Hasbro Whistleblower Suspended For Revealing Alleged CRT Training And Indoctrination At Toy Maker
“Hasbro maintains it was an ‘optional diversity and inclusion webinar attended by a small group of employees.'”
After a packaging engineer from a contractor for Hasbro revealed in an interview the extent to which the toy maker has embraced Critical Race Theory (CRT), his employer suspended him. The interview, published by Project Veritas, reveals the Hasbro’s desire to teach anti-racism to children via its extensive toy and game lines. It also revealed anti-racist training and materials mandated for all employees and contractors. This training includes the claim that white children as young as three months old can exhibit inherent bias.
The whistle-blower, David Johnson, says the company is “attempting to covertly push CRT, Critical Race Theory, through branding and messaging through their products. I decided to come to Project Veritas because I oppose the indoctrination of children they wanted to push.”
Johnson shows James O’Keefe, founder of Project Veritas, materials used in Hasbro’s trainings in CRT and anti-racism. He says they are mandatory for all employees. The organization that provided the training for Hasbro employees, The Conscious Kid, describes itself as, “an education, research, and policy organization dedicated to equity and promoting healthy racial identity development in youth. We support organizations, families, and educators in taking action to disrupt racism in kids.”
In the interview, Johnson reveals a video discussion by Katie Ishizuka-Stephens, a co-founder of The Conscious Kid, in which she says,
Children as young as two are already using race to reason about people’s behaviors, and we may see this play out in daycare or on the playground and how kids are starting to choose or exclude playmates and friends.
Johnson responds in the interview, saying, “Two-year-old racists is just an absurd concept.” He later comments, “They explain that the white children, in particular, have the particular bias against black people. It’s a mainstream ideology now.”
Hasbro responded to a request for comment for a report by the UK Daily Mail:
The training was led by Conscious Kid co-founder Kate Ishizuka-Stephens. Johnson says it was mandatory, but Hasbro maintains it was an ‘optional diversity and inclusion webinar attended by a small group of employees.’
It appears to suggest that children’s’ racial bias escalates as they observe adults and the social order around them, according to information shared with Project Veritas.
‘By age three, children are already starting to apply stereotypes, and research shows that they also may use racist language intentionally at this age.
‘White children at this age may report explicit or overt negative attitudes towards people of color… By age four, kids are showing a strong and consistent pro-white anti-black bias.’
It goes on to say that ‘white children’ can show ‘pro-white bias’ by age 5.
‘At the age of five, children show many of the same racial attitudes held by adults – children are really sensitive to the status of different racial groups in our society and show a high-status bias towards white people, which is the socially privileged group in our society. White children show pro-white bias at this age.’
Hasbro said the Project Veritas report ‘mischaracterized’ its training in a statement provided to DailyMail.com.
The company also distanced itself from the training’s contents.
‘Our mission is to create the world’s best play and entertainment experiences that connect children, fans and families around the world.
We occasionally invite third-party speakers for optional sessions to discuss diverse viewpoints. As always, the views expressed by external speakers are their own and do not reflect the views of the company.’
The Daily Mail further reports, “Johnson’s behavior is being investigated to see if ‘any of our client’s or our own policies (including ones around confidentiality) were violated.’ Speaking on [Fox News] Monday night, Johnson disclosed he has since been suspended and had lost access to Hasbro work accounts.”
Breitbart got further detail from Johnson:
Hasbro whistleblower David Johnson — who was suspended after going public about the company’s plans to implement Critical Race Theory into its products — told Breitbart News on Tuesday while his career has been harmed, he feels “this was a bigger cause than myself.”
“When I saw I had a meeting about Critical Race Theory in my schedule at work, I just thought I should record it,” said Johnson, who spoke to Breitbart News at Turning Point USA’s Student Action Summit in Tampa, Florida.
When asked why he decided to speak out about this now, Johnson said, “I’ve been seeing this kind of thing over six or seven years now, and I guess I just felt that at that moment, I was in the right time, at the right place that I could make a stand against this ideology.”
