That was an email from Democratic National Committee Data Services manager Madeleine Leader, announcing that the Technology Department is looking to fill several positions and asking interested parties to forward the openings to their colleagues.
Note the last sentence:
“I personally would prefer that you not forward to cisgender straight white males, since they’re already in the majority.”
Nice.
Seven questions bubble up to the surface as I ponder this:
1 Why is Madeleine Leader still employed by the DNC? I can answer that one: her email accurately reflects the culture of the Democratic National Committee, and the Democratic Party. If she wasn’t completely confident that such an open expression of prejudice and discrimination would be acceptable, she would not have dared to put such a sentiment into print.
Even so, if the Democrats had an ounce of sense or even aspired to decency, they would have fired Leader with expressions of horror, and proclaimed her a rogue employee. However, the party apparently believes that its base and perhaps even the typical Democrat will read Leader’s message and say, “What’s the matter with that?”
2. Do progressives and Democrats really think there is a difference between saying “no white, straight males need apply” and “no black lesbians need apply”? I can answer that one too. Of course they do. They really think the latter is despicable, racist, sexist homophobia, and the former is just virtuous diversity at work.
They really do. No, seriously. They do.
3. Why was this story first reported at the Daily Wire, a conservative website, then at several other conservative websites, then on Fox News, and finally at The Hill, a political website that tilts left, but not yet at any mainstream media sources?
See #1 above. One reason the DNC thinks it can pretty much duck this embarrassment is that it knows the mainstream media will cover the party’s tracks by not reporting the story. “Democracy dies in darkness,” pompously proclaims the Washington Post on its front page. Right. The Post doesn’t want independents or anyone who isn’t in lock-step with whatever the Democratic Party does or says to know how low the party of Jefferson, Jackson and FDR has sunk, and how much it has abandoned democratic ideals. It has been three days since Leader’s email became public. The Post has kept the story in darkness. So has the New York Times, apparently because blatant bigotry at the DNC isn’t news fit to print.
4. Why do Democrats want Donald Trump to be re-elected? They must want this; I can’t figure out any other explanation for the party’s behavior since November. It should have looked at itself in the mirror, and realized that it has become so estranged from basic American values that the public was willing to elect Donald Trump—Donald Trump!— rather than submit to the divisive tribalism seeded and cultivated by the Obama Administration. Instead of pulling itself away from the abyss, however, it is hurling itself over and in.
5. Does everybody find the DNC’s response as pathetic as I do? The Hill got this regarding the email from DNC spokesman Michael Tyle:
“The email in question was not authorized by the DNC nor was it authorized by senior leadership. All hiring decisions at the DNC are made consistent with the DNC’s commitment to equal employment opportunity and hiring an inclusive and talented staff that reflects the coalition of the Democratic Party, because our diversity is our greatest strength.”
Sure. Except that if the email has not been made public, Leader would have hired a gay, non-white male or female or some other anointed combination, and no one would have known or cared, because she was reflecting the culture and attitudes she works in. (Of course it’s not “authorized”—it was an internal email. Lame.)
6. Shouldn’t conservative writer Rod Dreher’s reaction be typical of anyone with a sense of integrity and self-preservation? He wrote,
“This mentality exemplified by Madeleine Leader has a lot to do with why, at the end of the day, I’ll end up voting Republican out of pure self-protection, and to protect the job prospects of my children, especially my sons. Good job, Democrats. You are telling straight white people that they are second-class citizens who don’t deserve fairness. You’ll continue to find self-hating liberal whites who are willing to accept this garbage, but many more aren’t falling for it — and know what kind of world Democrats are preparing for them when and if they take power again.
As a registered Independent whose economic and foreign policy views are to the left of the average Republican’s, I would love to have the chance to consider voting Democratic in a national election, especially with the GOP in such a mess. But out of self-protection, I can’t take that chance.”
7. Finally, isn’t it amazing that the Democrats still haven’t learned what I teach the lawyers in my legal ethics seminars: don’t put anything in an email that you wouldn’t want on the front page of the New York Times?
Even if the New York Times doesn’t have the integrity to print it…
Ethics Alarms 
http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/11/01/singer-asked-whites-to-move-to-back-of-audience-people-of-color-to-move-to-front-then-it-got-ugly/
No different than the mentality here, which leads a singer to rearrange the room by race and gender, and the sponsoring event to discipline a white woman who refused to get with the program.
A little off-topic:
“2SLGBTQ+”
First I’ve seen that permutation of the acronym. I assume 2S is “Two-Spirit.”
Sow race-based resentment among whites, reap another Trump term. Nice work, Democrats.
“Do progressives and Democrats really think there is a difference between saying “no white, straight males need apply” and “no black lesbians need apply?”
No, we don’t think there is a difference. We would want her fired: 1) This is legal discrimination; 2) She’s an idiot.
