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Nevilledog

(54,039 posts)
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 12:21 PM Thursday

White guy DEI

https://www.publicnotice.co/p/white-guy-dei-trump

Republicans have spent decades howling about how affirmative action led to unqualified minorities taking jobs away from well-qualified straight white men. Thanks to the Supreme Court ending affirmative action in college admissions in 2023, conservatives had the chance to, as one of Trump’s executive orders put it, “restore merit-based opportunity.”

Implicit in that statement is the notion that people of color, women, and LGBTQ individuals are unqualified, but got jobs because they check a box. They must be removed, the thinking goes, so that the most proficient and skilled people are chosen solely on merit. Except that’s not really what conservatives want.

Yes, they’re sincere about their desire to eradicate actual diversity in the workplace, but they aren’t interested in a world where skills carry the day. Rather, they want what can only be described as affirmative action for unqualified true believers. Put another way, adherence to a particularly hardline conservative worldview is the sole qualification that matters.

Just look at Oklahoma Republican Gov. Kevin Stitt. In 2023, Stitt banned the use of any tax dollars for diversity initiatives. But that didn’t lead to him nominating the most qualified people.

Stitt just named Travis Jett to the state supreme court. Jett has never been a judge, but somehow beat out two other sitting lower court judges, one of whom has been on the bench since 2009, the other since 2014. But what Jett lacks in judicial experience he makes up for in ideology, with connections to a conservative think tank that hates the state’s judicial nomination commission.

*snip*
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Silent Type

(8,975 posts)
1. My experience is that white wingers aren't as smart/superior as they think. Have a friend who is pretty high up
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 12:28 PM
Thursday

in a big company. I knew him when we were in a little band and he was in Human Resources where I worked.

He left 20 years ago to join a Diversity unit at this large company. He was perfect for it and a big supporter of Democratic causes. Anyway, they recently changed the reference for that department, but he and others are still there.

I hope the desire for DEI continues, even if the department names are changed.

brush

(59,565 posts)
2. All I've got to say is look around and see what extreme, mega, white male dominated admins have wrought.
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 12:30 PM
Thursday

And it ain't pretty.

Bernardo de La Paz

(54,741 posts)
3. Similarly A DU OP today made the connection on the internal contradiction of the attack on Harvard
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 12:36 PM
Thursday

The Trump administration's war on Harvard University is absurdly self contradictory and bound to fail.

"...the Trump administration demanded that Harvard review the ideological composition of its faculty and students; for any unit deemed insufficiently diverse, the university would be obliged to admit more students or hire more faculty explicitly on the basis of applicants’ ideological views." This is an affirmative action and quota system for conservatives...Moreover, the White House demanded that Harvard "screen prospective international students to root out applicants who might be “hostile to the American values and institutions” or “supportive of terrorism or anti-Semitism.” The university was also instructed to marginalize or remove faculty and administrators who seem “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

"Yet, despite mandating that Harvard engage in several new ideologically based litmus tests for admissions and staffing, the same document also would require the university to “abolish all criteria, preferences, and practices, whether mandatory or optional, throughout its admissions and hiring practices, that function as ideological litmus tests.”

It is literally impossible to comply with this order — to eliminate all ideological litmus tests while imposing more ideological litmus tests. Link is a gift. Fortunately, Harvard has the resources to survive without federal funds. Fortunately, Harvard has the resources to survive without federal funds.
https://wapo.st/4cEZJg3
(emphasis added)

Hat tip to Martin68 https://www.democraticunderground.com/100220245987

milestogo

(20,276 posts)
4. I'm in IT, and I work on a very diverse team.
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 12:41 PM
Thursday

The Muslim guys and the Black guys are the best we have. No digs at anyone else, but hiring only white males does not get you the best people.

Baitball Blogger

(49,805 posts)
5. The number one reason why they want to close the door to people who don't look like them:
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 12:42 PM
Thursday

It's because they know they have each other's backs. They know how to follow orders even if they're illegal. It they push things over the edge, they'll stand together protecting each other from retribution for their malfeasance and corruption.

It's a cultural thing. A very one dimensional, elitist cultural society.

gulliver

(13,412 posts)
6. The DEI (tm) fad made this possible.
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 01:10 PM
Thursday

Somebody just had to make DEI (tm) an abbreviation. That's like seeing someone chasing you and tossing them a big stick so they'll have something to hit you with when they catch you.

We're seeing the results in your OP. Dems need to specifically commit themselves, loudly and soon, to merit and colorblindness. Those things create diversity, equity, and inclusion organically and respectfully.

IronLionZion

(48,488 posts)
8. We can see it in the Cabinet members, political appointees, and Trump himself
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 02:50 PM
Thursday

these people were not selected for their qualifications or ability to the job. He has replaced many military leaders who actually are qualified and did their jobs correctly but are a little too diverse or too female.

ShazzieB

(20,218 posts)
9. Yes, just look at how many of Trump's appointees have the intellectual acumen of carpet lint!
Thu Apr 17, 2025, 03:31 PM
Thursday

It's blatantly, painfully obvious that things like inteligence, good judgment, character, and relevant experience have nothing to do with his appointments. Schlump's litmus test is loyalty, which for him translates to a willingness to lie, cheat, steal, and commit whatever crimes he asks of you.
In other words, he's the mob boss we always knew he was.

What a crazy world we are living in right now!

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