The Hasbro website has an entire section dedicated to Corporate Social Responsibility. Its Diversity and Inclusion page states:
At Hasbro, we believe that supporting all people and promoting inclusion across our business and society makes the world a better place for all. We’re committed to creating a diverse and inclusive culture that helps employees know they are valued, respected and empowered to bring their best ideas forward. We celebrate diversity because we believe that rich, varied perspectives generate the best ideas, which in turn help us reflect diversity, inclusion and belonging across our brands and play experiences.
The Diversity and Inclusion doesn’t stop with employees. Hasbro states that their product lines will prioritize what it calls “inclusivity” in its product designs:
Inclusive Design and Marketing
Inclusivity is embedded within our design process. Annually, our Design and Development organization uses a set of core pillars to inspire our designers and guide our innovation. By prioritizing inclusivity in these pillars, we are encouraging our teams to create experiences that are inherently more expansive and appealing for a broader consumer base. Additionally, we have evolved our marketing to be more inclusive and to reflect the true diversity and differing interests of our consumer base. We are expanding our efforts to include dual-gender marketing campaigns and products that reflect the modern family.
The Conscious Kid website doesn’t have a distinct About page, but its Resources page reveals its ideology. Under the heading, “children’s books on race, racism, and resistance,” it says:
To counter racism and racial bias, experts recommend acknowledging and naming race and racism with children as early and as often as possible. Children’s books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these conversations, and can also be used to model what it means to resist and dismantle oppression. Beyond addressing issues of race and racism, this children’s reading list focuses on taking action. It highlights resistance and activism; and seeks to empower youth to participate in the ongoing movement for racial justice. Children not only need to know what individual, institutional, and internalized racism looks like, they need to know what they can do about it. This list of 41 children’s books was curated by The Conscious Kid and American Indians in Children’s Literature.
Under “children’s books to counter anti-Blackness,” it says:
Anti-Black structural racism and socialization need to be countered with intentional action from birth. This includes surrounding children with positive narratives and images of Blackness. All kids should know Black history and Black contributions, but equally as important are stories of Black kids just being: experiencing joy, being loved, and existing in their full humanity. Children’s books can be one starting point for doing this, and should be combined with ongoing education, strategies, and experiences supporting Blackness and Black people.
Most children’s books about Black people continue to be written by white authors. It’s extremely important to be intentional about seeking out and supporting Black authors, especially when telling Black stories and histories. This list of over 100 titles for ages 0-18 features all Black authors.
The Conscious Kid boasts partnerships with some of America’s largest corporations, including Google, YouTube, Nickelodeon, to promote anti-racism as early in childhood as possible. As a 501(c)3, they accept donations:
Donate to our Anti-Racist Children’s Books Education Fund
To counter racism and racial bias, experts recommend acknowledging and naming race and racism with children as early and as often as possible (Baron & Banaji; Derman-Sparks). Children’s books are one of the most effective and practical tools for initiating these conversations with children, and can also be used to model what it means to resist and disrupt oppression.
All donations made here go to a dedicated fund for us to get children’s books from our list of “40 Children’s Books to Support Conversations on Race, Racism, and Resistance” into classrooms across the country. All books by Indigenous authors were curated by critical Indigenous scholar Dr. Debbie Reese of American Indians in Children’s Literature.
Beyond addressing issues of race and racism, these children’s books focus on taking action. They highlight resistance and activism, and seek to empower youth to participate in the ongoing movement for racial justice. Children not only need to know what individual, systemic, and internalized racism looks like, they need to know what they can do about it.
The spread of CRT continues in America’s corporations as much as its education system, in an ever-expanding attempt to reach children as early as possible. Now, despite its deflections, it appears one of America’s largest toy makers has jumped into the effort with everything it has.
—————
Jeff Reynolds is the author of the book, “Behind the Curtain: Inside the Network of Progressive Billionaires and Their Campaign to Undermine Democracy,” available at www.WhoOwnsTheDems.com. Jeff hosts a podcast at anchor.fm/BehindTheCurtain. You can follow him on Twitter @ChargerJeff, on Parler at @RealJeffReynolds, and on Gab at @RealJeffReynolds.
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Comments
Sounds like a hostile work environment to me. Johnson should explore his options to make his spineless employer play by its own rules.
Respect to him for telling the public about it knowing there would be blowback.
