A whistleblower at Hasbro secretly recorded and disseminated one of the company’s training sessions that claimed babies as young as three months old can show racial preferences.
David Johnson, a packaging engineer who contracts with Hasbro, shared internal training with Project Veritas, a right-wing guerrilla journalism organization. The training mimicked the teachings of Critical Race Theory and stated that kids “as young as two are already using race to reason about people’s behaviors.”
“We may see this play out in daycare or on the playgrounds and how kids are starting to choose or exclude playmates and friends,” the training claims.
The training continued to state that three, four, and five-year-olds can exemplify racial preferences and even show a “pro-white bias.”
“By age three, children are already starting to apply stereotypes, and research shows that they also may use racist language intentionally at this age,” the training said. “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.”
“At the age of five, children show many of the same racial attitudes held by adults,” the training continued. “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.”
The lecture was given by The Conscious Kid, a California-based nonprofit linked to the “cancellation” of Dr. Seuss books and Nickelodeon’s race-based special. The Conscious Kid supports taking actions that “disrupt racism” in young children by promoting “age-appropriate” “anti-racist” literature. Hasbro’s training was executed by The Conscious Kid co-founder Kate Ishizuka-Stephens.
Related: Nonprofit Responsible For Canceling Dr. Seuss Teams Up With Google
Hasbro claims that the training was “mischaracterized” by Project Veritas in comments to Daily Mail.
“Our mission is to create the world’s best play and entertainment experiences that connect children, fans, and families around the world,” a Hasbro spokesperson said. “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,”
Sending the training to reporters has placed Johnson under investigation to determine whether he violated any of the company’s policies, including the confidentiality policy. Johnson told Fox News’s Sean Hannity that he has been suspended from Hasbro and lost access to his work accounts.
The training mirrors graphics put out by the Arizona Department of Education which explicitly told parents that “silence about race reinforces racism by letting children draw their own conclusions based on what they see.”
The graphic claims that children use race “to reason about people’s behaviors” and, by 30 months, they allegedly use race to choose their friends. By ages four and five, children allegedly become racially prejudiced.
According to the graphic, kindergarteners allegedly “show many of the same racial attitudes that adults in our culture hold — they have already learned to associate some groups with higher status than others.”
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Johnson works for Hasbro. He contracts with Hasbro.
Related: Arizona Education Department Tells Parents To Talk About Racism WIth 3-Month-Olds