A decades-old court order that blocked the federal government from using tests to measure job applicants&#8217; skills was terminated by a D.C. judge on Friday, setting the stage for an overhaul of the federal workforce that could be one of President Donald Trump&#8217;s most lasting achievements.
In 1981, Angel Luevano sued the federal government over the Professional and Administrative Career Examination, a test that helped identify the best and brightest out of the tens of thousands who apply for government jobs each year. Luevano argued that the test kept too many blacks and Hispanics out of government, and, in the waning days of President Jimmy Carter&#8217;s administration, OPM agreed to pause the test for five years.
Forty-four years later, the &#8220;Luevano Consent Decree&#8221; was somehow still intact. In January, the Trump administration filed a brief <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/feds-cant-hire-for-competence-because-jimmy-carter-said-it-was-racist-trump-wants-to-fix-that">challenging the agreement</a> — a feat which required reopening a decades-closed court case in which the original judge had died. The administration argued that it was doubtful the decree was ever appropriate, and that, with Supreme Court case law outlawing affirmative action, it was certainly not now.
Angel Luevano is still alive, and agreed to terminate the consent decree, <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69731384/luevano-v-director-office-of-personnel-management/">court papers</a> show. Luevano was represented by lawyers from Hispanic and black civil rights groups, two of whom did not return a request for comment.
For almost half a century, the federal government has operated like a college that didn&#8217;t look at SAT scores when admitting students. Rescinding the Luevano Consent Decree could take the government from safety-school status to Ivy League.
&#8220;We&#8217;re making civil service great again,&#8221; Office of Personnel Management Director Scott Kupor told The Daily Wire Friday.
The move opens the door to technocratic hiring assessments that allow the government to hire applicants who objectively demonstrate the most aptitude. Kupor told The Daily Wire in an interview that the move means Americans may start getting better service at government agencies, with government being more helpful and responsive.
&#8220;The lasting opportunity here is: can we change the culture of the workforce in the federal government? Can we make it a high-performance culture? That will definitely be the president&#8217;s legacy, if we can make that successful,&#8221; he said.
After the demise of the Professional and Administrative Career Examination and similar tests, the government began relying on &#8220;self-assessments&#8221; to sift through job applicants, as it was the only measure that saw a sufficient number of minorities enter government. Applicants simply declared how good they were at a task, with no attempt to verify it or compare them to other applicants. That led to a hiring process that rewarded boasting and fabrications as much as merit.
Kupor said the de facto prohibition on government checking people&#8217;s competency before hiring them — at which point they become difficult to remove — had become particularly crippling in the modern age, with people using artificial intelligence or simply copy-and-paste to take a job advertisement&#8217;s requirements and send an application asserting that they had all those skills.
The inability to use objective measures to sort the most qualified applicants from a large pool — as virtually all other large employers do — has profoundly impacted the caliber of government employees. The Luevano Consent Decree was perhaps one of the largest applications ever of the philosophy known as &#8220;disparate impact,&#8221; which holds that anything that produces racially unbalanced outcomes must inherently be racist. But the fallout went beyond just minorities, leaving little way to differentiate a brilliant white job applicant from an incompetent white applicant.
OPM General Counsel Andrew Kloster told The Daily Wire in an interview that the government did not make any concessions to reach the agreement.
&#8220;It was a very easy process,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They just flat out agreed. It would not have happened without the original named plaintiff agreeing to it and the judge agreeing to accept it.&#8221;
&#8220;This is really kind of an understanding that disparate impact as a way to measure things is not the law of the land anymore. You have to actually show real discrimination. The explicit argument was that the objective tests themselves were racially biased, and obviously that&#8217;s bogus.&#8221;
It is yet to be decided whether OPM will institute a general aptitude test across agencies. But many specific job categories are likely to have their own tests. If the government is hiring, say, computer programmers, it won&#8217;t simply ask them how good they are at a programming language. Instead, it will administer a coding test to rank applicants on a uniform scale.
The hiring process used by government agencies for decades resulted in hiring that was, at best, random, and at worst, allowed the sort of cronyism and favoritism that the consent decree was supposed to avoid, Kupor said.
&#8220;We&#8217;re going to be able to attract really, really good people, because they&#8217;re going to be fairly tested for their merit,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It also really does eliminate a lot of potential for a bias in the hiring process if you actually use objective standards.&#8221;
&#8220;This is a win for fairness, as well as a win for getting American people the ability to get people with the appropriate skills into the right jobs.&#8221;

