Who’s the Biggest Threat to Racial Progress – Donald Trump or Clueless People?

Donald Trump is America’s most dangerous White supremacist. As he leverages his immense presidential power to align with domestic terror groups like the Proud Boys, he’s actively attacking racial harmony, cross-racial understanding, and diversity and inclusion. While the country undergoes a racial reckoning after George Floyd’s tragic death, the federal government, public education, and the private sector are in Trump’s crosshairs. His goal is to leave such an indelible racist mark on American society that it will take generations to purge his administration’s comprehensive footprint of malignant policies.

In my years advising Fortune 500 companies on diversity and inclusion (D&I), I’ve been reluctant to openly discuss politics. To avoid alienating people, I’ve been measured with clients and in interviews and articles. But I can’t remain silent. Trump is trying to destroy racial progress while simultaneously gaslighting history and manipulating the civil rights movement’s principles for his nefarious objectives. 

On September 17th, Trump criticized school curricula examining how racism shaped our country.  In direct response to the Pulitzer Prize winning New York Times “1619 Project,” retracing history through slavery’s impact on America, Trump announced the pending creation of the 1776 Commission to “promote patriotic education.” 

Then on September 22nd, Trump’s executive order ended the federal government’s use of D&I training encouraging acknowledgement of workplace implicit racial and gender biases. It prohibits federal agencies, contractors, and grant recipients from advancing sensitivity training and threatens to terminate government funding. Trump is coming for corporate America, universities, the military, and any entity receiving federal funds. With lawyers on speed-dial, companies and universities are canceling trainings while others explore litigation.

Subsequently on October 8th, the Department of Justice suspended all D&I training, programs, activities, and events for its employees, including immigration judges. 

The danger with attacking diversity training and inclusive education is this stunts progress and prolongs racial tensions. These regressive policies empower executives and academia to dismantle diversity efforts and grant permission to obstructionists who typically reject D&I’s “business case” irrespective of research proving diverse workplaces are more innovative, productive, and profitable. 

Through my diversity consulting work, I’ve witnessed egregious behavior and counseled clients struggling to rebuild trust and relationships after toxic workplace misconduct. I’ve dealt with racist dumpster fires and trifling behavior. My biggest takeaway isn’t to suspend D&I initiatives, it’s that people need more education starting with simple rules of engagement. 

Frankly, many Whites are ignorant of key multiracial fundamentals, which negatively impacts company bottom lines. They need to develop their interracial interpersonal skills toolkit to understand what’s inappropriate conduct and why it’s wrong. Failure to comprehend racial social decorum costs money, repels talented employees, obliterates client relationships, and exposes companies to risk, liability, and litigation.

In counseling companies, I’ve seen Whites eager for guidance but wanting lower-risk instructive options that won’t reveal inadvertent cluelessness. They want to avoid personal and professional backlash. Before diving into American history or critical race theory, many just need a practical roadmap of actionable tips to immediately implement in daily life to amicably navigate friendships and client and colleague interactions in an increasingly diverse workplace and multicultural American landscape.  

Lacking a rudimentary grasp of race etiquette results in disaster. Here are examples I’ve encountered of outlandish, offensive workplace behavior that reasonable people should know is inappropriately racist:

• Saying the N-Word.
• Pretending to speak Spanglish wearing a sombrero during a company-wide townhall launching expanded Latin American operations.
• Without permission, touching a Black colleague’s hair like they’re in a petting zoo.
• Attending a company Halloween party dressed as a Confederate soldier.
• In the wake of George Floyd’s death, hosting unproductive, emotionally-unsafe “racism porn” sessions where employees of color are asked to publicly share painful, personal stories of discrimination – detailing indignities experienced to educate colleagues, but done in ways exposing them to toxic racist microaggressions from White colleagues, effectively reducing lived experiences to a spectacle. 

My diversity expertise proves many “decent and honorable people” are simply unknowingly racially offensive, including some welcoming faces at work and enthusiastic “woke” voices at protest rallies. I’ve concluded that Whites need remedial antiracism explanations explicitly illuminating the obvious. Many are unmaliciously insulting friends, neighbors, and colleagues daily through racist actions brushed off as “harmless gaffs,” “misunderstandings,” or “the need to understand privilege.”

As Trump actively unravels decades of progress by targeting diversity training and indoctrinating his racist version of American history, I must emphasize Whites need to become less racially rude as step one – with or without upending D&I training. Before Trump, many were already clueless – creating hostile workplaces, overtly or subtly supporting White supremacy, or wreaking havoc through insensitive actions.

Admittedly, this basic politeness approach won’t solve institutional racism. But by opening people’s awareness aperture through the simplicity of universal behavioral rules for everyone – interjecting common decency – workplace cultures and neighborhoods would feel less racially-charged, toxic, and vitriolic. 

Author’s Bio:

Fatimah Gilliam, Esq. is the Founder and CEO of The Azara Group, which is a management consulting firm specializing in diversity and inclusion, leadership development, and strategy consulting services for Fortune 500 companies, institutions, and private clients. She started her career on Wall Street as a corporate attorney, worked for Citigroup and Nobel Peace Prize winner the United Nations World Food Programme, and is a successful entrepreneur. She is a graduate of Harvard University, Columbia Law School, and Wellesley College.