Source: Kent Nishimura / Getty
We are two months out from Donald Trump being sworn in as the 47th president and already it’s beyond evident that a vote for Trump was a vote for the preservation of white supremacy — but we already knew that.
On Wednesday, the House Committee on Oversight and Accountability will hold a markup to discuss what’s called the Dismantle DEI Act of 2024, a self-explanatory measure introduced by Rep. Michael Cloud (R-Texas) and coupled with an identical bill introduced earlier this year by Vice President-elect JD Vance.
“The DEI agenda is a destructive ideology that breeds hatred and racial division. It has no place in our federal government or anywhere else in our society,” Vance wrote in a press release promoting the white fragility bill (because that’s really all this is). “I’m proud to introduce this legislation, which would root out DEI from our federal bureaucracy by eliminating such programs and stripping funding for DEI policies anywhere it exists. Americans’ tax dollars should not be co-opted to spread this radical and divisive ideology – this bill would ensure they are not.”
Cloud essentially wrote the same platitude-ridden statement with a few more white-and-whiny words, which refuse to address the systemic racism that made DEI necessary in the first place.
“DEI practices have zero place in our federal government,” Cloud wrote. “These initiatives, presented as promoting fairness, have instead fostered division and racial bias within our institutions and culture – which is not conducive to serving taxpayers well. This bill is a necessary step to restore merit and equality, not equity, in America’s government institutions, and eliminate the DEI bureaucracy that sows division and wastes taxpayer money. It’s absurd to fund these divisive policies, especially using American’s tax dollars, and it’s time for Congress to put an end to them once and for all. I want to thank my friend Senator Vance for his work on this issue and look forward to taking our message to the American people – a message that offers opportunity to ALL Americans rather than a select few.”
*sigh*
Is it irony, hypocrisy, delusion or all three wrapped up in one big noose knot of flagrant caucasity? Don’t answer that; we already know.
White America spent months convincing itself that Vice President Kamala Harris was unqualified to be president despite her being a district attorney, state attorney general, U.S. Senator and the current president’s VP. If she had been elected, she would have been the first president in U.S. History to serve in all three branches of government. She was unqualified, and so was Barack Obama, according to white conservatives and their POC diversity mascots. Trump, on the other hand, was elected into office in 2016 despite having zero experience in governing or legislating or judiciary work. He bankrupted business, hosted a reality game show, led the birther movement against Obama, and consistently indicated that he had no factual understanding of the political process — and that was the totality of his “merit.”
So far, Trump’s cabinet picks have all been white people, some of whom are clearly underqualified for the positions they’ve been appointed to or nominated for. (He literally nominated a Fox News host with zero experience in national defense to serve as Secretary of Defense.) To be fair, during Trump’s first presidency, he added a diversity hire or two to his own administration — unless Ben Carson had some extensive experience in housing and urban development that we just didn’t know anything about.
There’s a reason the anti-DEI narrative never includes any substance or even a real argument outside of, “It’s unfair to white people,” particularly white men, who have dominated every major industry and government entity in America throughout all of the nation’s history. If they really dug their heels into the subject, they would have to whitesplain why there shouldn’t be any diversity initiatives in a country where white men and only white men had full access to the “American dream” for the overwhelming majority of America’s existence. They would have to whitesplain why the qualifications of white men are never placed under as much scrutiny as that of people of color, and why even elected officials of color are being called “DEI hires” if it’s truly about “merit.” They would have to whitesplain their belief that white people are the most discriminated against demographic in a country that is more than 70% white and where white people, again, overwhelmingly dominate the government and all of the most powerful industries in the nation.
Perhaps some of this will be up for discussion during the House Committee hearing, which will include Reps. Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas), Nancy Mace (R-S.C.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.). Crockett, AOC, and Bush should make it an interesting conversation as they have never shied away from calling American racism exactly what it is, while Donalds will certainly serve as MAGA Republicans’ Black friend who will certainly hold the water of white nationalism. It’s likely to be a frustrating debate that will be all the more frustrating if the discussion is more political than it is substantial.
Ahead of today’s hearing, Demetria McCain, Director of Policy at the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. shares the following statement:
“The markup of the Dismantle DEI Act is a window into the deceptive tactics and harmful policies some congressional members will deploy next year and beyond. While supporters of this bill argue that they are working toward a colorblind society, the bill is actually a thinly-veiled attempt to turn the federal government into an engine of social and economic segregation–one that will leave Black communities and other communities of color, women, LGBTQ+ communities, and other marginalized and underrepresented groups on the sidelines looking in.”
“True prosperity in America will only come if everyone has a seat at the table. It will not come from denying veterans and people with disabilities the resources needed to start a business or by keeping people in rural communities from accessing reliable internet services. And it surely will not come from keeping talented Black students and professionals out of schools and workplaces. The Dismantle DEI Act would prevent the accurate teaching of history, destroy paid internships and resource groups for workers and students from communities of color, threaten equal pay for women, and weaken the ability of our federal workforce to serve everyone in our increasingly multi-racial society. These are not conditions that will allow the country to compete globally.”
“It’s clear that the incoming administration is ready to roll back civil rights on day one. This distortion of antidiscrimination laws through misinformed bills like the Dismantle DEIA Act makes this evident. It’s going to take all of us to ward off the intensified attacks coming our way in the next few years. We stand ready.”
McCain is spot on about the true nature of these bills and the incoming administration. Let’s just hope he’s right when he says, “We stand ready.”
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