Republicans don’t like DEI. Duly noted, right? The latest effort of elected Republicans to try to use legal and political machinery to block diversity efforts is something that Virginia’s AG, Jason Miyares, is solidly behind.
“Private companies should hire the best candidate for a position – an individual’s race or ethnicity has no impact on their work ethic or qualifications. Race-based hiring is illegal, and the federal government cannot force it upon private companies,” Miyares said in a statement included in a news release from his office sent out on Monday to tout his decision to sign onto a letter challenging the legality of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Businesses Diversity Principles proposal.
The Commerce Department rolled out the proposal in November as part of its 2022-2026 Strategic Plan goal of “promoting inclusive capitalism and equitable economic growth for all Americans,” according to a department fact sheet.
The department is seeking input from private sector employers, anchor institutions, workers, educational leaders, civil rights advocates and other stakeholders to refine the proposed principles and develop resources to support the private sector in enhancing and expanding business diversity efforts.
Sounds innocent, if not jargony, enough.
Not so to folks like Miyares, whose office press release is used to make the claim that the “proposed ‘best practices’ guidance allegedly seeks to increase ‘diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility’ throughout corporate America by promoting racial discrimination and fundamentally anti-American principles.”
He’s not entirely wrong there; it’s easy to make the argument that diversity, equity and inclusion is fundamentally anti-American, given our history.
“The Biden Administration wants to tell private businesses to hire certain individuals based on racial preferences. If they do not, according to the government, those businesses are not using ‘best practices.’ Such practices are immoral, illegal, and regressive,” the Miyares press release tells us, because of course it does.
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Chris Graham
