Tom Cotton creates investigation into critical race theory training at Raytheon

“Government contractors, as stewards of federal taxpayer dollars, have a special obligation to treat their employees equally, without regard to race,” Cotton wrote. “In fact, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act ensures that ‘no person in the United States shall, on the ground of race, color, or national origin … be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance.'”

TOM COTTON: CRITICAL RACE THEORY THREATENS UNIT COHESION IN MILITARY

Cotton accused Raytheon’s training materials of “containing gross stereotypes about various groups, including the racial stereotype that black people as a group are ‘exhausted, frustrated, stressed, barely sleeping, scared, and overwhelmed,’ … and white people, Christians, ablebodied individuals, straight people, and English speakers, as members of ‘privileged’ groups who have ‘the luxury to ignore … injustices.'”

The trainings also direct Raytheon employees to “radical reading materials, including an article that advocates the ‘Defund the Police’ movement,'” according to Cotton.

“Given Raytheon’s extensive business with law-enforcement groups, I find it hard to believe that the ‘Defund the Police’ movement is in the interests of Raytheon’s shareholders, let alone its employees and customers — all of whom are normal citizens who would suffer the consequences of rising crime,” he continued.

A representative for Raytheon did not immediately respond to the Washington Examiner’s request for comment.

Raytheon reportedly has been promoting and applying critical race theory to its workforce since at least 2020, according to internal documents.

The company’s CEO, Greg Hayes, created the Stronger Together campaign during the summer of 2020, which he described as an effort to achieve “an Anti-Racist Today.” The initiative’s goals include a pledge for its 180,000 employees to “check [their] own biases and take meaningful action to understand and mitigate them” and to “initiate meaningful, complex, and sometimes difficult, conversations with [their] friends and colleagues.”

On July 1, Cotton, a Republican, said the use of the “insidious doctrines of critical race theory” in the military depresses unit morale.

“We cannot have an Army, a Navy, a Marine Corps, an Air Force, or a Space Force where young troopers are looking to their left and right and seeing not fellow citizens who took an oath to the Constitution, someone who’s willing to lay down their life, not just for their country but to keep you alive,” he added during a virtual event hosted by the Heritage Foundation.

“We can’t have them looking at their noncommissioned officers and their officers wondering if they’re getting the tough duty because of the color of their skin,” he said. “We need them to see each other simply as fellow Americans and fellow warriors who are there for the mission.”

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Many private corporations have taken steps toward using similar training for employees.

Oxfam, a charity based out of the United Kingdom, circulated a survey among its staffers defining “whiteness” as “the overarching preservation of power and domination for the benefit of white people and ultimately that which white supremacy serves to protect,” and Coca-Cola offered anti-racism training techniques that taught the company’s workers how to “be less white.” Coca-Cola later apologized “to those who were offended by this content.”

Raytheon is instructed to disclose to Cotton’s office by July 23 “any training materials on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion that Raytheon uses to teach its employees,” as well as “any vendors, companies, or individuals that Raytheon pays to administer such trainings,” according to the senator’s letter.