Scott Kupor And Eric Matthew Ueland Testify In Their Senate Nomination Hearing

For The First Time In 40 Years, The Federal Government Can Judge Applicants By Merit

Donald Trump

Federal Government

federal workforce

Jimmy Carter

Office of Personnel Management

Racial Bias

Racism

Numerous racial agitators said online this week that the black suspect in the murder of Austin Metcalf, who was white, was justified, arguing largely on racial grounds.
Metcalf, 17, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/high-school-football-star-stabbed-to-death-at-track-meet-dies-in-twin-brothers-arms?row=0&amp;elementPosition=5&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;author=Hank+Berrien&amp;title=High+School+Football+Star+Stabbed+To+Death+At+Track+Meet%2C+Dies+In+Twin+Brother’s+Arms&amp;category=News" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was stabbed to death</a> on Wednesday at a high school track meet after the victim reportedly told Karmelo Anthony, 17, that he was sitting in the wrong seat. Anthony has been charged with murder and, <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/04/us-news/austin-metcalfs-twin-says-we-were-one-person-in-heartbreaking-new-interview/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to an arrest warrant, told police of the fatal stabbing, &#8220;I did it.&#8221;
Racial activist Tariq Nasheed said without evidence that Metcalf is &#8220;a suspected white supremacist,&#8221; and Anthony &#8220;defended himself&#8221; after he was asked to &#8220;give up his seat,&#8221; referencing the Jim Crow era.
&#8220;A suspected white supremacist named Austin Metcalf (pictured with his twin) allegedly demanded honor student Karmelo Anthony give up his seat—like it was the Jim Crow era,&#8221; Nasheed posted. &#8220;Karmelo defended himself from the alleged threat. The Daniel Penny case set this precedent.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
A suspected white supremacist named Austin Metcalf (pictured with his twin) allegedly demanded honor student Karmelo Anthony give up his seat—like it was the Jim Crow era. Karmelo defended himself from the alleged threat. The Daniel Penny case set this precedent. <a href="https://t.co/F89Cn1j1U9">pic.twitter.com/F89Cn1j1U9</a>
— Tariq Nasheed 🇺🇸 (@tariqnasheed) <a href="https://twitter.com/tariqnasheed/status/1908338545020018820?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
Another online post, which has racked up 6.5 million views, called Metcalf &#8220;the aggressor&#8221; for asking Anthony to move.
&#8220;Whenever white supremacists immediately flood our mentions before the full story is even out, you know something’s up,&#8221; the post says. &#8220;It turns out, Austin Metcalf was the aggressor, and the Black kid, Karmelo Anthony, was defending himself.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Whenever white supremacists immediately flood our mentions before the full story is even out, you know something’s up.
It turns out, Austin Metcalf was the aggressor, and the Black kid, Karmelo Anthony, was defending himself.<a href="https://t.co/7gcDygFB9p">pic.twitter.com/7gcDygFB9p</a>
— Mike Baggz (@MikeBaggz) <a href="https://twitter.com/MikeBaggz/status/1907927941566312508?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2025</a></blockquote>
Moreover, according to Oli London, activists have set up a GoFundMe account for the suspected murderer, which has brought in thousands of dollars.
&#8220;BLM and left wing activists launch a GoFundMe for MURDERER Karmelo Anthony saying he wasn’t &#8216;looking for trouble.&#8217; $8,550 has so far been raised out of a $50,000 target to support the killer who stabbed to death 17 year old high school student Austin Metcalf,&#8221; London reported. &#8220;Karmelo confessed to police after his arrest that he carried out the stabbing. The fundraiser described Karmelo as a &#8216;respectful well-mannered young man.'&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
The fundraiser described Karmelo as a “respectful well-mannered young man.” <a href="https://t.co/BCFY8D5bwM">pic.twitter.com/BCFY8D5bwM</a>
— Oli London (@OliLondonTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/OliLondonTV/status/1908395689186578716?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 5, 2025</a></blockquote>
The family says Metcalf had a 4.0 GPA and was MVP of Frisco ISD’s Memorial High School football team. The teen did not know Anthony and died in his twin brother&#8217;s arms.
“They were twins, identical twins, and his brother was holding on to him, trying to make it stop bleeding, and he died in his brother’s arms,” Jeff Metcalf, the victim&#8217;s father, said. “I rushed up there and I saw him on the gurney and I could tell — they said he wasn’t breathing. I could see all the blood, and I saw where the wound was, and I was very concerned, so I had to find his brother, and we rushed to the hospital. And we prayed, and it’s God’s plan. I don’t understand it, but they weren’t able to save him. This is murder.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/the-media-desperately-wants-you-to-ignore-this-horrifying-story?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;row=1&amp;elementPosition=3&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;author=Matt+Walsh&amp;title=The+Media+Desperately+Wants+You+To+Ignore+This+Horrifying+Story&amp;category=Opinion" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Media Desperately Wants You To Ignore This Horrifying Story</a>

