AMEX Embraces Critical Race Theory-‘Don’t leave home without it’

AMEX

American Express, has long been considered, next to the American Dollar to be one of the most recognizable symbols of Capitalism in the world. It has historically been seen as an emblem of opulence and wealth with the AMEX Centurion Card (colloquially known as the ‘Black Card’), the ‘invitation only’, most exclusive card in the world according to Forbes being one of the ultimate expressions thereof. So it comes as quite a shock that in 2021, American Express Corp. has launched a critical race theory-based corporate training effort that teaches employees capitalism is fundamentally racist and asks them to deconstruct their racial and sexual identities, then rank themselves on a hierarchy of “privilege.” according to The New York Post‘s Christopher Rufo.

In an absolutely devastating Twitter thread, Rufo brought the receipts, including leaked documents outlining the ‘training’ (read: indoctrination) here are a few highlights:

  • “First, an outside firm teaches employees to deconstruct their “race, sexual orientation, body type, religion, disability status, age, gender identity, [and] citizenship” onto an official company worksheet—then determine where they stand on a hierarchy of “privilege.”
  • ” then instructs employees to change their behavior in the office-based on their relative position on the racial and sexual hierarchy. For example, if a member of a subordinate group is present, employees should practice “intersectional allyship” and defer to them.”
  • “In another handout, the instructions for white employees are more explicit: “identify the privileges or advantages you have”; “don’t speak over members of the Black and African-American community”;it’s not about your intent, it’s about the impact you have on your colleague.”
  • “White employees are told not to utter common phrases such as “I don’t see color,” “we are all human beings,” and “everyone can succeed in this society if they work hard enough,” or they will be considered “microaggressors” against their black colleagues.”

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In addition to the “training materials” that were revealed, American Express also hosted a corporate lecture on “race in corporate America” from Dr. Khalil Muhammad, great-grandson of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad. According to Rufo’s story for The New York Post,

“American Express has to do its own digging about how it sits in relationship to this history of racial capitalism,” Muhammad said. “You are complicit in giving privileges in one community against the other, under the pretext that we live in a meritocratic system where the market judges everyone the same.”

Muhammad argued that the system of capitalism is fundamentally racist and based on “racist logics and forms of domination.”

Muhammad said the company should reduce credit standards for black customers and sacrifice profits in the interest of race-based reparations. “If American Express cares about racial justice in the world, it can’t simply say the market’s going to define how we price certain customers, who happen to come from low-income communities,” he said. “If you want to do good, then you’re going to have to set up products and [product] lines that don’t maximize profit,” he said.

A Little Bit of AMEX History

The sudden complex of institutional guilt that American Express seems to be suffering from along with many other American corporations is as curious as it is disturbing.

As a financial institution, initially founded as a mail-service in 1850, AMEX existed in a time when slavery was in fact a legal enterprise, this is naturally a part of their history, but in no way represents the company 171 years later. The suggestion that the present incarnation of the firm which bears little to no resemblance to it’s 19th-century ancestor is almost as offensive as the concept of collective guilt that critical race theory assigns all Americans of Caucasian descent.

This bending of the knee and genuflection leaves out a very interesting fact: that the American Express Card and the notion of Capitalism overall have been an enormously uplifting force for good, not just in American society but in the Black cultural experience as well. And you don’t have to take that from a caucasian writer either. You can ask some of the most prominent exclusive “Black Card” cardholders like Sean “P-Diddy” Combs, Kanye West, Beyonce and Jay-Z, Halle Berry, Denzel Washington, will.i.am and Lil Kim (who for example caused a bit of a stir when she was photographed wearing a diamond-studded black AmEx according to Zimbio). All of whom lived and experienced their success through the financial freedom American Express and indeed the American Capitalist system helped them build.

AMEX has been a cultural icon for the SUCCESS of ALL of the American people. Not the oppression of any, and it shouldn’t start to be now.

 

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