Mazie Hirono Condemns Trump Attacks On DEI At Hearing On Combating Antisemitism

2 days ago

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on combating antisemitism, Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-HI) slammed President Trump's attacks on DEI.

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00:00away from their five minutes if you really want to get all these facts out.

00:04Ms. Arano. Mr. Chairman, thank you all for testifying.

00:09And I recognize how important this issue is because of course there was a time

00:14when we had a lot of focus on the attacks on the Asian American

00:19Pacific Islander Native Hawaiian community, especially during

00:22COVID. So the safety of especially our minority community members is always

00:29an issue in this country and we have not, in my view, done a particularly good job

00:35of making sure that people are safe. I do have a question for Mr.

00:40Racklin. Now, I mean, we have an administration that is totally

00:44obsessed with DEI to the point where they want,

00:49that they've put out the word that any reference to

00:52diversity, equity, and inclusion should be wiped out of

00:56all of the websites of our administration,

01:00including to agencies that get federal money. So I will give you an example of

01:06how ridiculous all of this is in my view.

01:10I met with a group of people from the Department of Agriculture in Hawaii

01:15and that they had to remove reference to diverse

01:18crops. And now you know that equity is also involved in things like equity in

01:24your house. So this, what I would call the obsession

01:29with DEI is, has been very weaponized. Mr. Racklin,

01:34Title VII of the Civil Rights Act, which is a long-standing law,

01:40prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion,

01:43sex, or national origin. We already have a law,

01:48we already have a law that prohibits discriminatory hiring,

01:52for example, and also in employment, etc. We already have that.

01:56So what I don't get is why there's all this anti-DEI

02:00fervor that I think adds to the kind of discrimination and divisiveness in our

02:07country. Do you have any thoughts about the,

02:12you know, what's happening with DEI and how

02:16it's not helping in addressing discrimination in our country?

02:21First, thank you and thank you for pronouncing my name correctly.

02:25But I would say this regarding to DEI and what exactly you said about

02:29Title VII is, we have laws on the books. The ability to attack

02:34DEI initiatives and the continuous obsession with them

02:37does nothing but create division within our society.

02:41If the administration was truly interested in actually addressing this,

02:45they would look for ways to actually bring different populations together and

02:48different communities together, rather than labeling things as diversity,

02:51equity, inclusion, and trying to divide them apart.

02:53It's a very strange obsession that I've noticed over the last several months,

02:57actually. I think that it's definitely become

03:02weaponized, as far as I'm concerned, and that DEI is blamed for just for

03:08everything by people who obviously have not faced the kind of

03:12discrimination that truly should be

03:18illegal. It already is, frankly. I have to share with you

03:22another instance of during the horrific incident with the plane crashing

03:27into the Potomac, and the president says, oh, it's only

03:31common sense that we should

03:35blame DEI. I found that astounding because he drew the conclusion that

03:41somehow people of color, women and people of

03:44color, has something to do with this crash.

03:47I can tell you I was so appalled by his comment that I said there is

03:53absolutely nothing common sense about it, that his

03:56reference that DEI should be blamed in that instance, and

03:59just about every other instance that he can think of. I said this is just

04:04sexist, racist, and I basically use the term BS, but I

04:09won't say that here, but you get my meaning.

04:13Okay, for Ms. Solomon. During our last hate crimes hearing, we

04:19discussed the value of civic education and heard a call for universities to

04:25develop courses focused on engaging in

04:28difficult conversations, and universities are supposed to

04:32be the heart of civil discourse, and I have long supported

04:37civics education in our schools. We certainly could do more. Ms. Solomon,

04:43do you think schools and universities are doing enough

04:47education on civil discourse? Thank you so much, Senator Hirono, for

04:52the question. I do think some universities, like my own

04:55university, Tufts University, is doing a remarkable job of educating

05:00its students about their civic duties in this country and beyond, but I do

05:04think there's always ways that we can do more. This past year, Tufts University

05:08established an educational initiative for its freshman

05:11orientation in which they included anti-Semitism education as well as

05:15education around Islamophobia. I think that this is a model for other

05:18colleges and universities to adapt to their own campuses in order

05:22to stem the tide of hate crimes across this

05:25country. One would think that the university setting is

05:28especially appropriate as a place where different ideas

05:32can be contemplated and debated, and as a person who,

05:37basically, I matriculated during the Vietnam War. I was at the University of

05:42Hawaii where I protested, and it is one of the

05:46activities that awaken my sense of civic responsibility.

05:50Thank you very much. Senator Schmidt.

Mazie Hirono Condemns Trump Attacks On DEI At Hearing On Combating Antisemitism

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