Martin Brown and the Shameless GOP
Virginia's DEI director is a Black Republican. What could go wrong?
The Republican Party is trying to convince people that they are the party of freedom and responsibility.
While they are banning books from libraries.
While they are curtailing teaching the truth in our schools.
While they are allowing gun ownership to proliferate and put lives in jeopardy.
They accomplish this by putting foxes in charge of henhouses.
Take the state of Virginia.
The governor, Glenn Youngkin, is a Republican.
The state’s Chief Diversity Officer, Martin Brown, is a Black Republican.
Last week, Brown gave a speech at Virginia Military Institute (VMI).
And proceeded to disparage diversity, equity, and inclusion.
VMI has been at the center of controversy for years fighting charges of systemic racism. They have taken steps to combat (pardon the pun) these charges by appointing their first Black superintendent and creating a DEI office.
All of this was done at the behest of the previous Democratic governor Ralph Northam, who had ordered an independent investigation.
Under the influence of the current governor, VMI has deleted an explanation of its DEI program, and the website says DEI content changes are coming.
Brown took it upon himself to let VMI know that all of these allegations were spurious.
He said,
“Let’s take a moment right now to kill that cow. DEI is dead. We’re not going to bring that cow up anymore. It’s dead. It was mandated by the General Assembly, but this governor has a different philosophy of civil discourse, civility, treating — living the golden rule, right?”
He continued,
“VMI’s in a unique space … You’ve been at the tip of the spear in serving our country in sending warriors to battle, but in a way, you’re at the tip of the spear in this cultural war as well. Generally, when you are focusing on equity, you’re not pursuing merit or excellence or achievement. Not all the time, but you’re looking at equal outcomes.”
And outright attacked diversity:
“What we’ve done is we’ve made diversity the mission. Wrong mission … The challenge is keeping your eyes on the mission rather than the attendant challenges that we experience trying to complete the mission. And when we focus on those challenges, what happens is the mission is undermined … One of the things we want to focus on is whatever the goal of the organization is, that goal is paramount, and diversity and inclusion supports whatever the goal is.”
Finally, he summed up his viewpoint by saying that race relations in America have dramatically improved:
“Because they’re better, we can’t ascribe perpetual victimization or even motives because they’re different. Acknowledging those truths frees us up to deal with the issues, the real issues, of today.”
The real issues are transgender athletes.
The real issues are drag queens.
The real issues are attempts to curtail America’s gun culture because good guys with guns always overcome bad guys with guns.
Today’s Republican Party is totally devoid of shame.
Devoid of conscience.
Devoid of humanity and basic decency.
They appoint an Uncle Tom to oversee diversity with inevitable results.
This is the state of the Republican Party in America.
Associate with it at your peril.