By Ray Cardello for June 2, 2023, Season 19 / Post 48
We have lost our ability to judge people on their unique character. We now reduce an individual’s identity to the number of boxes they check on a diversity, equity, and inclusion grid. DEI and ESG scores have replaced accomplishments and experience. Check the right boxes, or you do not get the job, and your credit score suffers. Merit no longer means a thing in the new world order.
About thirty years ago, I was enjoying the Esplanade on a beautiful Saturday afternoon in Boston. The city was unusually busy, and many other folks had a different party look to them. Colorful costumes and various degrees of undress were the dress of the day, and that was for the men. As I crossed the Arthur Fiedler Bridge, I found the source of the excitement. I was right smack in the middle of the Boston Gay Pride Parade. It was tantamount to Carnivale in Brazil. This festival was a celebration and proclamation of homosexuality. This has always been a conundrum for me. Why do people with particular lifestyles want equality, yet they must publicly showcase their decisions? There is no logic, and they obviously want it both ways.
There are other examples of this duplicity. Here we are in June, designated Pride Month, a celebration of the LGBTQIA+ lifestyles, first recognized in New York in 1969. We also have months for:
- February. Black History Month.
- March. Women’s History Month.
- May. Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
- June. LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
- September 15 – October 15. Hispanic Heritage Month.
- October. National Disability Employment Awareness Month.
- November. Native American Heritage Month.
Where are the Italian History, Caucasian History, and Heterosexual Pride Months? I ask that with tongue in cheek because I do not want to see those designations, but I also want to see the end of the existing celebrations. As we strive for equality, we need to celebrate life for everyone every day. No group should be isolated for any reason.
Democrats love to refer to America as systemically racist. Most of us on the Right do not believe that. Promoting that belief is monetarily beneficial for some as it becomes the reason for their existence IE Reverend Al Sharpton is such a person. For the last few years, since the unfortunate death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, the Left has shown reverence for the Black Lives Matter movement to the extent they painted the BLM logo on main streets in major cities. This group has moved into our education administrations to push DEI on students and ensure indoctrination and not education for our children. An example of how well this has worked is Marlin High School, located in rural Texas. The senior graduation was abruptly canceled when it was determined that only five of the thirty-three “graduates” could actually read. Marlin is a small sample and an extreme example, not unlike the stats from big cities like Baltimore and Chicago. We need to stop teaching DEI and get back the Three Rs.
We are setting up cultural wars in the workplace and our children for failure in their futures. This Left Wing move to change our society to one based on DEI and ESG has to die in the boardroom and school boards. We need more reality and fewer acronyms in our lives; there is no acronym for happiness or success.
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When I was younger, gay people had to hide who they were or they were shunned, fired from jobs, physically attacked, and worse. My favorite uncle was gay but hid it his whole life. But most Americans now feel this is unacceptable. So we want to encourage those who are still hiding or are just understanding their nature, their personal preference to be gay, they they don’t have to hide. They can be who they are. That’s why we have pride month. Be proud of who you are. I was and am proud of who my uncle was. I miss him daily. As to the other months to celebrate women, Asian heritage, Mexican heritage, and so in, those groups have a history of being denegrated for their “inferiority” to men/whites. Women have been considered inferior for millenia in anlmost every culture in our past, at times bought and sold. Asians could not own property in American 100 years ago. Mexicans and other Hispanics are often targets of ridicule and diminishment. So we want to highlight their contribution and value. Is this so hard to understand? Perhaps the author of this piece is so unbiased he does not understand. But many people don’t get this at all. Sadly those who don’t get it have a rant like this author’s piece. We will have a better society if we see the value of different people in our lives and community. Love one another.
Well said, Jean Sepa. I (as a more or less “mainstream” middle aged Caucasian male) would also like to add that “mainstream” folks who do not seem to have any understanding of or empathy for gay (and other publicly judged groups in society) folks’ experiences or perspectives generally do not have any of them among their closest friends and seem to have little exposure to who they are as people. (Please reread that slowly, thank you.) And Conversely, “mainstream” folks who have some understanding of what it has historically been like for “marginalized” folks to navigate society have usually acquired that empathy through close friends and family members. To summarize: if you agree with the OP here, have you ever really gotten to know any of the folks you have opinions about, and who they are as people? I like the thought that “Perhaps the author of this piece is so unbiased he does not understand.” But that is unlikely if he actually got to know some gay folks and who they really are as brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters, etc. Please everyone get to know people. I was led here by Howard Polskin’s efforts, and if he can reach across gas, so can all of us.