Peter Hasson writes for the Washington Free Beacon about the latest example of diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts run amok.
President Joe Biden’s Department of Veterans Affairs is offering race-based training programs and workshops that exclude white veterans—programs that one legal expert says are “of dubious constitutionality and legality.”
The programs are taking place in at least four states, a Washington Free Beacon review of online offerings found.
In Battle Creek, Mich., for example, the VA offers a “BIPOC Support Group,” an “8-week curriculum designed to provide support for Veterans that identify as people of color/BIPOC, or as multiracial or biracial,” according to a program description. The Battle Creek VA also offers a “Race-Based Stress/Trauma and Empowerment” program, a “weekly group, tailored to our Veterans of color, to address race-based stress and trauma in a safe and validating environment.”
In Long Beach, Calif., the VA also offers a “Race-Based Stress/Trauma Empowerment Group,” which it says is for “Veterans who identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and who are interested in addressing issues of race-based stress, trauma, resilience, and empowerment.” A similar program in Palo Alto, Calif., invites “Women Veterans of color” to join a “10-week group to explore [the] impact of racism on your well-being.”
In Minneapolis, meanwhile, a VA-sponsored “Black Veterans peer support group” welcomes “all Veterans who self-identify as Black” to learn “skills that help protect against the negative impact of racial stress and trauma by increasing feelings of belongingness, connectedness to racial/ethnic identity and empowerment.” And the VA’s Central Ohio Health Care System advertises a “Minority Stress & Empowerment” group, an eight-week series “open to Black, Indigenous and all Veterans of color who are interested in addressing race-based stress and trauma.”
Under Biden, the federal government has made “equity” a guiding principle thanks to a June 2021 executive order instructing agencies to beef up their diversity programming.
