State Department cuts DEI reading list that praised looting, reparations

What to know

• The State Department has ended a controversial DEI training program.
• Instructors taught terms like ‘Ze’ and ‘Zirs’ instead of ‘he’ and ‘she.’
• Readings included ‘White Fragility’ and ‘In Defense of Looting.’

The State Department has scrapped a DEI program that trained foreign service officers to use invented pronouns and assigned readings defending looting and reparations, the Trump administration announced Thursday.

[snip]

Instructors were assigned readings including “White Fragility and the Rules of Engagement,” “In Defense of Looting,” “How White Women Tears Oppress People of Color” and “The Case for Reparations.” Staffers were also told that phrases such as “illegal alien” were “problematic.”

[snip]

In a statement, the department said it had ended the “ideologically extreme and discriminatory diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) agenda,” adding that the DEI focus had distracted from the department’s role as “the nation’s first line of defense against hostile powers, terrorists, deadly narcotics smuggling, illegal immigration and other threats to the safety, security and prosperity of the American people.”

The overhaul is part of a broader push across the federal government to eliminate DEI programs put in place under President Biden.

(*) Full article: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2026/aug/14/state-department-cuts-dei-reading-list-praised-looting-reparations/