When Harris had to pick a VP, all media kinda agreed it should be a white male, to balance the fact that she is black and a woman. So Walz is the DEI hire.

was hired despite Hillary getting more votes because he was the DEI candidate of special admission processes.

orange person

Oh damn, is oompa-loompa no longer considered acceptable?

His handlers have just barely managed to stop him from calling her "Kamablack".

Fundamentally DEI is about good teamwork. You want a diverse team of people with different backgrounds and experiences.

Yeah, I kinda wish Walz was the candidate instead, based on his progressivism and integrity.

It's still about perception over tangible benefits, though. He's not chosen because he'll make progressive decisions, he's chosen because he helps encourages progressives to vote come November. Just like if he was black or hispanic would help push those demographics to vote in the general election.

He was picked because he appeals to the wacko maga base while licking Trumps... uhhh... boots.

He appeals to the billionaire voting bloc. They have small numbers (larger than I’d like) of direct votes, but for some reason, they sway elections.

I would love to see Gretchen Whitmer but reality says we are (hopefully) ready for a woman in charge, two is sadly pushing it. Maybe in 20-40 years, it will be something to see before I die. (I’m 50). But I’m estatic about Walz!!! He so… wholesome? “Perfect”? Perfect fit. So warm and compassionate. And the ticket has GenX! We are FINALLY represented! 💙

I'm not sure I'm hearing anyone saying diversity is a bad thing.

People used "diversity hire" as an attack on Harris, but no one is using it as an attack on Walz, even though everyone basically immediately knew that the VP pick was going to be an older white man if only to make the ticket less of a "leap".

That an all woman ticket, a ticket with two not-white people, or anything else not "default American politician" would face issue is kinda OPs point that we still have a long way to go to overcome those institutional barriers you mention.

Needing to consider diversity or representation when picking people is a sign that something has already gone wrong.
If the system were just and those barriers didn't exist, people wouldn't consider diversity, they'd just pick the best person and the diversity would just be there as consequence of demographics. (In a fair system, the top N% of the population will have a comparable demographic breakdown to the population at large).

It's a sign of a cultural hangup that we definitely consider diversity, and need to in order to have decent representation, when making these choices, and even more sad that it's only used as a cudgel against minorities , even when they were the first pick and others are being used to offset their "riskiness".

I understand why affirmative action is needed to somehow bring back some fairness and equality, but it is just sad that it is accepted as a permanent feature of a system that is systemically racist/mysoginist. It prevents tackling the root causes and investing in a free education system which is the only way to fix this on the long run. But anyway we have science fiction movies and series that do it right... I mean the fact that e.g. a ticket Harris/AOC is science fiction saddens me

The thing is... you're not really represented because they look the same as you. Someone who could run as the Aryan candidate may represent the downtrodden PoC than someone who looks like them.

There's plenty of PoC who still represent the GoP, even if it's not the same as Democrats.

Values are about more than appearance, despite what many conservatives will tell you.

So from a diversity perspective

no, from a minority representation perspective she should've absolutely gone for another minority candidate who doesn't get the same rep as these people do.

But for a diversity perspective, you're picking the most immediately broad and comprehensive minority and majority/plurality groups available. You want a diverse coverage of the US population, and the easiest way to do like 50% of that is with a white candidate.

I realize you're probably talking about the federal government more broadly, but that's an unreasonable comparison because her running mate, and cabinet picks are what are arguably most representative of the average population here.

House and senate members are literally voted in, so that's already a solved problem, just vote in minority candidates. Everyone else is an employee of the government, so who gives a fuck about them.

because picking a running mate that wasn’t a white man would have tanked her campaign. Everyone knows it, but few are willing to admit to themselves why - racism, sexism, and a bunch of others too.

you mean to tell me having representation of only like 20-30% of the population means you're not going to do well? That's weird.

There's a difference in saying something sexist and racist to be sexist and racist vs being practical due to other people's sexism and racism.