Au contraire, Spartan. Some Democrats still see this for what it is, legal discrimination. There are plenty more who would be just fine with positive discrimination in order to provide upward mobility for minorities. We were already there in the 1970s. This is just the same program on steroids. As much as the Democratic party and its looney left-wing would try to disguise it with phrases like that and like diversity and the other buzz words that the left hides behind, just as many are fine with this naked hatred of straight white believing males. Until now, they have had enough straight white believing males who are wracked with guilt to be able to push this program to some degree. I wonder how many straight white believing males who go along with this really believe it and how many are just looking to get some from 6 starved feminists. Having been brought up Catholic, I am very familiar with guilt. What they don’t tell you, is that although the capacity for guilt is almost limitless when it is guilt at making the Son of God take the rap for your wrongdoing, the capacity for guilt taps out when it is tiresome other mere mortals trying to make you feel guilt. I think they have overestimated the capacity.
“What they don’t tell you, is that although the capacity for guilt is almost limitless when it is guilt at making the Son of God take the rap for your wrongdoing, the capacity for guilt taps out when it is tiresome other mere mortals trying to make you feel guilt.”
I don’t think it’s that simple. The Left paradigm of guilt works differently. The “Son of God” is quite literally made of privilege as I understand it, and so by the Left’s standard he should be the one feeling infinite guilt. Feeling guilt towards other mortals for their misfortunes is much easier, especially if you have cultural ties with the people in the past who created their circumstances, and if you remain complacent about helping empower people (not that they necessarily want empowerment…).
Of course, guilt and blame are a binary paradigm; either you’re to blame and should feel guilty, or you’re not. It’s not very useful for getting to the bottom of things, because situations are rarely so simple. Figuring out how different people and groups contribute to a situation and what they might do to change it is far more useful. More information about how to do this can be found in Difficult Conversations, which I recommend to absolutely everyone.
Obviously you didn’t grow up Catholic. Not that I’m a theology expert, but many was the time growing up, and even as an adult, that I was reminded that every sin I committed added to Christ’s suffering on the cross, where He paid the debt incurred for the sins of mankind. It’s bad enough knowing you did wrong, but to make the Nicest Guy Ever take the rap is many times worse. Likewise it was used to silence complaining about minor inconveniences, after all, how does getting a talking to you consider unfair or having to take up someone else’s slack compare to being nailed to a cross for everyone else?
Well, the designated victim groups didn’t die to save me from the fires of hell, and I have never owned a slave, nor lynched poor Willie for looking the wrong way at Sarah Belle, nor smacked Thelma Lou around in the trailer park, nor thrown a paving brick at Adam and Steve for holding hands outside the Village in their Daisy Dukes and combat boots. My guilt reservoir for wrongs I didn’t commit against those who weren’t wronged is pretty low.
Nice to hear you say. I hope there are more of you than there are of Leader among the ranks of progressives, but I am not confident that is true.
YOUR answer, I was 100% certain of: an employment law expert and left-leaning moderate with independent views and a pattern of thinking for herself, who is in the top 10% of the population in education and intelligence.
But you are an outlier.
Aww, shucks. Well, I guess I won’t ruin my praise by commenting on your Lee post….
Oh, go ahead. Your versatility is part of your charm.
I don’t think Spartan is an outlier among ordinary registered Democrats. I’d imagine most aren’t radical enough to think that this e-mail was appropriate. The far left crowd is much smaller than many think, they’re just very, very loud.
The concerning thing is that this is, pardon the pun, a leader in the party; someone with actual power. The even more concerning thing is that she wasn’t immediately told “So, you don’t want cis white males to have jobs? Well, look who just became a cis white male!” …Or a better, more coherent joke while being thrown out on her ass.
But if the Democratic leadership thinks this is acceptable…and if she isn’t fired, it’s fair to conclude that they do…I may have to change my party registration.
“But if the Democratic leadership thinks this is acceptable…and if she isn’t fired, it’s fair to conclude that they do…I may have to change my party registration.”
Here it is two weeks later, Chris. Should I send you a GOP registration card? /snark
Actually, I am not register with the GOP either… they are gutless Establishment power seekers. (sigh)
I would point out that’s she doesn’t represent the majority. This is one woman’s opinion which is likely a result of her education. Looking at her degree and job title she was completely and unequivocally unqualified for the role which she had been likely given through a network referral. The result was inevitable and just a matter of time. She didn’t know that what she was saying was illegal. She had no formal education to tell her otherwise. Which is why the blame should be placed on the DNC for hiring and placing her in a role she was ill equipped to handle. They could have just as easily hired an MBA grad from one of the many prestigious public and private research institutions and not suffered such a blow . This screams the issues we see in Corporate America HR departments. The unqualified BA in psychology vs the qualified BSBA.
