HELENA – Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen led a 20-state coalition of attorneys general in urging the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) to protect employees from being subjected to illegal trainings that encourage racial discrimination under the guise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).
The amicus brief filed today in Joshua Young v. Colorado Department of Corrections, asks SCOTUS to take the case and reverse a flawed Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals decision that dismissed Young’s claims that the DEI training he was forced to participate in as a correctional officer at the Colorado Department of Corrections violates Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, and is antithetical to our Constitution and our values. The training in question created a hostile work environment for the races singled out for negativity. Young ultimately left his job as a correctional officer because the training made the job even more dangerous in an already divisive environment.
“Instead of promoting diversity, the Colorado Department of Corrections’ training is enforcing dangerous and racist stereotypes,” Attorney General Knudsen said. “Such training directly contradicts the Constitution and violates employees’ civil rights. I hope the Supreme Court will decide to weigh in and help stop racial discrimination in the workplace.”
During the training, Young was instructed that “all Caucasians are racist, that they perpetuate white supremacy, that the very notion of race was invented by white people to justify the oppression of people of color, that white supremacy is an ever-present feature of daily life…, and that Caucasians who deny their own racism are merely ‘fragile’ racists who cannot accept their own prejudice.” The training also advocated for employees “treating their colleagues differently based on their race.”
DEI programs that engage in race stereotyping and race scapegoating, like the training Young was subjected to, cause workplace hostility and division and put employees’ safety at risk. While theoretically the goal may be to encourage respect, cooperation, and collegiality, DEI trainings are notorious for defaming the character of the majority group through racial stereotyping and race scapegoating.
The Tenth Circuit erroneously ruled that an employer can avoid Title VII liability for any “intentional, overtly discriminatory training as long as it only occurs once.” That ruling implies that workplace discrimination would be acceptable and not punishable as long as the conduct was infrequent. Title VII contains no such exception, and the court’s ruling leaves employees without recourse, even though a single act is still discrimination.
“It’s unsurprising that employer-sanctioned training attributing negative characteristics to a group and encouraging unfavorable treatment of that group would yield animosity and unfavorable treatment toward the targeted group,” the brief states. “In other words, the training called for an employer-sanctioned environment of harassment and disrespect toward Young because of his race. Neither the Constitution nor Title VII tolerate the kind of state-sponsored discrimination alleged by Young.”
Attorneys general from Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Lousisana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, West Virginia, and the Arizona Legislature also joined Attorney General Knudsen in filing the brief.
Last year, Attorney General Knudsen led a 17 state coalition in asking the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse a lower court’s decision in the case.