Screenshot 2025-04-05 at 9.43.51 AM

Racial Agitators Say Suspect In Stabbing Murder Of Teen Was Justified

Austin Metcalf

Crime

Karmelo Anthony

Murder

U.S.

Republican attorneys general from five states have sent a letter to the biggest law firms in the U.S. telling them to end <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/racial-discrimination" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racial preference programs</a> or face accountability. 
On Tuesday, the <a href="https://justthenews.com/sites/default/files/2023-08/Letter_to_AM_100_Law_Firms_re_Race_Discrimination_Final.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> was sent by Montana AG Austin Knudsen, Arkansas AG Tim Griffin, Iowa AG Brenna Bird, Kansas AG Kris Kobach, and Kentucky AG <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/kentucky-ag-daniel-cameron-wins-gop-governor-primary-race" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Daniel Cameron</a> to the managing partners, chairs, and CEOs of American Lawyer (Am Law) 100 Firms, a ranking of the 100 biggest law firms in the country. It warned the firms that any discriminatory treatment for hiring violates federal law and that they could be sanctioned if they treat anyone differently because of their skin color. 
“Specifically, you owe a duty to refrain from discriminating on the basis of race, whether under the label of &#8216;<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">diversity, equity, and inclusion</a>,&#8217; or otherwise. Put simply, differential treatment based on race and skin color, even for purportedly &#8216;benign&#8217; purposes, is unlawful, divisive, and exposes your firm to serious legal consequences, including potentially fines, damages, and injunctive relief,” the letter said. 
The letter referenced the June ruling from the Supreme Court that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/supreme-court-issues-landmark-ruling-on-affirmative-action-at-universities" target="_blank" rel="noopener">struck down</a> the racially-based acceptance policies of Harvard and the University of North Carolina where certain metrics favored minority students. Some Republicans have said that the Supreme Court ruling can be applied to hiring practices in the private sector, including at law firms. 
According to the Tuesday letter, racial discrimination for employment and promotions may be present in law firms, which they said would violate federal law. 
“These discriminatory practices include, among other things, explicit racial quotas and preferences in hiring, recruiting, retention, promotion, and advancement. They also include shocking race-based contracting practices, such as racial preferences and quotas in selecting suppliers, providing overt preferential treatment to customers on the basis of race, and pressuring contractors to adopt the company’s racially discriminatory quotas and preferences,” the AGs wrote. 
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The letter cited the racial quota for leadership and staff positions at Baker McKenzie, a prominent Chicago law firm. In addition to quotas, the Republicans warned that DEI programming could also be illegal. 
“Activities that utilize racial segregation, race stereotyping, and race scapegoating may violate civil rights laws because they can create a hostile environment and/or involve activities that result in different treatment on the basis of race. This is particularly true when participation in such exercises is compulsory,” the Republicans said. 
The firms were advised to end any “unlawful race-based quotas” or face accountability.  “If you choose not to do so, know that you will be held accountable — sooner rather than later — for treating individuals differently because of the color of their skin,” the letter said. 
Last month, 13 Republican attorneys general sent out a <a href="https://ag.ks.gov/docs/default-source/documents/corporate-racial-discrimination-multistate-letter.pdf?sfvrsn=968abc1a_2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">similar warning</a> to Fortune 500 companies, again pointing to the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Students for Fair Admissions v. President &amp; Fellows of Harvard College.