I don't like it any more than you, but I'm afraid they're right. While the country might benefit from two women, two POC, two women of color any variation thereupon, they might not have the best chance in certain (usually older) demographics. And unfortunately this isn't a contest we can pick the morally right choice, lose with dignity, and still come out okay.

"Stand in the ashes of a [Million] dead and ask them if honor matters... Their silence is your answer."

After going through project 2025, I do not think I am being dramatic or hyperbolic with that video game quote.

They went for white instead of orange.

He was to build a bridge to the evangelicals, they were all originally super skeptical of trump and needed pence.

In some circles they were voting for trump, hoping he got impeached so they could have pence.

All of that has shifted and Trump is their second coming, but originally, it was not like this.

Walz seems to have pretty good merit, I think

I have no idea anymore. Politics is a cult of personality now. And one’s gender and sexual identity has apparently become part of that.

It’d be really cool if it were about the politics again.

It haunts us like the spectre of death.

Wow yeah, I guess I never sat around thinking "How can I make myself more depressed"

Not about politicians in my country, that is for sure. They're the last people I want to think about naked and soapy.

Maybe they just stare blankly at the floor, or read the ingredients on the shampoo bottle again for the 14 thousandth time.

I don't know about being called a DEI hire, but I DO remember Hillary being called the worst possible option. I DON'T recall anyone calling Harris the worst possible option. Oddly enough in 2024, that would be Biden.

because DEI literally didnt exist in 2016 to the same level it does now?

I don't know. The 6 finalists that we know about were all white males but we can only speculate who she interviewed to get down to those 6 finalists.

While it's always a reasonable guess that a white male's identity played a role in their hiring process, we don't seem to have any evidence to support it.

Calling someone a "DEI hire" doesn't just mean that they're a different race than other people in an organization. It's used to imply that the person is otherwise unqualified for the job and was specifically hired to fill a diversity requirement.

I don't think that's an accurate description of Walz and I'd do some pretty serious eye rolling if MAGA starts trying to portray him as such.

maybe?, but then again im pretty sure like 70% of the US national population is white, so. At the very least it's above 50% making it a majority. In my state it's 80% white.

Statistically, you would expect to get a white dude. It's what's most representative.

Then there's the whole institutional race/ethnic bias problem as well. That's likely relevant here.

this is true, politics and bureaucracy is weird.

to be fair, most of the last 8 years have been primarily due to trump being actually insane though. Outside of that, it's uh. Ok.

But that is basically where everything is wrong with America. America is obsessed with gender and race

is it though? The only reason we're here is because someone had a shower thought, and people proposed that it was probably more significant that it really is quite forwardly.

Also this is just true for most things in the world, in engineering you need to balance between features and simplicity, and simplicity and manufacturing, and manufacturing and materials cost. There is no perfect outcome, improving one thing worsens another.

The fact that gender or race play any factor of consideration for a job that is not pushing out a baby or being an Asian model (for example), race and gender should mean nothing

the way this is worded implies that the implication of race and gender in job positions is normal, but i assume you meant the opposite. In an ideal world, it should mean nothing. But men and women are two different sects of the population, with fundamentally different consumer behaviors, men buy things women dont, women buy things men don't, and while there is absolutely discrimination in the workplace surrounding these things. It's also debatable whether they're even super relevant. Data collection and sciences is a hard field.

As far as jobs go, women can have children, and if you're a company looking for employees, you have to contend with the basic fact that women getting pregnant can drop 9 months or more out of the workforce, meaning you probably have to hire more women to do the same collective amount of work, or you move through more job positions in that given group. It's likely not all that significant, but it's something you have to think about. Granted in the US we have fuck all for maternal leave, so who knows whether this is even relevant to begin with lol.

You only ever hear “I want the best person for the job” when a non white non male is chosen. Basically if it’s a white male, the assumption is he is probably ok for the job

you should probably hear this with every hire, but the implication that a white male being chosen is "somehow worse" than any given minority candidate is a weird statement to make. Though, education wise it could be true.

Bush and Cheney weren't democrats. I was only talking about democratic victors.