Hasbro fears losing its competitive advantage if others discover that CRT is the secret of its success.
Is it my imagination, or has Hasbro just lost half of America as customers?
They lost their way a long time ago. I used to own the stock, because I liked the company. Now, all they do is rehashes of Monopoly and several other ancient board games. They do next to nothing that is innovative. When they bought WOTC, I was cautiously optimistic, especially since I really like D&D 3.0.
Now, D&D is a dumpster fire. Wheelchair accessible dungeons. Harry Potter-esque schools of magic. It’s so blatantly dumb, I say without hesitation, “Gatekeep your hobbies, and stick to the older editions.”
The secret of their success is made in China.
I hope someday that my grandkids will live in an America where the history books classify people like Johnson in the same class as abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and people like Kendi in the same class as racist Theodore Bilbo.
Well, then, now we know that Johnson did the right thing.
So Hasbro thinks they did nothing wrong but suspended the guy for reporting that nothing wrong..
Keeping Leftism straight is hard work.
No. Assuming that Hasbro is telling the truth, which is a big assumption, then it did nothing wrong, and Johnson, who falsely reported that it had done wrong, has defamed the company and damaged it, and deserves not just to be suspended but to be fired.
So Hasbro may be (and probably is) lying through its teeth, but it is being consistent.
Hasbro is promoting racism, they will pay for it.
Maybe. Diversity has been normalized. Transgender is trendy. Progressive churches, synagogues, corporations, clinics, etc. are not uncommon. Democrat stand for reproductive rites with “benefits” to smooth the dissonance. A large minority is woke and [morally] broke.
Hasbro: This training is completely optional and voluntary. Just like your employment here. 🙂
This is confusing to me…If the proponents of CRT, or whatever flag it sails under, is such a good thing and the salvation of this nation, then why are they, or the organizations spreading it, so upset when someone tells the public about it. One would think that the more people who knew about such a wonderful program, all the better.
But instead they get their panties all in a bunch when the word leaks out.
Most business that believe they have the answers to everyone’s problems are happy for the word to get out, its good for business.
It’s a black sacrament conducted at midnight under cover of the darkness that’s totally legit and unsuspicious, and they’ll murder anyone that snitches.
THESE TIDINGS HAPPENED NOT!
The open proponents of CRT are not at all upset about being “exposed”. They think they’re right. It’s people who claim not to be such exponents that get upset when they’re “exposed” — either because they’re genuinely not pushing CRT and resent being falsely accused, or because they’re secretly pushing it and are upset that they’ve been foiled.
My only guess is that the children – BABIES – are expressing preference for people who look like their caregivers.
I wonder what would happen if they did this experiment with children in mixed race families. In Montreal, in the 90s, I heard from many families that children with a French-speaking parent and an English-speaking parent would take longer to speak than a mono-lingual home, but when the child DID start speaking, would speak French or English to all members of the same gender as their parent. So a child with a French mother and an English father would speak to all women in French and all men in English, at least for a while.
I suspect the same could be said of children of mixed-race families. Babies like faces and voices that are familiar, they are safe. It has nothing to do with race, just familiarity. Therefore, if you want babies to grow into children and youth and adults who do not see race, you need to have everyone mixed up at an early age, and do not segregate for ANY reason.
“Therefore, if you want babies to grow into children and youth and adults who do not see race…”
That is not their goal. Their goal is “Certain Lives Matter”
I had the same thought. Antebellum, rich white women had black wet-nurses/nannies… and still raised racists. Seems to defeat the argument.
race relations in the south both ante- and post-bellum were complicated. In areas where the races did not mix, it was very racist. But in places – say houses, and slave-owners of 1-3 slaves – of close contact, the relations were complicated. Young white children knew that their black nannies could and would discipline them, older children knew to respect the cook and butler; often slave children were the only playmates white plantation children would see and play with on a regular basis. But by youthood, the societal pressures would take over. But still…
not non-fiction, but Mammy in Gone With the Wind shows that contradiction. Scarlet is the “master” in the relationship, but even from the beginning, you see the power Mammy had over her behavior. Mitchel drew on her experiences to write and create her characters.
