Sloth Blog

By D. Allan Kerr

Our DEI Problem could just be a WASP Problem.

After a horrific, fatal air collision involving a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter, I actually found myself hoping none of those involved in an official capacity were Black, Latino, transgender or whatever.

If they were, I had no doubt slimeball politicians would exploit the tragedy to advance anti-DEI conspiracies. But I forgot we were dealing with Donald J. Trump.

Never one to let facts get in the way of a little hate-mongering, Trump immediately blamed DEI policies for the Jan. 29 crash before having any clue why the accident happened, even as rescuers were pulling the bodies of dead children, U.S. servicemen and others from the Potomac River.

Let’s be clear: Trump WANTED the scapegoat for this disaster to be a minority. He wanted it so desperately he proclaimed it to be so without bothering to wait for the truth.

He did this because he wants the tragedy to be a centerpiece for his anti-DEI campaign. But as it turns out, he was dead wrong. The aviators aboard both the helicopter and the American Airlines passenger plane all were white.

But if, say, a transgender Mexican-American hypothetically playing a role in such a disaster is an argument against diversity, then by Trump’s own warped logic isn’t the opposite true? Shouldn’t the fact there was NO diversity among those involved be an indicator there should have been? 

In other words, do we have a problem with too much DEI in our government, or do we have a problem with too much WASP? 

It seems like a lot of people who blame DEI for whatever is wrong in their lives don’t even know what it is, and to be honest I really just learned about it last year.

DEI stands for Diversity, Equality and Inclusion, and by my understanding these policies simply open up opportunities to a wider range of people.

Now it’s been transformed into yet another manufactured bogeyman generated for Trumpworld to fear and hate, a role filled by Muslims and Mexicans during Trump’s first term. 

DEI seems to come in handy as an excuse for rather transparent racism, like the Pentagon’s recent refusal to recognize Black History Month and other “identity months.” Before caving to public backlash, the U.S. Air Force even removed the story of the legendary Tuskegee Airmen from some of its basic training.

WASP is a time-honored term that stands for White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, a reference to elitist Ivy League types who have held most of the positions of authority throughout our history.

To cite an example, Trump’s new defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, may be the quintessential poster boy for WASP hires.

Hegseth is hardly the most qualified candidate to head our nation’s defense. After graduating from Princeton University, he served in Iraq and Afghanistan with the Minnesota National Guard and hosted a Fox TV News show.

To paraphrase Sen. Tammy Duckworth, his appointment is like naming an Applebee’s manager as treasury secretary.

And yet, Hegseth once had the audacity to suggest Gen. Charles Q. Brown wouldn’t have been appointed Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff if Brown wasn’t Black.

Never mind that Brown had already overseen our entire Air Force prior to his current post and previously commanded two fighter wings, a squadron and the Air Force Weapons School, the branch’s equivalent of the famous Top Gun program. Brown also flew 130 combat hours as a fighter pilot and has been awarded the Bronze Star, four Legions of Merit and numerous other decorations.

Based on his own lack of qualifications, I guess we can assume Hegseth benefited from his own ethnicity and privilege.

Oddly enough, Republicans don’t seem to mind legacy hires for WASPs.

Now Hegseth is on some sort of vague mission to weed DEI out of the DoD, as are the leaders of other agencies under Trump.

I’m not sure exactly how this is supposed to happen. Are we going to collect lists of employees with non-WASP names or skin tones and try to find reasons to purge them? 

The not-so-subtle implication is that a person of color obviously couldn’t have earned their position based on merit.

Unfortunately, Trump rarely shows foresight in his decision-making process. Just a week before the Blackhawk-American Airlines collision, two Democratic congressmen blasted what they called his “ridiculous executive order” to freeze the hiring of aviation safety workers.

“Hiring air traffic controllers is the number one safety issue according to the entire aviation industry,” U.S. Reps. Rick Larsen warned in a Jan. 22 statement that proved tragically prophetic.  

It didn’t help that the Federal Aviation Administration also was without a leader when the collision occurred.

Michael Whitaker stepped down from the post on Trump’s inauguration day, after Elon Musk repeatedly called for his resignation.

It seems the SpaceX CEO wasn’t fond of Whitaker’s recommendation to assess more than $600,000 in safety fines against his company, so now Whitaker is out.

It isn’t likely these avoidable events were a direct cause of the crash over the Potomac, but the whole ordeal reminds us of potential costs incurred when you yank people from important safety positions.

For instance, the astoundingly idiotic idea of firing the people overseeing our nuclear security, or gutting the Federal Bureau of Investigation of seasoned professionals who have spent their careers taking on terrorists and organized crime.

Whether you support Trump’s actions or challenge them, keep an eye on your household bills in the months ahead. I have a feeling most of the various instances of ongoing insanity (Canada as our 51st state, Riviera of the Middle East in Gaza) is an attempt to distract us from broken promises he never intended to honor.

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