In personal defense classes, one of the first things many instructors tell you is that despite carrying a gun, it’s important that you don’t go places with a higher risk of you becoming the victim of a crime. You don’t pull money out of the ATM at night in a sketchy part of town or do other, similarly stupid things.

After all, the number one thing you have to do to protect yourself is not to go places where you figure you might end up being hurt, right?

Of course, I’m not talking about playing sports where you might get a relatively minor injury or anything. That’s just one of the risks of living, after all, yet because living our lives is inherently risky enough, the last thing you need to do is raise that risk factor by being stupid.

Yet the City of Seattle recently held a training where white employees are told that in order to not be racist, they have to risk their personal safety.

The City of Seattle held a racially segregated employee training session aimed at White staffers and instructing them on “undoing your own whiteness” in order to be held accountable by people of color, according to documents obtained by a public records request.

The session took place on June 12, as protesters took part in the so-called “Capitol Hill Organized Protest” in the Capitol Hill district.

One handout distributed in the session reportedly declared how “racism is not our fault but we are responsible.” Another said White staffers must give up “the land” and their “guaranteed physical safety” in order to be an “accomplice” for racial justice.

…

“Racism is not our fault but we are responsible,” one bullet point declared.

In order to be considered “accomplices,” White employees must give up “comfort,” “guaranteed physical safety,” “expectations or presumptions of emotional safety,” “control over other people and over the land,” and “relationships with some other white people.”

Of course, the talk about “guaranteed physical safety” is nothing more than an attempt to shame people who opt not to attend certain protests out of fear they’ll turn into a riot and they might be hurt.

Which, of course, has been a pretty real threat.

However, the problem is that people should always examine the risk factors for themselves and make a determination of which risks are acceptable to them. For people who don’t think protests will turn into riots, then there’s minimal risk for them to consider. For others, especially in places like New York or Minneapolis where they turned into riots night after night, the idea that someone should put aside concerns for personal safety simply because the left deems the cause good enough is ridiculous.

And it should be noted that only the white employees underwent this indoctrination attempt.

In other words, it’s up to white employees to risk their personal safety–per the instructions of their employers, mind you–or else potentially be thought of as racist.

Folks, I can’t make this stuff up.

Look, I’m going to lay it out for you. If you don’t want to be racist, then…don’t be racist. Don’t look at other ethnicities as superior or inferior. Don’t look at your own ethnicity as superior or inferior. Treat everyone decently unless they, as an individual, give you reason not to. Don’t treat other ethnicities differently simply because they’re a different ethnicity.

There. Thank you for attending my Ted Talk.

It ain’t rocket science, yet this particular bit of “training” is nothing more than an attempt to guilt white employees into engaging in behavior they may simply not be up for. It’s not enlightening, it’s abusive.

If you’re an employee of the city of Seattle, don’t listen to them. Do what you feel comfortable doing and if your employer has an issue with this, hoist your middle finger unto them in an act of righteous defiance.