After the war, the North was noticeably more racist than the south in little personal ways, until Jim Crow codified systemic racism. And in the inter-war period, the north was terrible to blacks
It doesn’t defeat the argument. Racism, the real kind, is very much a learned behavior. White infants who were cared for by blacks probably did show a preference for black faces. But as those white infants grew up and were taught that blacks were inferior, that learning superceded the natural preference for black faces the whites had shown as infants.
That’s why CRT is so dangerous. It is teaching kids to be racists. Only difference is, this time the racism is being directed against whites, where before it was directed against blacks. But it’s still racism, it’s still pernicious, and it’s still very, very wrong.
Bias is a natural human trait. anyone who says any different is lying. However, it is learned, not inherent. It is learned through experience. You start off with a preference for what is familiar (again a human trait) and a curiosity about what is different. Liking and disliking…again learned through experience. My daughter couldn’t stand black girls for a couple of years after two ganged up on her in daycare, hit her, and told her that white girls weren’t allowed to play with them. Up to that point, she had been friendly to everyone. After that, she greeted every new child with caution, and refused to approach black girls at all. You know what got her over that? A black teacher and some kids in her martial arts class. Funny how that works….
These people live in an alternated universe.
You call that living?
Hasbro and Ben And Jerry’s
Geh tren zich!!!!!
That ugly should sue them for hostile work environment and retaliation.
If you’re in Californica it is OK to take $949 of Hasbro toys off the shelf and deposit them in a trash bin….
P.S. Wear a “Black” face mask….
No, it isn’t OK. It’s a misdemeanor, which is a crime. I don’t know where the idea came from that it’s been legalized.
But you’ll probably get away with it, even if it’s over $1000, because they don’t prioritize arresting or prosecuting people just for stealing, no matter the value.
Does it matter if the racist and bigoted “training” was mandatory as in officially mandated, mandatory as in your boss “suggests” you “better attend it if you want to advance or be a long-term employee” or just enabled by the company?
It clearly is a racist endeavor and should give rise to legal action.
Correct me if I’m worng, please.
If it was merely an optional activity enabled by the company for those who wanted it, then it would probably not be actionable. And the same would apply to a completely optional class in white supremacy or misogyny. But if those who attended the class started exhibiting the attitudes it taught in the workplace, and the employer didn’t stop them, that would be a hostile work environment.
That seems to be a distinction without a difference. If an optional class would just neutrally inform about certain facts, maybe. But training mandated or allowed by the employer in the context of the employment (during work hours or by encouraging employees to participate) clearly aims at behavioral impact (either by changing undesirable behavior or reinforcing desirable behavior). Whether the training methods are successful or not does not seem relevant for the impact on the work environment.
By the way, CRT is not only racist against white employees but against employees of any race. Since it implicitly denies non-whites agency it demeans those it labels victims and attacks those it labels evil. In other words, the racists behind this insanity manage to be racist against everyone. They just don’t care. There is no small chance that these racists are too addled by their own wokeness to realize what they are doing and what they are. Then again, they might just be evil enough to embrace their own racism.
A lot of time, seeing how a destructive meme takes root in a company and destroys it can only be determined years after the fact. You can see traces of it during the process, like moles running around under the yard, but the upper layers of management have a sense of intentional blindness that goes along with lawsuit-paranoia.
In this case, you have to remember Hasbro is a huge company, with tight-linked sub-companies, like a bag full of marbles. Hasbro is the bag, each division is a marble. Some marbles make money, some lose. At one time in the last decade, the whole company was practically supported by transforming robots and colorful plastic ponies, with every other division losing money.
So I can see the head office saying something to the effect of “We really need to show the more touchy-feely elements of our company and the special interest groups outside that we are good people, so we’ll open up one class for this and let anybody who wants attend.” What they don’t see is the ratchet, because Woke is never satisfied, and always hungry. One class with voluntary attendance is not enough, we need two classes, or three, with ‘influence’ being applied to employees to attend, and requirements that they confess to their inner oppressor, etc… Then before anybody realizes it, Woke is in charge of the company, their decisions, what products are released… And Go Woke, Go Broke applies as customers flee for other manufacturers.
A toy company that imports over priced plastic crap from China that invariable ends up in a land fill in 2 years or less.