FBI conducted 'intersectionality' training for employees

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The Federal Bureau of Investigation once hosted an employee training session focused on the concept of intersectionality, according to new documents. 

The documents came to light shortly after it was revealed Attorney General Merrick Garland directed the FBI to investigate "threats of violence" at school board meetings in what critics have described as an effort to crack down on parents who oppose critical race theory in schools. 

An FBI spokesperson confirmed that the agency previously offered the intersectionality training, but said that it hasn't been part of the agency's diversity and inclusion trainings since last year. 

Former President Donald Trump issued an executive order last year that banned the use of critical race theory in federal employee trainings. President Biden overturned Trump's executive order after taking office. 

According to training materials provided to Manhattan Institute senior fellow Christopher Rufo, the FBI training session involved defining intersectionality, reviewing the history of the term, reflecting on staffers' "identity' and engaging 'with our own intersections," and using intersectionality to increase "inclusion in the workplace."

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The FBI training page defining intersectionality is largely illegible, but the Oxford English Dictionary defines "intersectionality" as "the interconnected nature of social categorizations such as race, class, and gender as they apply to a given individual or group, regarded as creating overlapping and interdependent systems of discrimination or disadvantage."

The training materials break down an individual's identity along many different lines, including "Race/Ethnicity," "Gender," "Sexual Orientation," "Ability," "Religion," "Age," "Education," and "Social Class." The training materials encourage staff to identify the part of their identities of which they are most and least aware, which part their families emphasized, and the part that "feels the most invisible to my colleagues."

The training also encourages staff to "recognize and value one another's unique identities and their intersections."

While the training materials appear tame compared to the CRT training materials at companies like American Express, the concept of intersectionality connects with critical race theory, which involves deconstructing aspects of society to discover "systemic racism" beneath the surface. CRT encourages claims of discrimination and oppression in America, despite civil rights laws that clearly bar discrimination on the basis of race and other characteristics.

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The training materials seem particularly noteworthy in light of criticism of Garland's latest directive to the FBI. Garland directed the FBI and U.S. attorneys' offices to meet with law enforcement at all levels to investigate what the DOJ called a "disturbing trend" of "threats of violence" at school board meetings. 

The announcement came days after the National School Board Association wrote a letter to President Biden asking his administration to treat parent protests at school board meetings as possible acts of "domestic terrorism." The association also traced the "threats" to concerns about CRT, concerns which the association dismissed as "propaganda."

Parents responded to Garland's move with outrage. 

"I am what a domestic terrorist looks like?" asked Asra Nomani, vice president of investigations and strategy at Parents Defending Education. "You owe parents an apology!" Nomani's group has researched how school boards across the country are implementing so-called "woke" ideas like CRT in their curricula. 

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Former Education Secretary Betsy Devos condemned the DOJ memo as "a shameless attempt to intimidate parents into silence and to continue to limit their control of their children’s education." 

Editor's note: This article has been updated to clarify that the FBI no longer offers intersectionality training.