White House says federal agencies must 'cease and desist' from using white privilege training

The White House on Friday announced that it would soon require federal agencies to "cease and desist" compelling employees to attend training about "white privilege" and "critical race theory."

A memo issued by Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought on Friday stated that multiple federal agencies "have spent millions of taxpayer dollars to date 'training' government workers to believe divisive, anti-American propaganda" involving those topics.

Critical race theory is an academic discipline which purports to study inherent racism in legal structures such as courts and government institutions, while "white privilege" theory holds that whites receive unfair advantages in society relative to nonwhite individuals. 

President Trump, Vought wrote, has "directed [OMB] to ensure that Federal agencies cease and desist from using taxpayer dollars to fund these divisive, un-American propaganda training sessions."

Prior to the full implementation of that policy, Vought said "all agencies are directed to begin to identify all contracts or other agency spending related to any training on 'critical race theory,' 'white privilege,' or any other training or propaganda effort that teaches or suggests either (1) that the United States is an inherently racist or evil country or (2) that any race or ethnicity is inherently racist or evil."

"In addition, all agencies should begin to identify all available avenues within the law to cancel any such contracts and/or to divert Federal dollars away from these un- American propaganda training sessions," Vought added.