President Trump Has Rally In Kansas

Republican AGs Tell Nation’s Top Law Firms To Stop Racial Preference Hiring Or Face Accountability

Republican AGs Tell Nation's Top Law Firms To Stop Racial Preference Hiring Or Face Accountability

Affirmative Action

Diversity Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Montana

Politics

Racial Discrimination

Social Issues

Supreme Court

A recruiter for the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/united-kingdom" target="_blank" rel="noopener">United Kingdom</a>’s Royal Air Force referred to white men looking to join the air force as “useless white male pilots,” according to emails obtained by several British media outlets.
The comments were reportedly made by Squadron Leader Andrew Harwin in an email discussing board placements for ushering recruits through training.
“I noted that the boards have recently been predominantly white male heavy. If we don’t have enough BAME [black, Asian and minority ethnic] and female to board then we need to make the decision to pause boarding and seek more BAME and female from the RAF,” Harwin, who worked at the Officer and Aircrew Selection Centre, <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/raf-pays-out-after-order-to-avoid-hiring-useless-white-male-pilots-v0gvhp3sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reportedly</a> wrote in a January 19, 2021, email.
“I don’t really need to see loads of useless white male pilots, let’s get as focused as possible, I am more than happy to reduce boarding if needed to have a balanced BAME/female/male board,” he added.
One RAF source <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/05/31/stop-hiring-useless-white-male-pilots-raf-told/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> The Telegraph that the “email clearly demonstrates the endemic culture that was created by the senior leadership to chase ridiculous diversity statistics that were patently unachievable.&#8221;
A later email from January 19, 2021, said that the recruiting pool for minorities and women had been “drained.”
“From 336 Cs [candidates] we have c10% female, 5% BAME which we will burn through quickly using the boarding profile proposed,”  the email said.
Thirty-one men will be compensated roughly $6,000 each as a result of their training being delayed due to diversity quotas, <a href="https://news.sky.com/story/raf-recruiters-were-advised-against-selecting-useless-white-male-pilots-to-hit-diversity-targets-12893684" target="_blank" rel="noopener">according</a> to Sky News.
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“The RAF has identified 31 individuals that missed out on payments due to their entry/course dates being delayed. These individuals have been contacted and all have received the payments that they were due,” the RAF said in a <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/raf-pays-out-after-order-to-avoid-hiring-useless-white-male-pilots-v0gvhp3sg" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a>.
It also said in its statement that it would continue to push for more “under-represented” groups into the force, yet said that selections would continue to be merit-based.
“All individuals joining the Royal Air Force were and are selected on merit and any individuals that were advanced to their training courses had already passed the selection process. There was no compromise of entry standards and no impact on the front line or operational effectiveness,” the RAF said.
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/report-royal-air-force-stops-hiring-white-men-to-keep-with-diversity-quotas-female-head-of-recruiting-quits-in-protest" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Royal Air Force Stops Hiring White Men To Keep With Diversity Quotas, Female Head Of Recruiting Quits In Protest</a>

Centenary Parade And Flypast to Commemorate The Royal Air Force’s 100th Birthday

RAF Squadron Leader Disparaged ‘Useless White Male Pilots’ In Emails About Increasing Diversity: Report

RAF Squadron Leader Disparaged 'Useless White Male Pilots' In Emails About Increasing Diversity: Report

Diversity

Military

U.K.

