Republicans Are Calling Kamala Harris a DEI Hire, but What Does That Mean?

Following decision not to run for reelection, the Democratic Party quickly consolidated its support behind Kamala Harris. Now that it seems clear that Harris will be the person taking on Trump in December, Republicans have had to do some scrambling to come up with their best possible argument against her candidacy.

While they have yet to solidify around any one thing, some have started to call her a DEI hire. This racist attack has been discouraged by others on the right, but the attack seems to persist nonetheless. Here's what it actually means.

DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion, so a DEI hire is essentially someone who has been hired explicitly because of their race. The implication is that these people were hired even though they were not qualified for the job they were hired into. It's a suggestion that, were the person not in some way aiding the diversity of the place they have been hired into, they would not have been selected.

Tennessee Republican Rep. Tim Burchett was one of the Republicans to make this allegation. “One hundred percent she is a DEI hire,” he said. “Her record is abysmal at best.”

That accusation was echoed by others on Capitol Hill, who claimed that Harris was unqualified to lead the nation.

In the case of Kamala Harris, the attack has been used to suggest that she was only ever named to the vice presidency because of her race and gender. It's a racist dog whistle, one which suggests that Kamala Harris is somehow unfit to be president and has only been nominated because of her race.

This belies the reality that Harris served in the United States Senate and as the Attorney General of California before she was nominated for vice president.

Although referring to Harris as a DEI hire is particularly egregious, the notion of DEI itself has come under fire across the right, with many claiming that it was promoting a kind of reverse racism. As many corporations have begun to incorporate DEI initiatives into their workplaces with the goal of increasing the diversity of their employee base and their feelings of inclusion, many on the right have rebelled against these programs.

While some clearly feel that people who have often been discriminated against in the U.S. now have a leg up in many corners of America, it ignores the many other vectors along which privilege runs in America. Many of the same Republicans claiming that Harris is unqualified for the job she currently holds have the jobs that they have because of wealthy parents or an influential network of friends and allies.

In the long history of America, the office of the presidency has been occupied once by a person of color and never by a woman. Surely no one would suggest that a white man has always been the best qualified person for the job, but they seem to have dominated it nonetheless.