You’ve gotta hand it to Elon Musk: if he’s not good at anything, he’s good at making himself a nuisance. And he can do it by utilizing only one phrase.
When you have the abdomen to nonetheless be on his X platform, which he reworked from being Twitter, a authentic social media community to a far-right extremist wasteland, it’s possible you’ll discover that he posted the phrase “completely” in response to Shaun Maguire – a tech exec who as soon as claimed that Google discriminated in opposition to him – posting that “DEI kills folks, actually.”
This was adopted by a whole lot of bellyaching about DEI from some actually spiteful folks within the wake of a lethal airplane crash Wednesday evening at Regan Nationwide Airport that killed 64 folks aboard an American Airways flight and the crew of a U.S. Military Blackhawk helicopter.
President Trump, at a Thursday press convention blamed DEI initiatives within the Federal Aviation Admnistration have been the reason for the crash – one thing which he had zero proof of, however stated as if it have been truth. This follows an actual mess that began with Musk’s beef with former FAA chief Michael Whitaker.
It’s a convoluted story, however it results in Trump’s insurance policies inflicting brief staffing on the company, and the air site visitors management tower at Reagan Nationwide Airport – all due to his anti-DEI railing. It’s not but clear what the racial background of that employee was on Wedneday, however it doesn’t matter. A congressional doc referring to the nation’s ATC workforce made the understaffing clear.
All that is to say Trump’s declare that DEI is responsible for the crash is irresponsible and most of all, a lie. However with all these info in entrance of him, Musk apparently doubled down on what Trump stated. Now, that’s really to be anticipated. As an open hater of variety initiatives, he’ll line as much as something Trump and his MAGA cult says about it.
Now, the truth is DEI, and affirmative motion earlier than it, primarily benefited white girls. In response to a 2024 McKinsey & Firm research white girls occupy 19 % of C-suite positions, whereas nonwhite girls maintain 4 %. That also leaves 77 % taken up by…you guessed it: white guys.
However what’s unnerving, primarily based on the responses to Musk’s publish is the variety of folks prepared to associate with him, regardless of clearly having no proof that what Trump says is true. There’s a prolonged listing of individuals prepared to die on the hill that DEI initiatives are some form of detriment to America and meritocracy is healthier. What they actually worry is that it does some form of injury to rich and privileged white folks, who usually don’t have a historical past of meritocracy themselves, given the establishments that for hundreds of years have favored white males of their insurance policies and decisionmaking.
The fact they both can’t or refuset to see is that Trump is greater than prepared to make use of DEI as a scapegoat for his personal incompetence, which was most likely the plan all alongside. With Musk and folks like him echoing his nonsense, you possibly can anticipate extra of the identical.
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Madison J. Grey is a New York-based journalist. He blogs at www.starkravingmadison.com