Are your favorite companies, policies and politicians racist?
In a time filled with book bans, boycotts and the continuous revoking of workplace rights for marginalized individuals, what is the commonality? Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.
The term Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is a fairly new choice of verbiage used to depict policies and programs that promote the representation of a diverse array of individuals despite their gender, race, sexual orientation, etc. While this conversation has been continuously expanding over the past few months, a recent conversation has sparked mixed reactions from a plethora of people.
At the end of January, American Airlines Flight 5342 collided with an army helicopter, killing 67 people. This obviously results in a universal time of despair and sadness – both for individuals who were affected and those who were not directly affected by the plane crash.
In response to the crash, the White House hosted a media conference for President Trump to give his condolences and as a means for him to offer solutions on behalf of the White House.
Instead of Trump further discussing the traumatic experience, he used this as a time to highlight Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Stating that “diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives for air traffic controllers at the Federal Aviation Administration were partly to blame for the tragic plane and helicopter collision”.
Trump was not the only one spouting this belief, as his Secretary of Defense, former Fox anchor Pete Hegseth, doubled down on Trump’s statements. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt also backed up Trump’s belief that DEI probably played a role in the crash, saying, “one of the things that the American people love most about this president is that he often says what they are thinking, but sometimes lack the courage to save themselves.”
This comment sparked controversy in the world of aviation and far beyond it. The family of one of the Blackhawk pilots, who has now been revealed as Rebecca Lobach, asked to keep her identity a secret for a few days.
Trump used the plane crash to express frustrations with policies in which Obama and Biden promoted pertaining to hiring a diverse array of individuals, highlighting how he “puts safety first” and “Obama, Biden and the Democrats put policy first, and they put politics at a level that nobody’s ever seen”.
As a country who has prided itself on being a “melting pot” for the vast majority of American history, why is diversity such a controversial topic? Shouldn’t we want our classmates, colleagues, friends and more to be somewhat different from us to increase our knowledge of lifestyles so different from our own? What happens when another traumatic event occurs, will we continue to blame diversity, equity and inclusion based initiatives?
It is extremely disheartening to see negative events like the Flight 5342 plane crash happen in itself, but when these events occur and immediately diversity “is the problem” what does this say about the socio-cultural and political state of our country? This is not an issue of “the left vs the right” , this is a human issue that affects everyone involved even if it is not directly. While areas of the country are on fire, food insecurity is at an all time high. Why are companies and politicians more concerned with stigmatizing diversity based initiatives?
As a country, it is time that we redefine the ideologies, values and phenomena that are most important to us as a community. In the 50’s it was the “American Dream” but in a time where autonomy of certain individuals is perceived to be controversial, what is the new “American Dream?”
If we want to establish somewhat of a sense of unity as Americans we have to acknowledge the diversity based factors that make us who we are and the banning or refuting of diversity, equity and inclusion based initiatives is not a step towards attaining a modern day approach to the American dream ideal.
