A leaked memo purportedly from the National Security Agency shows the agency endorses aspects of critical race theory and “queer theory.”
A “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Glossary” for the National Security Agency (NSA), reportedly distributed internally in 2022, was obtained, verified, and published Wednesday by The Daily Wire. The document serves as a “glossary of terms and language commonly used in dialogue regarding diversity, equity, inclusion, and social justice,” with 327 terms defined in total.
The NSA is an intelligence agency established in 1952 that aims to monitor domestic and foreign threats of terrorism.
“Queer theory,” one of the listed terms, is defined as an approach that “critically deconstructs and challenges binaries such as male and female or heterosexual and homosexual.”
Other related terms include “transmisogyny,” which is described as the “intersection of transphobia and misogyny.” It defines the term as the “irrational fear of, aversion to, or discrimination against transgender people.”
“Ze” and “zir” are defined as “gender-neutral pronouns” that can replace he/she or him/her.
Other terms include “genderqueer,” “demigender,” “pansexual,” and “AFAB/AMAB: Assigned Female At Birth, Assigned Male At Birth.” “Gender binary” is described as “the idea that there are only two genders,” which is “challenged by those who identify as non-binary.”
The term “female-bodied” is described as “very problematic as it genders bodies nonconsensually and plays into cissexism (in that breasts or a vulva, for example, are considered inherently female),” the guide explains. The section on “gender-affirming surgery” describes “sex change” as “an outdated and often offensive term.”
“Critical race theory” is an approach to challenging “dominant ideology,” according to the document. Two popular advocates of CRT, Robin DiAngelo and Ibram X. Kendi, are cited in the glossary. It references DiAngelo after defining “white fragility” as “the state in which even a minimum amount of racial stress becomes intolerable, triggering a range of defensive moves.”
The agency describes “whiteness” as a “broad social construction that embraces the white culture, history, ideology, racialization, expressions, experiences, epistemology, emotions, and behaviors” that aims to attain “material political, economic, and structural benefits for those socially deemed white.”
“White privilege” is defined as an “unquestioned and unearned set of advantages, entitlements, benefits, and choices bestowed on people solely because they are white.”
The document appears to describe the establishment of the U.S. as an act of oppression. “Settler colonialism” is explained as typically including “oppressive governance” and “enforcement of codes of superiority.” The glossary cites the “white European occupation of land in what is now the United States” as an example of its definition.
President Joe Biden has made a point of directing government entities to implement “diversity, equity, and inclusion” initiatives. On his first day in office, Biden issued an executive order to that end, which he later expanded, declaring in each that “advancing equity, civil rights, racial justice, and equal opportunity is the responsibility of the whole of our Government.”
The federal government “must also provide resources and opportunities to strengthen and advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” and “have a workforce that reflects the diversity of the American people,” the second executive order read. “A growing body of evidence demonstrates that diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible workplaces yield higher-performing organizations.”
“I just can’t overemphasize how shocking this is,” Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) said to The Daily Wire of the leaked NSA memo. “I’m a member of the Intelligence Committee in the House and it is an authentic document.”
“It is disturbing that this is what the senior leadership of one of our most critical intelligence agencies is worried about when we literally have the world on fire,” Waltz continued, referencing the October 7 attack on Israel by Hamas terrorists.
