American Express CRT training and Marxism in the workplace

CEOs tripping over themselves to prove how "woke" they are has become de rigueur, but the news that American Express subjected its employees last year to what can only be described as Marxist "re-education" sessions has struck a chord – and rightly so.

Thankfully, we are not so desensitized to Marxism everywhere that when we hear that a financial giant that calls itself "American" attacks our way of life, and considers discriminating according to race, we don’t simply shrug.

It would seem, though, that AmEx doesn’t want to hear any dissent. One ex-employee, Brian Netzel, just filed a lawsuit against the company, alleging that he was fired for voicing his opposition to these sessions.

If we’re shocked, good. Maybe the AmEx saga can help open the nation’s eyes to what is taking place across America today.

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Ever since the Black Lives Matter organizations launched a year-long destabilization campaign, many of us have warned that the adoption of Marxist principles throughout society would inevitably follow.

No need to take my word for it. As I explain it in my new book, "BLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution," the founders of the Black Lives Matter organizations are open Marxists who don’t hide the fact that their goal is to disassemble American society as it is.

And as the AmEx revelations make clear, our leaders are so eager to atone for their sins that they’ll gladly adopt Marxist and anti-capitalist concepts. 

As one of America’s top investigative journalists Christopher Rufo has reported, American Express has demanded that its employees map out their degree of privilege, determine whether they are in an oppressor or marginalized category, and then asks whites to act subordinately to members of minority categories.

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AmEx’s workforce has even heard speakers demand that the company discriminate racially by charging black customers lower premiums.

Moreover, the company’s handouts lead employees to the group Critical Resistance, which advocates for the dismantling not just of police but also of the prisons system. Among its handouts there is a chart that inform the reader that something called the "Prison Industrial Complex" is empowered by "racism & xenophobia, sexism, capitalism, homophobia."

Critical Resistance was founded in 1998 by three committed Marxists: Angela Davis, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Rose Braz. Davis herself ran twice as Vice President on the Communist Party ticket.

American Express also brought in Khalil Muhammad to harangue its long-suffering employees about how capitalism is racist and steeped in "racist logics and forms of domination."

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This is fairly typical of Muhammad, the great grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. Four years ago he wrote that "global capitalism itself was first rooted in conquest and then nourished by the placenta of the transatlantic slave trade." 

The criticism of AmEx for doing this has been so strong that Chairman and CEO Steve Squeri is now writing letters to enraged customers saying that "none of our [training] programs state that capitalism is racist. These notions are patently false. We believe in the free market and in capitalism, and we have never said anything counter to that point."

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 All of which technically is true, but the company is still bringing in speakers with this message and linking to charts that state exactly that. 

Squeri also doubled down in his message saying that his company’s value "include fostering a diverse and inclusive culture," buzzwords of CRT that often end up meaning a quota-based approach that includes only people who agree with the leftist agenda.

None of this should surprise. Undermining our belief in capitalism — which means only the freedom to own property and trade it — is what the Black Lives Matter organizations and founder have demanded from the start.

 The media won’t tell you, but inquiring minds can go to the website of the Movement for Black Lives M4BL, and discover that they say, "We believe in transformation and a radical realignment of power. . . . The current systems we live inside of need to be radically transformed, which includes a realignment of global power."

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Or they can read that BLM founder Alicia Garza was very clear about her goals when she spoke to Maine radicals in 2019 and told them that, "We’re talking about changing how we’ve organized this country. . . . I believe we all have work to do to keep dismantling the organiz­ing principle of this society."

Or they can just listen to how BLM founder Patrisse Cullors describes herself: "I do believe in Marxism. It’s a philosophy that I learned early on in my organizing career. We were taught to learn about the systems that were criticizing capitalism."

This is who the leaders of so many of our foundational pillars, from education to the military, the corporate world, the houses of worship, sports, entertainment, the media etc., have surrendered to. 

Fortunately, most Americans are refusing to join them. AmEx, take heed.

Mike Gonzalez is the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation. He is author of several books. His latest is "BLM: The Making of a New Marxist Revolution."