Georgia Republican Absurdly Tries To Link Diversity And Inclusion Initiatives To Ohio Train Derailment

I‘m not sure why white conservatives are so thoroughly convinced that “diversity and inclusion” mean businesses are sending out reps to tap random people of color on the shoulder and say, “Hey, you look qualified to make our company look less racist, so here’s a job.” It’s almost as if they can’t conceive of a world where employers can prioritize including non-white people on their staff and, at the same time, hiring the best candidates for the job. What’s more, they can’t seem to comprehend why that very attitude is what makes them racist and proves the need for diversity and inclusion initiatives.

White men assume meritocracy is the reason white male employees and management dominate virtually every major enterprise in America is due to meritocracy, not because of the advantage of living in a country where white males are the only demographic never to be systematically discriminated against. It’s why M&M cartoon fetishizer and closeted Trump hater Tucker Carlson appears to believe President Joe Biden appointing more Black women as federal judges than white men means an agenda to usher in a new era of reverse Jim Crow and pale male suffrage movements. And it has to be the reason a Republican congressman from Georgia is really out here trying to blame diversity and inclusion for a recent environmental disaster caused by a train derailment in Ohio.

“This administration’s focus on DEI is forcing private companies to rethink their goals, and one has to wonder, was Norfolk Southern’s DEI policies directing resources away from important things like greasing wheel bearings?” Rep. Mike Collins (R-GA) asked during a House meeting. “This insanity must stop!”

Rep. Mike Collins(R-GA) wonders if diversity, equity, and inclusion contributed Norfolk Southern train derailment pic.twitter.com/4BNx3zOvtx

— Acyn (@Acyn) March 8, 2023

Bruh—what? 

Is Collins really out here implying that industrial transport company Norfolk Southern is so distracted by extending employment opportunities to Black and brown people that they just plum forgot to dedicate resources for basic train maintenance and safety—and that’s why the train derailed?

Mind you, Collins didn’t mention the widely made argument that Donald Trump spent his presidency rolling back Obama-era environmental safety and regulation policies that might have prevented the disaster. At the very least, that argument links two things that are actually related, unlike Collins, who might as well be arguing that Black people die in car accidents because people hate cops. (Wait, sorry, that was also an argument made by Tucker Carlson.)

I’m just going to go out on a limb and say that Collins already had a problem with diversity and inclusion and he’s now stretching himself into a white and wrinkly pretzel to arbitrarily use an environmental disaster as an opportunity to hop on his white nationalist soapbox about it. And that’s the “insanity” that must stop.

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