The training, which recommends books from Ibram X. Kendi and Robin DiAngelo, encourages supervisors to identify ‘subtle’ slights workers experience ‘due to their group identity’
The New York City Parks Department, facing a $33 million budget cut and chronic understaffing problems, instructs its supervisors to be “antiracist” activists who police “microaggressions” and promote conversations about race in the workplace, documents obtained by the Washington Free Beacon show.
The department’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging provides the “Microaggressions” training to help senior leaders and employees identify “subtle” slights that people experience in the workplace “due to their group identity,” the records show.
A resource guide created by the same DEI office—titled “What every supervisor/manager should know about race and racism in the workplace”—recommends books and documentaries that portray white people and society as inherently racist, including Nikole Hannah-Jones’s historically inaccurate 1619 Project, Ibram X. Kendi’s How to Be an Antiracist, and Robin DiAngelo’s White Fragility.
The guide also features a “Becoming Anti-Racist” graphic “inspired by Dr. Kendi,” which it says supervisors can use “to discern where you are on your journey.” The guide identifies four “zones” in the path toward “Becoming Anti-Racist.” The “Fear Zone” includes those who “avoid hard questions” and “strive to be comfortable.” The “Learning Zone” includes those who “understand [their] own privilege in ignoring racism” and are “vulnerable about [their] own biases and knowledge gaps.” The final “Growth Zone” includes those who “promite [sic] and advocate for policies and leaders that are Anti-Racist,” “educate [their] peers how Racism harms our profession,” and “yield positions of power to those otherwise marginalized.”
Supervisors are also encouraged to engage in race-related “reflections.” Questions they should ask themselves, according to the training, include “Have I explored my own biases and fears?” “Do I encourage trainings around issues concerning race, unconscious/implicit bias, and diversity and inclusion?” and “Do I create opportunities for discussing race and racism in ways that are relevant to the work in my unit?” For the parks department, that “work” includes managing the city’s 1,000 playgrounds, 1,800 public basketball courts, 14 golf courses, and other facilities.
The department’s guidelines are the latest example of Democratic governments using ostensibly apolitical agencies to promote left-wing views on race and culture. They come as the department faces a looming budget shortfall and staffing shortages.
Last year, an executive for Citizens’ Committee for Children testified to the New York City Council that the parks department is “chronically underfunded and understaffed” and that “there are not nearly enough maintenance workers … to keep our parks clean and safe.”
Mayor Zohran Mamdani, who pledged to allocate 1 percent of the city budget to the parks department, is poised to cut the agency’s budget by $33 million this year, according to the New York Times. Iyana Titus, the director of the parks department’s DEI office, appears to have spearheaded the creation of the training materials, as her name is included on the materials’ opening slide. Titus earned a salary of $200,000 in 2024, according to public records. Mamdani’s parks commissioner, Tricia Shimamura, who has worked in the department since 2023, has said the agency is “very resourceful” despite the budget issues.
It’s not clear exactly when the department created the training slides on “microaggressions,” as they are undated. They do appear, however, to have been distributed or updated this year—the Free Beacon obtained the slides through a request for records dated from the time Mamdani took office on January 1.
The parks department and Mamdani’s office did not respond to requests for comment.
The documents are in line with many of Mamdani’s views on racial issues. During his campaign, Mamdani proposed hiking property taxes on “whiter neighborhoods” at a higher rate than other groups in order to address economic inequality.
In June 2020, Mamdani asserted that “the NYPD is racist, anti-queer & a major threat to public safety,” and that “what we need to do is #DefundTheNYPD.”
And in February, Mamdani’s Office of Equity & Racial Justice sponsored a racial equity round table for city employees, including those in the parks department. The roundtable, titled, “Black in Gov’t: Remembering, Repairing, and Reimagining Public Power,” touched on topics including “the urgency of reparations.”
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