A Bridge Collapsed, and Almost Simultaneously So Did Our Discourse
The world has now watched the stunning footage of the collapse in looping video feeds. The expansive bridge broke apart like a child’s toy. The trusses appeared to crumble like an Erector Set, crashing into the water below.
Just as quickly, the worst of America reacted. They displayed some disturbing thought patterns, ideas that are being shaped by a wide range of cable news hosts, right-wing politicians, and everyday keyboard pounders.
Unfortunately, we can look to Baltimore for an indication of just how shrill, nativist, and let’s just say it, plain old racist, this election season is poised to become.
This is no slight on Maryland, its people, or its political leadership.
The angry hordes throughout the country, always on alert, sniffed a new target and pounced.
Here is a taste of what swept through the Internet not long after the Dali cargo ship struck the bridge:
“BREAKING: Shipping company responsible for Bridge Collapse in Baltimore has EXTENSIVE Gender Diversity and DEI hiring practices and CEO awards to prove it!!”
If you’re sane, rational and reasonable, you might wonder why widely practiced business efforts were cited at that moment.
Rather than thinking about what might possibly have caused a vessel that large to lose power, the foolish reached for these strains sweeping through school boards and statehouses, the same voices that have stripped public funds from any efforts around DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion).
DEI is a nod to achieving workforce diversity. It acknowledges that indeed humans are born into multiple races and ethnicities. But no, it is not to be tolerated, or so goes the backward thinking of its opponents.
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