It seems like every week there is a new acronym, word or group that seem to anger the GOP. I forget what they started with. Was it cancel culture? In the last few months it was CRT, but that didn鈥檛 stir up many people, so they went to WOKE. That word ended up meaning anything that the right- wing hates.
Today, with all the problems in the Middle East, China, Russia, and the economy; our congressman, Michael Cloud has his sight set on eliminating the acronym DEI from all federal use.
Representative Michael Cloud said that Americans do not like DEI. Washington Post poll dated June 18, 2024 disagrees. In that poll 63% of Americans said that DEI helps disabled people, 58% said they helped black workers,52% helped female workers and 55% said they help Hispanic workers. Perhaps he was talking about the GOP white voters.
I don鈥檛 think the legislation 鈥淒ismanle DEI Act鈥 will pass the Senate and if it does, President Biden will certainly veto it.
I鈥檓 well aware of hiring by merit only. I heard it from the day I got hired until the day I retired.
I remember the first day I was hired noticing that there was only one female in operations, about 10 Hispanics and three blacks. Not counting office personnel, there were about 900 workers. Not much diversity, but a lot of cronyism and nepotism. I couldn鈥檛 complain because I was now a product of affirmative action.
The first day I became acquainted with affirmative action was when I got out of the army. I went to apply at the post office and got X amount of points for prior military and some for being Hispanic prior to taking the test. I still failed the test.
Seven years later, I applied at Dupont and I was hired immediately after passing the test and physical. I don鈥檛 know what part affirmative action played, but I鈥檓 pretty sure it had a part because the plant had a lot of catching up to do. Was that fair? I don't know, but I didn't have any relatives or friends at the plant.
Every time a minority got hired or got promoted, I heard the chants鈥渁nother affirmative action hire or this promotion brought to you by affirmative action.鈥
I know I talked a lot about affirmative action because both programs got started just before the Civil Rights ACT of 1965. They are very similar.
A while ago, I remember asking our group what their opinions on CRT was. I received a lot of 鈥渨hat is it?鈥 and the same thing for WOKE and now DEI. We just write it off as a Republican thing.
The nonsense has drifted down to our local politics. I remember a school board trustee, Rick Jones,in his first ever meeting questioned the use of CRT in a document. The president of the school board said that CRT was deemed illegal by the state of Texas.
At another school board meeting,a citizen was escorted out because she wanted to directly address the superintendent over the use of the acronym DEI.
All the local GOP candidates made sure to include the word WOKE in their speeches.
I asked a Republican what was wrong with the word diversity. He didn鈥檛 answer. I asked him what was wrong with equity. He didn鈥檛 answer. Then I asked him what was wrong with inclusion. Again, he didn鈥檛 answer.
Michael Cloud did answer in his newsletter. He said it was liberal indoctrination, and divisive. It鈥檚 all part of a left-wing agenda.
Last year about this time, the Supreme Court ruled against affirmative action used in admissions to colleges because it violates the Equal Protection Clause. It doesn鈥檛 take a genius to realize that was just a starting point.
I remember some 25 years ago I discussed the rolling back affirmative action. I asked when do we know we reached the equilibrium? I got what I expected when I asked that question. 鈥淵ou鈥檙e just like Justice Thomas, you take advantage of it and then you pull the ladder up so no one else can use affirmative action. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 the last time I asked that question.