Donald Trump has been on a tear to eliminate DEI programs throughout the federal government. Now, in one sense, he clearly ran on this, so fair enough. What's more, if we're talking about killing Robin DiAngelo programs or similar beacons of enlightenment, well, even a lot of liberals will cheer you on.
But in MAGA world, this has metastasized into simply killing off all civil rights protections of all kinds.¹ Conservatives no longer want to admit even "yes, but" about racism. Instead, they want to flatly deny that women and minority groups suffer any possible discrimination at all. The result is the decimation of civil rights and EEO offices even though the relevant laws are still on the books:
It has long been on some conservatives’ wish list to kneecap the external civil rights work of the Labor Department’s contract compliance office, which for decades has audited the nation’s largest contractors — including Lockheed Martin, Boeing and Deloitte — to ensure fair pay and hiring.
Plans obtained by The Post show the office will maintain 50 employees to enforce discrimination law for veterans and workers with disabilities, but it will no longer be staffed to audit companies for pay and hiring disparities for women and minority workers.
There you have it. Vets and disabilities? Sure. Women and Black people? Fuhgeddaboutit.
¹It's even worse than that, of course. For example, recently "The President's Own" Marine Corps band was scheduled to begin a series of concerts featuring high school musicians of color who competed for spots. But merely performing with young Black musicians was too much for Trump's anti-DEI sensibilities. The concerts have been canceled.
Just because somebody ran on something illegal (ending DEI initiatives is not in itself illegal, but encouraging de jure/de facto discrimination is) doesn't make it "fair enough."
+10
Vets services have been defunded, they 'reduced' all the nurses at the VA. Same for disabilities.
They won't be checking these, either.
Sounds about white
I think it’s what they mean by freedom. Freedom means you can be a bigot if you damn well want.
+100
No, Trump didn't just run on ending DEI or in fact any leftish programs that might be regarded as extreme. It has been perfectly clear that he meant to curtail if not end civil rights for non-whites, non-Christians and non-straights. Also implied was lesser rights for women.
This was what he stood for, not economic "populism". Of course it was also perfectly clear that he stood for the economic interests of the rich and against those of the poor, but cultural issues are more important to most Trump voters (the non-rich ones).
And who's 'Christian' is mutable. Offer already not available to Lutherans, apparently.
As far as Lutherans go, I'm sure the Missouri and Wisconsin Synod Lutherans are doing just fine. It's the LCA that's on the outs with today's christianists.
I hear they're redoing the Bible. C'mon, who really believes the "Good Samaritan" story. And that "meek shall inherit the Earth"--what planet are they from???
I find most Christians take an à la carte view on their beliefs. Adhere to the things you like and disregard the rest. Most theists are hypocrites. Atleast in my experience. There are exceptions, but lately they are few and far between.
Also defunding FHA fair housing enforcement, I see.
That's one way to veto a law that's been on the books for more than 50 years.
Jamelle Bouie has been consistently saying for a while now that the aim is to restore segregation. Given recent Pentagon firings, that band event, and today's termination at VMI (just to mention what's been happening over about the past week), it's getting very hard for anyone to argue otherwise. Especially if they'd have to do it with a straight face.
Seems to me that the country's ethnic composition today, vs what it was 70 years ago, makes this a *far* more extremist position now than it was then.
MAGA - Making Apartheid Great Again
Ahh, but they've split some of those ethnicities into thinking discrimination didn't affect them individually, so it doesn't matter anymore.
I think Kevin misses the mark a bit.
This very clearly wasn't an anti-DEI movement that most Americans supported.....but suddenly and unexpectedly turned into a broad assault on civil rights.
This was always a very clear broad assault on the rights of women and most minority groups. Always.
Exactly.
For a lot of people, "anti-DEI" was just a way to be anti-n_____ (that word they weren't supposed to say anymore).
On the plus side, we can now refuse service to White male Republicans. #FreeSpeech #NoCivilRights #MyRightNotYours
/S
Don't worry, they'll gladly take that to the SCOTUS and have your variety of bigotry completely repudiated! Reverse racism* can't be tolerated. Racism against non whites is A o.k.
*what a nonsense term.
Next to go? Probably gay men and lesbians in the military.
And this will be followed, in red states starting out, by a wholesale dumping of gay and lesbian teachers in state jobs, and then any who teach in public schools (you came too soon, Sen. Briggs!). And then, throughout the land, it will be plain to homophobes that their time has come.
Or am I wrong about the sequence of events? Will all black and brown and asian and native american people be dumped BEFORE the gays and lesbians? Nah, I think they'll come later, but probably before all white women are fired so they'll have more time for birthing babies and making sandwiches for their men and such like.
To all the Democrats who stayed home because of some reason or another I say this to you with complete honesty and sincerity. Fuck you, you shortsighted asshole. That goes to union members and the working class who voted for Trump as well. Come to think of it this goes well beyond being shortsighted. It's not like Trump hasn't had a history of being against the working class. Anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention would have known this. It's more like willful ignorance.
+1
+2
"Donald Trump has been on a tear to eliminate DEI programs ... What's more, if we're talking about killing Robin DiAngelo programs or similar beacons of enlightenment, well, even a lot of liberals will cheer you on."
The war on DEI and woke was always a war on Blacks, other minorities, and women. It was racist and misogynist at its core, but using language that was more permissible in polite society. That allowed many whites and men who harbored those feelings to get on board. In many cases, people, even liberals, who were anti-DEI and anti-woke believed they were taking a principled stand. I saw that all around and a lot of that here. I saw people mock and rage against DEI and woke as if that were the most terrible blight in our society.
In the way our information wars determine our politics though, all that rage at DEI and woke had one effect. It wasn't to provide a way forward for creating a more equal society where people's civil rights are better protected. Instead, it helped put the Nazis back in power.
Apartheid (or worse) was always where anti-DEI / anti-woke was headed.
Republicans are no better than lukewarm on, and more generally oppose, civil rights, human rights, voting rights, reproductive rights, religious freedom, academic freedom, and broad access to opportunities in general. They’re even worse citizens than they are Christians (where applicable), and that’s saying something.