Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have emerged as popular values for many left-leaning Americans. These Americans celebrate certain events, such as Barack Obama’s victory as the first Black U.S. president, as historical achievements and milestones of forward progress over time.
Straight Arrow News contributor Ruben Navarrette worries that these values are eroding on the left, and that liberals are now abandoning DEI. Navarrette cites rumors of dissatisfaction with Vice President Kamala Harris and Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor to argue that Democrats are abandoning their own alleged virtues and selling out racial minorities.
Sometimes, liberal Democrats really get on my last nerve. And I know why, too. It’s because of how dishonest and cynical many of those on the Left tend to be when dealing with race, ethnicity and people of color. That’s weird, because those issues are supposed to be the home turf of the Democratic Party. Diversity, equity and inclusion, DEI, is supposed to be the native language on the Left. At least that’s how liberals intended for the story to be written. They have a lot of time, energy and rhetoric invested over the years in a prolonged campaign of trying to convince Latinos and African Americans that Republicans are racist and out to get them, dating back to the 1960s, and specifically to the 1964 presidential election and the candidacy of Republican nominee Barry Goldwater.
Democrats have sought to scare up votes by portraying conservatives as being opposed to people of color progressing, achieving and advancing. Lately, I’ve wondered if that’s all wrong. What if Democrats are, when push comes to shove, just as disinterested as Republicans in seeing Latinos and African Americans get ahead and stay ahead?
That’s what I glean from two stories currently in the mix. Both had to do with attempts by liberal Democrats to force out and essentially put out to pasture a pair of history-making women of color in prominent positions whose ascension to those positions liberals were only too happy to brag about and celebrate when doing so served their interests. Now, those same liberal Democrats have decided that their interests have changed. They say the Democratic Party would be better served by ousting these trailblazers and perhaps replacing them with younger and whiter alternatives. The trailblazers are Kamala Harris, the first Black and Asian and female vice president, and Sonia Sotomayor, the first non-white woman and Latina to sit on the Supreme Court.