Over the weekend, The New York Post published an incendiary op-ed by Fox Business senior correspondent Charles Gasparino entitled “America may soon be subjected to the country’s first DEI president: Kamala Harris.” Obviously, the piece was meant to cause controversy and perpetuate the racist belief that people of color are inherently inferior to white people.
Gasparino starts the piece by saying that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs are “literally destroying businesses.” Then he set his sights on Harris by stating that “the American public may soon be subjected to DEI writ large in the next president of the United States, if Kamala Harris finds her way to the top of the Democratic ticket.”
Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) also recently echoed this sentiment by implying that Vice President Kamala Harris was a diversity, equity and inclusion hire during an appearance “Fox Business.” Rep. Jasmine Crockett (D-Texas) would address Roy’s claims on Monday during an interview on MSNBC’s “ReidOut.”
“Number one, you can obviously see that [Roy’s] ignorant as all get-out. Number two, you can see that he wishes he had half the competency of Vice President Kamala Harris,” Crockett stated. Brandon Scott, the Black mayor of Baltimore, also faced similar attacks this year when the right called him a “DEI Mayor” following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
Scott later told MSNBC that “DEI” actually stands for “duly-elected incumbent.” Gasparino, like many conservatives, is using discriminatory tactics to discredit any person of color with political power and influence. Harris has been a public servant for almost two decades as an elected district attorney of San Francisco, then as California’s attorney general as well as a US senator—Gasparino was merely grasping at straws.
The attack on affirmative action and DEI by conservatives is part of a larger strategy to dehumanize Black people—and it’ll only ramp up as we get closer to November.