What Team Trump really means when it calls Kamala Harris a ‘DEI hire’

Despite Vice President Kamala Harris’ education, her years as a prosecutor, her having served as California attorney general and a U.S. senator, Republicans such as Reps. Harriet Hageman, of Wyoming, and Tim Burchett, of Tennessee, are among many who have referred to her as a “DEI hire.” Hageman said: “I think she’s one of the weakest candidates I’ve ever seen in the history of our country. I think that she was a DEI hire.” Burchett referred to her as “our DEI vice president.” Attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion are attempts to maintain the status quo. They could have attacked Harris’ record without referring to DEI, but instead they chose to say “DEI hire” and “DEI vice president” to perpetuate a narrative that people of color and women can only be in positions of power or authority because of quotas, preferential treatment and unfair advantage given to them based on their social identities. These false racist and sexist attacks seek to reinforce beliefs that the best, and potentially only, people qualified to lead America are white men. Attacking the credibility of people of color, women, people with disabilities and others from historically marginalized groups is nothing new in America. The acronym DEI has been weaponized by people who feel threatened by the racial diversification of America and its leadership; the success of women in corporate and public sector jobs; the mere presence of people with disabilities in the workplace and in society; as well as the increased visibility of LGBTQ+ people and their families. In addition to elected officials, there have been numerous recent examples of highly visible powerbrokers and pundits denigrating people of color, specifically Black people, claiming they are unqualified for the positions they hold, and that they were hired based on their race, not merit. “It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,” he wrote, misspelling the acronym. This strategy to characterize Black people as unqualified, framed within the context of “DEI hires,” is a targeted effort to attack policies and practices that have created pathways to leadership and power for people of color, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and others. Because while “DEI hire” has been most frequently used to discredit women and people of color, it is also used to devalue the contributions of people with disabilities and other marginalized and oppressed identities. The weaponization of the term DEI cuts across sectors and disciplines, including in health care and medicine, where I have had health care executives tell me that DEI efforts in hospitals or medical schools lower standards and thereby jeopardize the quality of care provided to patients. One health care executive went so far as to say that “a diverse hire,” another way to say DEI hire, would underperform because they trained at an HBCU. Although factually inaccurate, these beliefs about DEI have taken hold in our national narrative. Diversity, equity and inclusion supports full participation of all people; promotes fair treatment through the intentional use of power, policies and practices; and values individuals within the context of their identities, not in spite of them. Recent reversals of public and institutional policies that advance DEI are most often the result of orchestrated resistance by people who believe that DEI will disenfranchise and disempower white people, especially white men. After decades of policies and practices to support DEI, inequities in opportunities and pay continue to plague women and people of color. ‘Among STEM majors, to get the same rating as a white male with a 3.75 GPA, a minority or female candidate needed a 4.0.’ Among STEM majors, to get the same rating as a white male with a 3.75 GPA, a minority or female candidate needed a 4.0.” Even with DEI policies in place, Black women make 66 cents on the dollar compared with their white male counterparts, when doing the same jobs with comparable qualifications. The truth about DEI is that it promotes American values that are necessary for a healthy, functional and thriving democracy. – This Summarize was created by Neural News AI (V1). Source: https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/team-trump-calls-kamala-harris-dei-hire-rcna164117