Lockheed Martin, the nation’s largest defense contractor, sent high-profile executives to a virtual training course in 2020 that asked them to come to grips with “white male culture” and “heterosexual privilege,” documents show.
The company, which received nearly $38 billion in taxpayer funds from the United States government in 2018, dispatched 13 top employees, including the director of global supply chain operations and its vice president of sustainment operations, to the three-day Zoom class, according to journalist Christopher Rufo, who obtained what he said were internal documents. The documents were dated June 2020 and showed the names of the participants and the trainers but blacked out other information about them.
The course came from White Men as Full Diversity Partners, a diversity and inclusion organization, which stresses on the second page how the notes “are a reflection of your learning experiences. Taken out of context, the notes and insights might be misleading; therefore, WMFDP recommends that they be for the use of participants only.”
The Washington Examiner reached out to Lockheed Martin about the training program. The company did not confirm how many executives might have participated in the course or directly address what was in the slides obtained by Rufo, but it did defend its employee training programs generally.
“Lockheed Martin has robust employee training programs focused on our core values of doing what is right, respecting others and performing with excellence,” a spokesperson said in an email. “Like many corporations, we employ multiple vendors and continuously evaluate the effectiveness of training programs to ensure they are aligned with our values, applicable laws and regulations, and incorporate employee feedback and best practices.”
In one of the first exercises seen in the documents, trainers listed stereotypes commonly associated with white men, including “racist,” “privileged,” “anti-women,” “guns,” “KKK,” “Aryan Nation,” and “guilty.”
The documents then showed trainers asking about “what’s in it for white men” if they comply with the diversity initiative, and a slide shows what responses participants gave.
“I have less of a nagging sense of guilt that I am the problem,” one said.
“I have more permission to be in my heart, not just in my head,” another said. “I will be more accessible in the eyes of others.”
A third response read, “[I will] improve the brand, image, reputation of white men,” while a fourth said, “I won’t get replaced by someone who is a better full diversity partner.”
Another activity, as seen in the documents, prompted the participants to reflect on “key white male culture characteristics,” which includes “rugged individualism,” a “survivor mentality that focuses on the future,” “a can-do attitude,” and a “focus on hard work, action, and task completion.” The course argued that these traits contribute to a system in which “people of color, gays/lesbians, women, and non-Christians” are “placed in a lesser position” in society.
After this, employees were shown examples of “privileged statements,” the documents show.
“I can go shopping without being harassed, followed, or suspected of wanting to steal something,” one said.
Another read, “I can go into a hairdresser or barber and find someone who can cut my hair.”
“If the police pull me over, I can be sure I haven’t been singled out because of my race,” one stated, while another said, “I can choose blemish color or bandages in ‘flesh’ color and have them more or less match my skin.”
The training program also prompted participants to peruse through statements pertaining to “heterosexual privilege” in which trainers suggest that they “can have friendships with or work around children without being accused of recruiting or molesting them,” among several others.
White Men as Full Diversity Partners brands itself as a movement to “awaken together,” according to its webpage.
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“Our approach views dominant leaders — otherwise known as insiders — as part of the diversity and inclusion (D&I) solution, rather than the problem,” the group wrote. “In North America, it is the white male who represents the insider group. Since they hold the majority of executive positions, they’re key to driving organizational change.”
“Transformative change occurs when dominant group leaders understand their impact and see the value of bringing outsiders in. This is how we awaken together,” it added.
