Election 2024 Harris (copy)

FILE - Vice President Kamala Harris waves during a campaign rally, July 30, 2024, in Atlanta. (AP Photo/John Bazemore, File)

My understanding is that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) has been a voluntary policy mostly used by companies to level the playing field in making fair hiring decisions. In some quarters it has become a smear used to refer to the forced hiring of otherwise unqualified individuals.

It is now being used in a derogatory manner to refer to presidential candidate Kamala Harris as a "DEI hire" (a dog-whistle shorthand for an unqualified, undeserving minority female hire). In their rush to find a way to disparage her, they have neglected a simple inconvenient truth: Harris was elected to her offices first in San Francisco and then statewide in California.

PRESTON HOLTON?

New Orleans

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