The Trump administration claims its war against diversity, equity and inclusion aims to prioritize merit in employment, but instead it’s caused a wave of naked racism and misogyny.
Increasingly, racial minorities and women are viewed in official quarters and beyond as inherently unqualified, incapable of having merit.
Those in good jobs who aren’t white men are so routinely and unfairly attacked as “DEI hires” that many have come to regard DEI as the new N-word.
It diminishes our country both spiritually and economically by closing top jobs to highly qualified people we need to compete in the world.
The new administration’s anti-DEI push began in the military with the firing of respected Air Force Gen. CQ Brown Jr., who is Black, as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. His sin was speaking up for African Americans after the police killing of George Floyd.
Also quickly fired were Adm. Linda Fagan, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard and the first female armed forces service chief, and Adm. Lisa Franchetti, chief of naval operations and the second woman promoted to four-star admiral after two stints as an aircraft carrier strike group commander.
Donald Trump banned transgender people from the military and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth made it more difficult for women to enlist despite a history of both groups serving with distinction as they stepped up to fight and die for our country.
Soldiers of proven ability are judged to lack merit because of their race and gender while a bonehead who put top-secret attack plans on an unsecured family chat group is deemed qualified to be defense secretary.
Trump and his allies falsely suggested DEI hires were to blame for the airliner crash near Reagan Airport and the Los Angeles wildfires.
Supposed DEI hires were dubiously blamed for security lapses in the assassination attempt on Trump, but little was said about the female Secret Service agent who bravely threw herself in front of his chest as shots were fired.
By necessity because of our diverse population, Hawaii is mostly understanding of the need for equity and inclusion, but we’re not immune from the ugliness.
University of Hawaii President Wendy Hensel is eminently qualified for the job after successful tenures in similar roles at other large universities, but news stories about UH are often followed by anonymous comments falsely criticizing her as a DEI hire.
House Speaker Nadine Nakamura, the first woman to lead the House, gets the same treatment despite rising to the top via effective leadership at numerous steps along the way — just like the two women who have led the Senate, Colleen Hanabusa and Donna Mercado Kim.
There’s no question the DEI movement went overboard by creating bloated bureaucracies with opaque rules and stupid forms people had to fill out to get jobs, and this required correction.
But a bad acronym and clumsy implementation don’t mean diversity, equity and inclusion aren’t important values in a country as multicultural as ours when applied with common sense.
What we need to aspire to is fairness. In a society where everyone truly gets a fair chance free of prejudice, merit comes into no conflict with diversity, equity and inclusion.
Reach David Shapiro at volcanicash@gmail.com.
