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'White Supremacy'
Headquarters @HQNewsNow 4hTrump: We have a country now that is based on merit
Link to tweet
...from Gene Nichol, professor of law and a distinguished author on constitutional, civil rights, and poverty issues:
Trump issued an executive order gutting diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government. Employees in DEI offices were placed on paid administrative leave straight away and agencies were required to submit plans for executing a reduction in force by January 31. Trump explained: “Our country’s going to be based on merit again, can you believe it?” Really. You might think it “rich” that Trump, whose father, according to the New York Times, gave him $413 million and who rose to prominence in the country famed economist Thomas Pikkety said embraces economic inequality “probably higher than in any other society, at any time in the past, anywhere in the world” would speak, unembarrassed, about “merit.” But there it is.
So, I had a look, then, at the rest of the newspaper, thinking on “merit.” Trump announced 1,500 pardons for folks who tried to overthrow the American government — hundreds of whom violently beat and maimed heroic police officers defending the Capitol. I read, too, of wives, sons, former friends, neighbors and witnesses who spoke of going into hiding or leaving the country to escape the brutal “revenge” of these insurrectionist “patriots.” Merit.
Other stories reported Trump’s claims that he had suffered through four years of outrageous abuse at the hands of the justice system, so vengeance was in order. In truth, of course, Trump’s indictments, and dismissals, demonstrated, beyond peradventure, that his power and wealth could utterly defeat the American justice system. So as to avoid offending him, our hideously embarrassing United States Supreme Court decided to abandon a centuries old commitment to the American notion that “no man is above the law.” Rarely did Trump attempt to show that he wasn’t guilty of these charged transgressions. He claimed, instead, that laws don’t apply to him. Now they don’t. Merits.
Next, papers reported that Trump had issued a decree purporting to end birthright citizenship. The 14th Amendment, ratified in 1868, says in its opening words: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and the State wherein they reside.” It meant, explicitly, to overturn the horrifying U.S. Supreme Court decision in Dred Scott v. Sanford. Trump thinks the 14th Amendment can’t tell him what to do. Merit.
And, finally, I read and thought of Pete Hegseth, Kash Patel, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Kristi Noem, Mehmet Oz, Herschel Walker, Charles Kushner, Kari Lake and Matt Gaetz. Merit. All around.
https://www.newsobserver.com/opinion/article299093800.html#storylink=cpy
...more:
The Atlantic @TheAtlantic
As the Pentagon purges some minorities and women from high-ranking positions, the message being sent to lower-ranking officers is that “they will be assessed on the basis of their gender, race, or politics, rather than their abilities,” @AdamSerwer writes:
Mike Young @micyoung75
Serwer's framing holds up against the documented record.
Hegseth fired Gen. CQ Brown, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Army Chief Gen. Randy George - in the middle of a war, no charges, no stated reason. Pulled two Black men and two women from a brigadier general promotion list. Blocked or delayed more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across four service branches.
None were charged with anything. None were accused of incompetence. The Atlantic's read: they committed "only the offense of being part of a military institution that Hegseth wants to restock with MAGA loyalists."
Pentagon staff are calling him "Dumb McNamara" internally. The Joint Chiefs is now all-white, all-male, overseeing a force that is 20 percent female and 43 percent people of color.
He said at his confirmation hearing promotions would be merit-based. He could not name a single case where DEI had lowered military standards. He still can't.
As the Pentagon purges some minorities and women from high-ranking positions, the message being sent to lower-ranking officers is that “they will be assessed on the basis of their gender, race, or politics, rather than their abilities,” @AdamSerwer writes:
Pete Hegseth Is Trying to Resegregate the Military
“Color-blind and merit-based” now seems to be anything but.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/pete-hegseth-military-diversity/686734/
“Color-blind and merit-based” now seems to be anything but.
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/pete-hegseth-military-diversity/686734/
Mike Young @micyoung75
Serwer's framing holds up against the documented record.
Hegseth fired Gen. CQ Brown, Adm. Lisa Franchetti, Army Chief Gen. Randy George - in the middle of a war, no charges, no stated reason. Pulled two Black men and two women from a brigadier general promotion list. Blocked or delayed more than a dozen Black and female senior officers across four service branches.
None were charged with anything. None were accused of incompetence. The Atlantic's read: they committed "only the offense of being part of a military institution that Hegseth wants to restock with MAGA loyalists."
Pentagon staff are calling him "Dumb McNamara" internally. The Joint Chiefs is now all-white, all-male, overseeing a force that is 20 percent female and 43 percent people of color.
He said at his confirmation hearing promotions would be merit-based. He could not name a single case where DEI had lowered military standards. He still can't.