For the record, I would like to note that she appears to still be employed by the DNC to this day. Using the Google Machine, I was able to find active twitter and other social media related to the DNC, and her profile still lists her there. Democrats care only about power and holding others to impossible standards they exempt themselves from.
Res Ipsa loquitur
Sorry Sparty, if your view was was the view of the Democratic Party she’d be gone.
I did read an article that Pelosi is telling democrats that their best chance to win the mid-terms is to shut up about impeachment and not go off the rails at every tweet. Duh. That was only what jack and others have been saying on here since January 21. I am pleasantly surprised that it was Pelosi who finally figured that out.
She will still hire a gay, non-white male, female, or some other “anointed combination” despite the release of this email. Surely you don’t think that the DNC is telling her to do otherwise just because of this, do you? Nobody is going to hold them accountable for being an Equal Opportunity Employer, because quite honestly, they don’t define the term like the rest of us do.
To my eternal shame, that’s where I am right now. If the election were held today, I would crawl ten miles naked over broken glass to vote for Donald Trump (or whoever the Republican nominee is) because the alternative is to wind up in a white, cisgender hetero male gulag somewhere in Siberia where I’ll be fed tofu and kale, forced to watch reruns of Jimmy Kimmel and Samantha Bee, and listen to Snoop Dogg — taken together, a fate far worse than death, or for that matter, any Christian Hell I can imagine.
I’m reminded of a scene from The Last Boy Scout starring Bruce Willis as the hero, Joe Hallenbeck:
Bad guy to Joe: “Just once, I’d like to hear you scream in pain.”
Joe to bad guy: “Play some rap music.”
“Pure self-protection” sums it up perfectly.
Why should they? There are no consequences (at least, in their minds) for having this sort of prejudice revealed. Oh, they give lip service to it, but they know it’ll be shunted straight down the memory hole by the media.
So why should they fear exposure?
This is exactly how you get more Trump.
Ya’ know, I notice one of the positions they’re looking to fill is a Chief Security Officer in the Tech department. Given their recent problems, maybe they’d better focus a bit less on building a diverse coalition and a bit more on hiring the best applicant they can find so they don’t end up getting hacked by Russians?
Oh shoot. I just realized that’s victim blaming. They should be free to hire anyone they want and not have to worry about getting hacked. Clearly I’m a product of hack-culture. Or something.
No kidding, Emily. I was surprised to see no mention of wanting Pakistani nationals to run the security effort, from Islamabad.
Perhaps they could consider Chelsea Manning for the position?
Chief Security Officer for their Tech Department?
Isn’t that just someone who goes around cleaning things with a rag?
Regarding “Even if the New York Times doesn’t have the integrity to print it…”
Project Veritas had soms damning video’s of NYT’s employees.
Isn’t it illegal to ask these things when you’re being considered for a job? Unless they are pretty vocal it is unlikely you would even know they are this way. Well I guess you could look at someone and tell they are female and black but how would you know they are gay?
Why, that new facial recognition software, now with GAYDAR!
HA! I think you owe me a new keyboard for that one.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/07/new-artificial-intelligence-can-tell-whether-youre-gay-or-straight-from-a-photograph
That’s….unsettling.
You know, I think I could guess not gay 100% of the time and have better results than the computer unless they oversampled their population. With such a small percentage of the population being homosexual, is it really just guesswork?
Maybe the stereotypical homosexual is stereotypical for a reason. I remember there being government research into why lesbians are fat.
Would have to look at the methodology.
I can’t find the link I posted on another one of these discussions about the studies done that the human brain is remarkably accurate making *character* judgments from face recognition, in a matter of milliseconds. The brain can do this with other judgments as well beyond character…such as attitudes, personality, and other things.
It’s like phrenology is making a come back.
I think the one mitigating factor is that these studies were based purely on milliseconds of exposure to images, and people guessed accurately the characteristics they were asked about. Whereas in real life, we are exposed to 3-D humans, and for longer than milliseconds, with every passing moment cluttering our initial perceptions.
“Well I guess you could look at someone and tell they are female and black”
Paging Ms. Dolezal, Ms. Rachel Dolezal…
Carly Fiorina implemented a very similar policy at Hewlett Packard while she was CEO. The difference in the policy was that they left out transgender and added Asian males to the undesirable category. The difference in implementation was they were very well aware that it was illegal so they never, ever put it in writing. HR was rather careful when pressed and relied on personal visits by top managy to verbal intimidate those managers who wouldn’t get in line. This all went away shortly after Carly was sacked.
It killed me to see Carly attempting to run under the Republican ticket after being Jessie Jackson’s buddy. Fortunately she never went far.
“I personally would prefer that you not forward to cisgender straight white males, since they’re already in the majority.”
