoods weren’t improved by your arrival. Your contempt for ordinary civility tells us no level of “investment” would make a difference. Listen up. It’s simple. Just like our neighborhoods are our responsibility, so are your neighborhoods your responsibility, not ours. Your clownish leaders will tell you otherwise but they’ve always been your responsibility and they always will be your responsibility. Accept it or don’t, you’re the ones who live in them. There’s more.

Your air conditioned, smart phone equipped, EBT-financed “poverty” doesn’t wash to begin with, yet you’d have us believe poverty causes crime. There’s no payday for assault and rape and random killing. Police say 20% of your criminal violence is related to dope-dealing, okay, business disputes of a sort, but it says the rest of it is largely pro bono. We also notice you have a working knowledge of jury nullification and take pride in not “snitching”, typical gang behavior.

We say “what you think, you do. What you do, you are.” We know what you think—we hear it every waking minute. We know what you do. How could we not know what you are? Just so it gets said, crime causes poverty. It drives away productive people, their businesses and the opportunities you said you wanted. More bad news: you’re free to accuse them of anything you wish but they’re not coming back.

Schools haven’t been educating our kids for a long time. They’re too busy conjuring up new ways to teach yours, in fact, we’re beginning to think yours are the only ones who matter. There’s always some new scheme claiming dazzling success which, in the end, amounts to handing out the answers with the tests, or taking the annoying hard stuff out of the coursework, or entering unearned grades by hand. Whatever they’re doing they’re doing it wrong. Your kids are telling us, in every way they know how, they have neither the interest nor the inclination for academics. Perhaps we should listen. If what they want is “out” it’s worth considering and probably worth encouraging.

You tell us the schools have “failed to meet their needs.” And what are their needs, pray tell? Higher standards and tougher tests? Stricter rules and a dress code? Or some alternate universe where credit is earned for putting teachers in the ER, or for a string of abortions before the tenth grade? If you’d tell us what their needs are we’d at least know what needs we’re failing to meet. Until then we’ll mark it down for what it is, another lame excuse. They’re supposed to be schools, not day care or orphanages or theme parks.

You pester us with the “civil rights movement” of fifty years ago as though it happened last week, with tedious 1960s footage and cloying voice-overs, in an endless loop, like Groundhog Day, decade after decade. It’s understandable, you haven’t met any real resistance since those days. Breaking news: none of it matters any more, it all devolved into just another swindle, an extortion racket, “pay up or we’ll make a stink—and the bad optics are on you”.

Schools now teach something called White Privilege, which claims no overt act is necessary for us to be racist, in fact, absence of such acts is said to be direct evidence. It’s the “original sin” concept in a different wrapper, meaning our putative racism is bone deep and can’t be discharged by good works. Even so, they say we must atone in perpetuity for being white. They suggest we devote our lives in selfless service to you. No. Sorry. Whatever white privilege there may be, it isn’t enough. In fact, being subjected to White Privilege prattle is worth a couple of privileges.

Speaking of privilege, 60% of your college grads—and 20% of all of you—are employed by government. The intent is to create an artificial middle class of course, hence the trivial positions with imaginative titles and weighty salaries. In the lower reaches it’s the quota hires, typically unqualified. It’s a great offer. You pretend you’re doing something useful and we pretend to believe you. The rest of your grads are largely diversity directors, window dressing, teachers of dubious “studies” and improbable “histories”, and similar warehousing schemes for the otherwise unemployable. It’s as good as it’s ever going to get, except for those on the skinny end of the bell curve—for whom we have genuine, i.e., earned respect. You’d be a fool to leave it on the table, for as long as it lasts.

So here’s the deal. If you want to know what we really think of you, the answer is we don’t, unless you’re making yourself unavoidable or we’re cleaning up your latest mess. We can safely rely on you to make astonishingly irresponsible choices and blame us for the consequences. And you’ll demand we make good on them for you. We won’t take a chance on your sincerity ever again. Take it somewhere else, you have no credibility left with us. You’re a net liability, predictable to the point of surety. So we attend to our own lives and our own problems. It’s as it should be. We recommend it. As for you, frankly my dear, we don’t give a damn.

The last sentence sums it all up.

Kudos to you!

Nice forum name. You go!

disgusting and disasterous to say the least; it should not be allowed; BLM is taking it a little too far now and they are going to create a civil war. What do WLM have to protect themselves--you don't see them carrying on like this with all the murders, rapes, etc. by BLM

It's a shame that there's no such thing as a 'facetious' or 'sarcastic' font, because I have a hunch that there are a lot of people who actually believe and agree with your 3 points and are nodding their heads up & down in agreement.

I find nothing offensive about the Seattle training. Biases, particularly racial ones, are prevalent in all of us but not truly acknowledged. In other words, biases are so deeply rooted that we are not aware we have them - hence the need to be trained and made aware. We may not accept all the information provided, but it should start us thinking!