The new jobs of one U.S. senator and of 302,570 ordinary Americans suggest that the quest for “diversity hires” has gone too far and may be violating the very laws meant to protect all Americans from discrimination.
New Black LBGTQ California Senator Actually a Maryland Resident
This week, Laphonza Butler—a black, lesbian resident of Maryland—was sworn in as the new U.S. senator representing California after Sen. Dianne Feinstein died last week at the age of 90.
Reporting on Butler has focused on her race, sex, and sexual orientation ahead of her credentials. Despite the fact that neither race nor sex is a qualifying factor for U.S. senators, California Gov. Gavin Newsom nevertheless committed to filling Feinstein’s position with a black woman.
One could question whether Newsom was so fixated on sex and race that he forgot to check what the qualifications are of a U.S. senator. Article I, Section 3 of the United States Constitution requires that senators must be at least 30 years of age, have been a U.S. citizen for at least nine years, and reside in the state they represent at the time of their election.
According to Maryland voting records, and according to a since-redacted reference to Butler residing in Maryland on the EMILYs List website (Butler’s most recent employer), Butler and her wife and daughter were Maryland residents when she was appointed and sworn into office.
While the requirement says that an individual must be a resident of the state they represent at the time of their election, Newsom said that Butler will change her voting registration after she is sworn in. Butler reportedly now has a lease in Los Angeles and plans to travel between California and Washington.
While Butler was appointed and not elected, a case can be made that the writers and early interpreters of the Constitution did not intend for appointed representatives to be exempt from the office’s required qualifications.
The fact that the governor of the most populous state in the nation disregarded a constitutional residency requirement and went 2,500 miles out of his way to pick the “first Black lesbian” member of Congress to represent California residents suggests that race, sex, and sexual orientation have been elevated to a destructive level.
94% of New Jobs Went to People of Color
Butler could be written off as just one high-profile example of a race-based hire, but a Sept. 25 Bloomberg piece, “Corporate America Promised to Hire A Lot More People of Color. It Actually Did,” documented what appears to be tens or even hundreds of thousands of instances of race-based hiring.
The Bloomberg report documented job growth at 88 S&P 100 companies and found that out of 323,094 jobs added in 2021—the first year after George Floyd’s death and the ensuing Black Lives Matter protests—302,570 jobs, or 94%, went to people of color. Only 6% went to the 59% of the population that is white (not including Hispanics or Latinos).
If the reverse had been true, and only 6% of new jobs had gone to the 41% of the population that is people of color, the obvious discrimination would be almost universally acknowledged and condemned. And significant lawsuits would presumably ensue because Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prohibits employers from discrimination against employees and job applicants on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, and national origin.
While the Biden administration’s Equal Employment Opportunity Commission reported a 20% increase in discrimination charges against employers in 2022, the report does not highlight a single case of a discrimination against a white worker.
Even if the Biden administration is giving cover to race-based discrimination, a group of 13 state attorneys general sent a letter to Fortune 100 CEOs in July of this year, warning them that the Supreme Court’s decision striking down Harvard’s and the University of North Carolina’s race-based admissions is a reminder that such discrimination is unconstitutional.
The opening paragraph of the letter stated:
We, the undersigned Attorneys General of 13 States, write to remind you of your obligations as an employer under federal and state law to refrain from discriminating on the basis of race, whether under the label of ‘diversity, equity, and inclusion’ or otherwise. Treating people differently because of the color of their skin, even for benign purposes, is unlawful and wrong. Companies that engage in racial discrimination should and will face serious legal consequences.
As a group of Heritage Foundation scholars conclude in a recent report:
The continued use of racial preferences threatens the social cohesion of such a large, diverse, and dynamic country. They also make true equality impossible when even the perception of lowered standards can taint the accomplishments of individuals within the favored groups who are supposed to be beneficiaries of the preferences.
(The Daily Signal is The Heritage Foundation’s news and commentary outlet.)
That report, “Created Equal: A Road Map for an America Free of the Discrimination of Racial Preferences,” provides 15 recommendations for policymakers to help all Americans—regardless of race—pursue opportunities and their aspirations in America.
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