World

Many Americans believe companies should be more vocal on the topic of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/racism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racism</a>, according to two surveys released on Wednesday, a reality which comes as many conservatives raise concerns about the impact of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">diversity</a> initiatives.
The most recent <a href="https://www.edelman.com/sites/g/files/aatuss191/files/2023-05/2023%20Edelman%20Trust%20Barometer%20Special%20Report%20Business%20and%20Racial%20Justice%20FINAL.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">edition</a> of the Edelman Trust Barometer found that 62% of respondents believe companies are “doing mediocre or worse living up to their promises and commitments to address racism both within their organization as well as the population.” Some 74% of blacks answered affirmatively, as did 71% of Asians, 66% of Hispanics, and 60% of whites, while a slight majority of Republicans answered affirmatively alongside two-thirds of Democrats.
Respondents also overwhelmingly said that prominent firms should correct misconceptions about diversity and affirmative action in the workplace, as well as “provide training on how to identify misinformation, including misinformation about racism and systemic injustice.”
Another <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2023/05/17/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-in-the-workplace/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> of American workers from Pew Research Center revealed that 56% of respondents believe “increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion at work” is a “good thing,” while 16% said the trend was a “bad thing” and 28% said the trend was “neither good nor bad.”
Only 32% of workers, on the other hand, said they consider working “somewhere with a mix of employees of different races and ethnicities” as “extremely or very important” to them, while 28% said the same with respect to age diversity. More than half believe their employers pay “about the right amount of attention” to increasing diversity efforts, while women were considerably more likely than men to concur that the initiatives are positive developments.
Diversity, equity, and inclusion, also known as DEI, acquired a larger <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/technology-firms-send-diversity-czars-packing-in-bid-to-become-more-profitable" target="_blank" rel="noopener">foothold</a> in the private sector after the social and racial justice movements gained significant momentum while spreading across the nation three years ago. Critics of the diversity efforts observe that proponents advocate the mingling of racial or sexual identity with critical hiring decisions, leading to a decline in overall profitability and efficiency as efforts to merely hire the most qualified candidates are deprioritized. Other skeptics note that moves claiming to ensure equal opportunity can also serve as a means to advance left-wing ideology with respect to racial identity and oppression within workplaces.
Many companies have indeed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/an-overt-act-of-marketing-leading-bank-increases-quota-for-women-in-senior-roles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">adopted</a> explicit goals to increase the number of racial minorities or females who are employed in the overall workforce or are promoted to senior management. Some conservative attorneys <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/blackrock-hit-with-federal-civil-rights-complaint-over-alleged-racist-hiring" target="_blank" rel="noopener">argue</a> that the objectives violate the Civil Rights Act of 1964, a statute that <a href="https://www.eeoc.gov/statutes/title-vii-civil-rights-act-1964" target="_blank" rel="noopener">penalizes</a> any employer who would “limit, segregate, or classify his employees or applicants for employment” in any way that could adversely affect them because of their “race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.”
The largest firms in the United States <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/one-year-after-george-floyd-americas-biggest-corporations-earmark-37-billion-for-racial-equity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">donated</a> more than $37 billion to social justice organizations and efforts in the year after the death of George Floyd. A more recent analysis from earlier this year <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/new-analysis-corporate-america-has-donated-82-billion-to-blm-related-causes-so-far" target="_blank" rel="noopener">concluded</a> that the number has since reached $83 billion.
Government officials have likewise <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-makes-new-move-to-purge-gender-pay-gap-from-federal-government" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attempted</a> to hire employees based on their race or sex: President Joe Biden endorsed an executive order to achieve “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” in the federal workforce, as well as a <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Strategic-Plan-to-Advance-Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-and-Accessibility-in-the-Federal-Workforce-11.23.21.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">plan</a> which includes an “equity roadmap” calling for “policies that do not rely solely on prior salary history” to create payment schedules.