Straight up systemic racism, discrimination, & bigotry period!
But, some systemic racism, discrimination, & bigotry is more equal than others.
6- “You are telling straight white people that they are second-class citizens who don’t deserve fairness.”
Over 40 years ago I read an editorial by a Gay man stating that so long as the LGBT crowd is treated as second-class citizens (and they were) they should pay “second-class” taxes; and that means NO taxes.
To which I (as evil incarnate, AKA a cisgender straight white male) say: Run THAT up the flag pole!
I keep expecting Ents to descend upon DNC headquarters.
Given the recent spate of IT-related problems among Democrats, and as a professional IT guy myself, my advice would be to not worry so much about how diverse the “voices and life experiences” of your IT team are, and focus more on whether they have a general idea of how computers work. In my experience, the IT world is about 75% straight white guys, and the top level people, the kind of intensely focused tech nerds who build fiber optic networks in their spare bedroom for fun (i.e., precisely the kind of person you want locking your shit down when the Russians are sniffing at the door), are about 99.9% straight white guys (well, celibate, mostly).
Or you can focus on the skin color and sex lives of your applicants, and get hacked again. Keep doin’ your thing, DNC. It won’t matter if your robust well-oiled machine can handle elections from “Presidential down to Dog Catcher”, because you won’t be winning them anyway.
“Keep doin’ your thing, DNC.”
May the DNC live in interesting times.
Donna Brazile throws ’em all under the bus.
(bolds mine throughout)
She: “Debbie Wasserman Schultz, (who “was not a good manager”) had not been the most active chair in fundraising at a time when President Barack Obama’s neglect had left the party in significant debt.
“(An August 2015) agreement—signed by Amy Dacey, the former CEO of the DNC, and Robby Mook with a copy to Marc Elias—specified that in exchange for raising money and investing in the DNC, Hillary would control the party’s finances, strategy, and all the money raised.
“Her campaign had the right of refusal of who would be the party communications director, and it would make final decisions on all the other staff. The DNC also was required to consult with the campaign about all other staffing, budgeting, data, analytics, and mailings.”
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/11/02/clinton-brazile-hacks-2016-215774
Jeez, let me get the post up, will ya? I may start requiring spoiler alerts..
“Jeez, let me get the post up, will ya?”
I’ll toss it over to Maxwell Smart & let him deal with the sure-to-follow charge of “cultural appropriation.”
“I may start requiring spoiler alerts..”
Or you could admonish “WordPress” to revoke my papers and put me back on the “auto-deliver to the spam folder” list.
heh, heh, heh…
Madeleine Leader = Irrational Social Justice Warrior Extraordinaire
#1 You can’t fix stupid.
#2 You can’t fix stupid.
#3 You can’t fix stupid.
#4 You can’t fix stupid.
#5 Yes
#6 Yes
#7 You can’t fix stupid.
Social Justice Warriors are running amok.
Looks like she was fired.
Good.
Hey, do you think the DNC reads Ethics Alarms?
”Hey, do you think the DNC reads Ethics Alarms?”
Nope. Where would they find the time, with their being obsessively preoccupied with self-destruction & all?
If they did I imagine more would be more like Chris and less like DWS.
I’m gonna take this as a compliment!
JP,
What does DWS stand for?
The soon-to-be-indicted <b<Debbie Wasserman-Schultz.
Thanks
JP wrote, “If they did I imagine more would be more like Chris and less like DWS.”
Really think about this JP, in many ways Chris is a lot like Debbie Wasserman-Schultz; the only real intellectual difference I can see is that Debbie Wasserman-Schultz doesn’t claim to be a English teacher. (poke, poke, jab, jab) 😉
Ok, that’s enough of that kind of humor from me for today.
Just like the Spartan boys were not beaten for stealing, they were beaten for getting caught.
I think it was my college classmate Michael Kinsey who said that the only unforgivable crime in Washington was telling the truth.
“the only unforgivable crime in Washington was telling the truth.”
“As scarce as truth is, the supply has always been in excess of the demand.” – Josh Billings
Over on his blog, Jonathan Turley was attacked for posting about this story and the mainstream media’s failure to cover it. Apparently just letting people know what’s going on makes him a pro-Trump shill.
Over on your blog, apparently just discussing ethics topics from an objective stance and balanced point of view makes you a pro-Trump shill.
It has surprised me, frankly.
If you’re not in lock-step with them then you are against them; this is just one reason why the political dolts in the left have been losing elections.
Again, why is she doing this, going against the most powerful Lefty cabal (known for its penchant for payback) in the known Universe, now?
Is she convinced she has others that have her back? If it were me, I’d require an iron-clad certification of unequivocal support written on their own skin with their own blood.
Makes you wonder if she knows some major shit is about to hit the fan at terminal velocity.