Link to tweet
...my own view:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is about widening the net, not excluding anyone
...it's basically a commitment to look beyond more represented groups in government and businesses to recruit and retain less considered, but qualified applicants among the historically underrepresented - like women, black American, Latinos disabled, LGBTQ, transgender - in an effort to broaden and enhance both fields of experience and expertise which may not be in sufficient supply elsewhere.
White Americans aren't being displaced out of workplaces, as much as they are being challenged to compete with a wider pool of qualified applicants. That's extremely desirable in both government and expanding businesses because of the high rate of attrition in many fields which requires a continuous stream of qualified applicants to take their place.
It's just good business to maintain a large pool of applicants with expertise and experience, and that effort shouldn't be regarded as anything other than that.
I recall the period in the early 80's (as I was looking for a solid career as a young black man in a less than hospitable job search environment) when there was not only an under-representation of the community's minority community in most businesses, but an even more noticeable dearth of black, women, and other underrepresented groups in what were mostly white-dominated industries and corporations of minority and women managers.
Just in time for the fast expanding economy in in the late 70's, there was also a huge generation of graduating black and other minority youth who became the beneficiaries of a need-based outreach and employment from eager business owners of people not traditionally chosen in the past in great numbers for the good paying positions available.
They needed to fill the jobs, and much of the discrimination that was still hanging on became an obstacle to the profitability and success of businesses which wanted to expand and prosper.
As decades passed, the advancement of women and minorities into positions of management and hiring became more commonplace and essential to employers to maintain their profitability compared to other businesses expanding in the same fashion.
In short, reality sunk in, and they pulled themselves up and out of their ignorance and moved forward.
To be certain, that's why most good and successful businesses are not abandoning their own DEI initiatives.
It's just good business to facilitate an expanding enterprise with as diverse and expansive an outreach and appeal as they can manage. It costs little to nothing, and it pays dividends in perpetuity.
Take it from me. I had over 40 years navigating majority white male workplaces from the bottom to the top; hired and hiring folks; jobs in which many of that majority, especially when I started working, were indifferent to hostile to any other than the white men who made up the majority of the positions, especially at the top.
DEI is about outreach and retention, period. And it's an essential element of a progressive or expanding enterprise.
...more:
Dad was a proud and original archetype DEI pioneer in government and the military
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221039095
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is about widening the net, not excluding anyone
...it's basically a commitment to look beyond more represented groups in government and businesses to recruit and retain less considered, but qualified applicants among the historically underrepresented - like women, black American, Latinos disabled, LGBTQ, transgender - in an effort to broaden and enhance both fields of experience and expertise which may not be in sufficient supply elsewhere.
White Americans aren't being displaced out of workplaces, as much as they are being challenged to compete with a wider pool of qualified applicants. That's extremely desirable in both government and expanding businesses because of the high rate of attrition in many fields which requires a continuous stream of qualified applicants to take their place.
It's just good business to maintain a large pool of applicants with expertise and experience, and that effort shouldn't be regarded as anything other than that.
I recall the period in the early 80's (as I was looking for a solid career as a young black man in a less than hospitable job search environment) when there was not only an under-representation of the community's minority community in most businesses, but an even more noticeable dearth of black, women, and other underrepresented groups in what were mostly white-dominated industries and corporations of minority and women managers.
Just in time for the fast expanding economy in in the late 70's, there was also a huge generation of graduating black and other minority youth who became the beneficiaries of a need-based outreach and employment from eager business owners of people not traditionally chosen in the past in great numbers for the good paying positions available.
They needed to fill the jobs, and much of the discrimination that was still hanging on became an obstacle to the profitability and success of businesses which wanted to expand and prosper.
As decades passed, the advancement of women and minorities into positions of management and hiring became more commonplace and essential to employers to maintain their profitability compared to other businesses expanding in the same fashion.
In short, reality sunk in, and they pulled themselves up and out of their ignorance and moved forward.
To be certain, that's why most good and successful businesses are not abandoning their own DEI initiatives.
It's just good business to facilitate an expanding enterprise with as diverse and expansive an outreach and appeal as they can manage. It costs little to nothing, and it pays dividends in perpetuity.
Take it from me. I had over 40 years navigating majority white male workplaces from the bottom to the top; hired and hiring folks; jobs in which many of that majority, especially when I started working, were indifferent to hostile to any other than the white men who made up the majority of the positions, especially at the top.
DEI is about outreach and retention, period. And it's an essential element of a progressive or expanding enterprise.
...more:
Dad was a proud and original archetype DEI pioneer in government and the military
https://www.democraticunderground.com/100221039095
2 replies
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