The Missouri Transportation department's Central District has a diversity education program scheduled Oct. 1 as part of its ongoing series.
However, the topic - "Islam: 101" - prompted some readers to, anonymously, ask the News Tribune about the program.
Former Rep. Carl Bearden, R-St. Charles and now executive director of the group United for Missouri, posted on Facebook that the class shows MoDOT is "politically correct."
He later told the News Tribune holding the class on Islam "shows MoDOT is tone deaf. It demonstrates why people are reluctant to provide additional funding.
"They don't believe MoDOT is responsive to the taxpayers as reflected in the overwhelming defeat of Amendment 7."
Rudy Nickens, the department's Equal Opportunity and Diversity director, said in an email, "As an organization, MoDOT recognizes Diversity and Inclusion as one of our core values. For a long time, people often misunderstood diversity to be only about race and gender. There are so many more parts of our identities which impact us than simply those two dimensions.
"And while there are certainly important reasons for making sure that no racial group and no gender group is underrepresented within MoDOT's workforce, we believe that it is worthwhile to understand how other parts of who we are as people impact us as workers."
A key to being inclusive is education, he said.
"Classes like this are made available to MoDOT employees who are interested in learning about the subject," Nickens explained. "The goal is building awareness, which may help us to think and act in ways that make our co-workers feel more included."
He provided examples of previous classes that will likely continue, including:
• Introduction to Diversity
• What Is Race?
• Judaism 101
• Chanukah - What It's All About
• LGBTQ: What Do These Mean?
• Building an Inclusive Workforce
• Introduction to American Sign Language
• People First: Working with People with Disabilities
• Language Inclusion - Key Words and Phrases in Spanish
• Women in the Workplace
• Generational Diversity
Although MoDOT's Equal Opportunity and Diversity division would like to offer the classes on a monthly basis, they currently offer the classes as they can be arranged, or as requested.