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Check on the USA Federal employees in your network.
Check on them TODAY.
Chris Musei-Sequeira
January 29, 2025
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Check on the United States of America (USA) Federal government employees in your network.
Check on them today.
TODAY, PEOPLE.
Ask them:
How are you feeling?
How are your loved ones?
How can I support you?
Need context? Here you go:
“Trump puts all US government diversity staff on paid leave 'immediately'“ (BBC, 22 January 2025)
President Donald Trump has ordered that all US government staff working on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) schemes be put on immediate paid administrative leave.
On Tuesday, the White House confirmed that all federal DEI workers had to be put on leave by 17:00 EST (22:00 GMT) the following day, before the offices and programmes in question were shut down.
"Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs" (Office of Management & Budget, 27 January 2025)
. . . each agency must complete a comprehensive analysis of all of their Federal financial assistance programs to identify programs, projects, and activities that may be implicated by any of the President’s executive orders. In the interim, to the extent permissible under applicable law, Federal agencies must temporarily pause all activities related to obligation or disbursement of all Federal financial assistance, and other relevant agency activities that may be implicated by the executive orders, including, but not limited to, financial assistance for foreign aid, nongovernmental organizations, DEI, woke gender ideology, and the green new deal.
“Fork in the Road” (U.S. Office of Personnel Management, 28 January 2025)
During the first week of his administration, President Trump issued a number of directives concerning the federal workforce. Among those directives, the President required that employees return to in-person work, restored accountability for employees who have policy-making authority, restored accountability for senior career executives, and reformed the federal hiring process to focus on merit. As a result of the above orders, the reform of the federal workforce will be significant.
By the way: if any of the above news somehow makes you happy, you are not my ally… so go on and lose my contact info with a quickness.
I SAID WHAT I SAID.
Where to find the perspectives you’ve been missing
FIRST: Subscribe to the Morning Tinto podcast, where my friend Heather Luna and I use the lenses of oppression and resistance to talk about events that happen right before recording.
SECOND: Subscribe to our professional offers-and-needs networking events announcement list. Heather and I regularly host FREE online events where professionals can offer help (free or paid) and ask other professionals to meet their needs.
THIRD: Follow these awesome folks on LinkedIn:
Heather Luna of keduzi: workshopping pro-connectedness and anti-oppression as a way of life
Lavinia Muth: deconstructing the (un)sustainable fashion industry
Dr. Vidhya Shankar, Ph.D: decentering whiteness in evaluation of non-governmental organization projects
FOURTH: Forward this issue to people you know who are doing decolonial and anti-oppression work.
Got something to say to me?
I’m Chris, the Principal of CJSC, LLC, and I’m (un)learning along with all of you — so hit the “reply” button and give me a piece of your mind!
Know someone who needs to see this issue? Hit the “Forward” button in your email app and send this to them.
My position
My name is Chris Musei-Sequeira, and I use he/him pronouns. My mother was born in Trinidad and Tobago as a descendant of African slaves brought to the islands during the time of European colonization. She came to the United States of America (USA) at the age of 10. My father is Goan and was born in India, in Mumbai, and raised Catholic and English-speaking. He came to the USA for his graduate studies, where he met my mother.
My sister and I were born in the USA and lived a middle-class life in the suburbs of multiple American cities. I studied aeronautical engineering and technology policy in university, then worked at the Federal Aviation Administration and as an aviation consultant. I've lived in cities up and down the USA East Coast since the age of 18; I now reside in Queens, New York with my wife.
I thank Heather Luna and Lavinia Muth for showing me the importance of publicly expressing our positions. Because of our positions, all of us are very familiar with some aspects of the world while having no idea of other aspects. Positionality expresses how our individual positions affect our relationships with other people and with the world as a whole.
Introductory image source: FitzGerald, J., Yousif, N., & Epstein, K. (2025, January 23). Trump puts all US government DEI staff on paid leave “immediately.” BBC. Last accessed January 29, 2025 from https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cgj288ywj23o.amp