Olympic Times

Gray's Harbor GOP Chairman Lisa Zaborac blasted the city of Seattle for holding racial sensitivity training for their white employees to the exclusion of other races.

"It should be every employee because people of all ethnic backgrounds have their own prejudices on different things," Zaborac told the Olympic Times. "I've been in the business world where I've had to go through diversity training in the past. It's never been on my own time. If a company wants to close down for a day to do that, then that's fine but it should include every employee.”

Zaborac is responding to a June 17, 2020 tweet on Twitter by Dr. Karlyn Borysenko stating, “Fun fact: The city of Seattle is asking its white employees to voluntarily spend their day off in a training about their internalized racial superiority. I’ve got the documentation on it.”

Based on @DrKarlynB’s tweet, Zaborac said no race is superior to another. 

“Everybody has to be treated the same,” she said. “You treat everybody properly and that's the way the world should be run. You can't single certain groups out for benefit and you can't single certain groups out for the negative. No race is superior to another."

Dr. Borysenko’s tweet comes on the heels of protesters occupying a six-block radius in Seattle called Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), where police officers have not been allowed entry since June 8, 2020, according to media reports. Mayor Jenny Durkan vowed to disband the group after two shootings last week resulting in at least one fatality.

“Everybody is pointing fingers at everybody else,” Zaborac said in an interview. "People have told me that when they try to say anything, they're just screamed out and told that their opinion doesn't count usually because they are white. I think all people should be involved in the conversation."

The occupation in Seattle emerged after protests erupted nationwide over the killing of a black man named George Floyd by a white police officer named Derek Chauvin in Minneapolis.

“CHOP looks to me like a bunch of young people trying to find out who they are but they're going about it the wrong way,” Zaborac said. “A lot of people say it’s not a takeover but it is for a person who lives in that area. I don't think anyone has gone door-to-door to everyone who lives in those six blocks to ask if they are okay with not being able to get around as easily as they have in the past.” 

She added that underlying the problem is the fact that Seattle has not elected a Republican since 1969.

"When you go back and forth between parties, it helps keep things in the center," Zaborac said. "When one party dominates for long enough, then everyone else feels excluded. At a presidential level, we've gone back and forth and back and forth, which helps us focus on going forward and makes everybody feel like they're being heard. People that I know in the Seattle area and King County in general tend to be more conservative. They feel that their voice is never heard. They vote and vote and vote but it's never enough to make a difference. Quite a few of them have left the area because of it."