talk about. That's why we try and intersperse
in the fun topics with the politics, right? We
do entertainment and politics because it's all
very entertaining. That's true. That's a good
point. So. The I don't know the acronym of the
year so far is the. Oh, yeah. Trump is on a.
Full assault on DEI, AKA diversity, equity, and
inclusion, if you don't know, which I'm pretty
sure everyone fucking knows that by now. They
should. You really should. At this point, like
I think even secretly, or a DEI drop, I think.
No, I'm just kidding. So Trump, obviously, signed
an executive order, obviously, because that's
what he loves to do to ban DEI initiatives and
executive branch, um, and also for, um, contractors.
So, um, Trump has also blamed the DC plane crash
on DEI, which made literally no fucking sense,
no fucking sense at all, because he, he stated
we are in the early stages of, um, you know,
the flight investigation when it first happened
and He said, however. Pretty much this is because
of the. Which is. Fucking doesn't make sense
at all. No. And then the funniest part of all
of this is that his daughter -in -law, Laura
Trump, gave an anti LIDI speech where she stated
jobs should be given quote on merit and merit
alone, which is just fucking rich. And she has
a communications degree. And then with her connections
with the Trump family is currently co -chair
of the RNC. Yep. She took over there and see
during the election. So how the fuck did she
get that on merit and merit alone? So, by the
way. Oh, oh, I know how I know what merit she
used. Right. She went down on Eric. I mean. I
already is that a merit? I mean, it's I'm sure
it's hard work. Have you seen that goofy looking
motherfucker? Is it that hard work, though? It's
like probably 10 seconds. Oh, no. I know. So
so the thing that I did, I posted a tick tock
earlier this week. And this is the point that
I made about the whole discussion about DEI and
what they brought up. And this is where I'm gonna
bring it around. Because I think what we need
to do, and this is where I think the Democrats
have failed, right? Is it's a messaging issue.
And the reason I bring that up is I brought this
up earlier this week. to my fellow veterans.
As I said, hey, my fellow veterans, when he's
talking about DEI, they're talking about you,
okay? Veteran status is a protected class in
this country, right? Under the Civil Rights Act,
veteran status is a protected class, okay? Why?
Because people discriminated for a long time
especially after Vietnam against veterans because
they thought you were all crazy psycho broken
people Right. That's why there's things like
veterans preferential hiring Right when you apply
for a federal agency you get preferential hiring
treatment if you are a veteran you get more if
you are a disabled veteran right, so when they're
talking about DEI when he's talking about Hey,
the FAA was trying to push for more disabled
people, right? The people they're talking about,
my fellow veterans, is you, you Trump voting
fucking idiots, okay? They are talking about
you, okay? You are part of this DEI initiative,
right? Disapply, and again, I think what they
haven't done with DEI is shown how it affects
Because somebody in the chat brought this up,
right? They said they're using DEI as a dog whistle.
Right. And they absolutely are using it as a
dog whistle. The reason they're able to is that
we have not done a good job communicating the
benefits of DEI and why DEI is important and
who all it affects. Right. OK, it doesn't just
affect people of color. and women and it's it's
people who are disabled. Right. It's people who
are very sexual orientations or gender identity.
This affects a lot of things. OK, so when they're
talking about DEI, I think more people should
realize that it also applies to them. Right.
And so when the when the Trump administration
is being like Dei bad and you're cheering. You
might be cheering for your own demise here. You
know, that's my soapbox, though. I mean, do you
disagree with anything I said there? No. And
this is the thing that like really like kills
me is because I feel like I feel like it's a
really like an attack on this like quote unquote
like woke culture like you're creating a villain
to go after to try to like defeat. Right. Because
I sit I sit on a DEI council at work. I am it's
a private company. We can do whatever the fuck
we want. So fuck Trump, but. It actually came
up in our management all hands today, we had
an all hands of management with our CEO as well
today, and it came up specifically with with
the administration doing executive orders and
we have federal contracts, right? How does this
affect our DI initiatives? And to put not to
find a point on it, they were basically like,
it doesn't. First off, our company is based out
of Spain. Right. So and the CEO of our company
is a woman. Right. And it's a, you know, it's
a family, you know, it was a family that started.
She's one of the people that started the company
back in the 70s. You know, we're going to continue
to do what we've been doing. You know, but yeah,
it came up. Nice. But your company, the company
you work for, we're going to go into details
here. Yours is standing on their DEI principles.
Yeah. You're on that council on that council,
executive leadership kind of came out with a
statement saying nothing is going to change.
