On September 22, the president issued an Executive Order on Combating Race and Sex Stereotyping, which prohibits certain types of diversity trainings for federal employees and federal contractors. The Order prohibits federal contractors from using “any workplace training that inculcates in its employees any form of race or sex stereotyping or any form of race or sex scapegoating.” The prohibition on these types of training applies to any training that would ascribe “character traits, values, moral and ethical codes, privileges, status, or beliefs to a race or sex.”
The Order effectively ends trainings for federal contractors on topics such as white privilege, systemic racism, and critical race theory. The Order will become effective for federal contractors on November 21, 2020, at which time it will be illegal for federal employers or contractors to continue with prohibited trainings. In advance of implementing the new rules, the Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs issued a Request for Information on October 22, seeking information from federal contractors on which diversity and inclusion trainings are currently being conducted.
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