You know, this is this is our core value. We're
going to stick it out, but. I think a lot of
times though what people don't understand kind
of going back to your point is like, what does
this actually mean? So like for the company that
I work for, what does DEI mean? Like what do
we do? One of the things that we put in place
is like a program, right? That will, when you
upload your resume, it automatically takes out
information such as your name, dates, of like
when you went to school. So we can't figure out
how old you are. If you were in like a sorority,
right? Like you take that out. So we can't tell
that you're a female. And then the hiring manager
gets this resume and it is the whole thing is
so that you look at their merit and their merit
alone. You're like, do I want to interview this
person? Do I want to call them into the office
and interview this person? instead of having
some sort of like unconscious bias. It's it's
it's unconscious. And this is the other thing.
I don't think we've done a good job communicating.
And somebody in the chat brought up John Stewart.
And I'll tell you, ironically enough, it was
in his book, The Daily Show, like when he wrote
the book about the story of The Daily Show and
how The Daily Show went. And it's all the behind
the scenes stuff. It's not. that it's it's this
was how the Daily Show developed over 20 years
while he was hosting. He does a chapter, part
of a chapter where he said they started noticing
that even if they asked the the headshots and
resumes they were getting for correspondence
was white dudes, white dudes, because that's
a lot of the comedy world is white dudes. And
he said. One of the things that they had to do
was a they realize that these people weren't
biased intentionally. Right. It's unconscious.
It's it's a subconscious thing that they do.
And he talks about the process they went through,
very similar to what you're describing, where
it was send me. Not name, don't. You know, and
making that conscious choice to do extra right.
to beat out those subconscious biases, to beat
out those unconscious biases. And I think a lot
of people get offended. And again, we haven't
done a good job of communicating. Having an unconscious
bias does not make you a bad person. Right. Everyone
has them. Yeah, it's when you're letting those
unconscious biases make decisions for you. And
not interrogating those biases, that's when you're
screwing up. Right my camera decided to wig out
there. Anyway, now it's back. Okay, good Let
me get all blurry for a minute. I said you're
doing it again. Don't do a camera Yeah, I It's
it is like really it's really interesting I don't
think like At least at my company, but I kind
of get a sense. This is the majority of companies
out there. No one is getting a stack of resumes
and then going, man, this person went to Harvard.
They have a really amazing work history, but
I'm not going to hire this person because I'm
going to hire this. I don't know. Communication
degree major that is not relevant, but I'm going
to hire them because they're. a woman or LGBT
or whatever, like anything. No, no one's doing
that. It's you created a fake enemy to go after.
It's. It's so stupid to me, like every time when
it comes up in the news, I just like cringe because
I'm like, that's not. That's not what DEI is
like. You guys are so stupid. Well, see, this
is again where it comes back to what we were
talking about in one of the earlier segments.
I feel like it's all smoke and mirrors. Right.
I feel like it's a dog whistle and it's red meat
to the far end of the base to make them feel
better. Right. And distract them from the damage
that they're doing. Yeah. Right. And that to
me is is is what it is. You know, because you're
right, he has no control over private companies.
No. Right. And there's a lot of companies who
are like, screw you, we don't care. You know,
and I just again, I don't think we've done a
good job communicating it. I put it in the same
bucket that I do when people talk about critical
race theory. Right. When people like critical
race theory about I'm like, do you understand
what critical race theory is? Right. Like. It
becomes a boogeyman that sounds really bad and
again is actually pretty difficult to explain
in a really cohesive strong way and so it's really
easy for shitty people to latch onto things like
CRT and DEI and Turn them into these dog whistle
boogeyman and be like this is your problem, right?
It's it's them but their DEI and their CRT that's
why you're miserable That's why you're not successful.
That's why you can't get ahead. And again, I
think we've done a crappy job communicating why
these things exist, why we need them. And again,
this is why for me, you know, you are on the
DI council, you're saying, I'm going to go back
to, again, to my veterans, right? A lot of whom
supported Trump. And I'm going to go, listen,
dumbass, right? This is you that they're talking
about when they're talking about the disabled
people at the FAA They're talking about you disabled
veterans, right? That's a lot of who's getting
hired for these federal jobs that are disabled,
right? I am considered 90 % disabled by the VA.
That's that's where I'm at, right? I am a disabled
person Okay know what I mean? Yeah. I um I will
say I think Alicia Keys at the uh grant Grammy
has kind of put DEI perfectly. Um she stated,
quote, this is not the time to shut down a diversity
of of voices. DEI is not a threat. It is a gift.
Uh the more voices The more powerful the sound
when destructive forces try to burn us down.
We will rise from the ashes like a phoenix and
I Mike drop Like there you go. Boom. Yep, Alicia.
There you go Alright, we're gonna leave that
one right there. Let us know what you think down
in the comments below