Diverse Workplace

Massive Share Of Workers Upset Companies Are Not Calling Out Racism More Often

Business

General

<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/chicago" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Chicago</a> Democratic Mayor <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/lori-lightfoot?_gl=1*zagxri*_ga*NzUzNDA5ODIxLjE2NzkzMjkzNzM.*_ga_CZKR9ZYKJP*MTY4MzU2MjUwMS4xOTEuMS4xNjgzNTc0MzM1LjU2LjAuMA.." target="_blank" rel="noopener">Lori Lightfoot</a> contended that the landslide defeat against her reelection campaign was attributable to “right-wing forces” and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/racism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">racial bias</a>.
Lightfoot, who overwhelmingly won the city’s mayoral election four years ago but failed to advance to the runoff this year, will depart office next week. She will be <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/leftist-chicago-mayoral-candidate-defeats-moderate-rival-will-succeed-lori-lightfoot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">succeeded</a> by Brandon Johnson, the left-wing former commissioner of Cook County, who defeated Paul Vallas, the more moderate former chief executive of Chicago Public Schools.
Lightfoot said in a Monday <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tzIaWIfBys" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with MSNBC that she lost because of national political tumult that caused divisions in Chicago, which she admitted is a “deep-blue Democratic city.”
“We came up short, but I leave my office with my head held high,” she asserted. “What we, I think, taught our city and taught the country is how to operationalize equity, whether it’s historic investments in affordable housing, the environment, our youth, coming up with a public safety that wasn’t just dependent upon law enforcement first and only.”
Lawlessness nevertheless <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/wake-of-destruction-the-legacy-of-chicagos-departing-mayor-lori-lightfoot" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rose</a> dramatically during Lightfoot’s four-year tenure: there were 490 homicides in the Windy City as of 2019, the year in which Lightfoot assumed office, while murders soared to 772 in 2020 and 800 in 2021, marking an increase of more than 58% as nationwide Black Lives Matter protests occurred in the wake of the death of George Floyd. Lightfoot, who has a personal police unit with 71 officers assigned to protect her life, meanwhile <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/chicago-mayor-lightfoot-has-71-person-police-unit-to-protect-her-blames-trump-for-being-in-danger" target="_blank" rel="noopener">proposed</a> eliminating $80 million from the Chicago Police Department budget in 2020.
MSNBC contributor Al Sharpton asked Lightfoot whether she believes her race played a role in her defeat, even though her successor is also black. Lightfoot, who has repeatedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/lightfoot-out-as-mayor-says-she-was-treated-unfairly-as-a-black-woman" target="_blank" rel="noopener">cited</a> her race and her self-identification as a lesbian when describing her defeat, claimed that the reelection strategy of former President Donald Trump relied on attacking “cities and mayors” like herself, referencing Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta and Muriel Bowser of Washington, D.C.
“There’s no question, Reverend Al, that there are some people in Chicago and across the country that don’t want mayors like me to succeed,” she continued. “When the person with the biggest megaphone and biggest stage attacks you in a way that Trump attacked us, it unleashes a set of forces that are hard to control. Those dog whistles that were blown in 2020 are still resonating today, and it was fed by the uncertainty and the anger, and then funded by right-wing forces that wanted to take down a big-city mayor.”
Lightfoot acknowledged that her successor is even more left-wing than herself even as she said that Republicans had conspired to end her career. “Unfortunately the people who were jumping on the bandwagon of a Republican posing like a Democrat now got a democratic socialist as the mayor, so be careful what you wish for,” she remarked.
Beyond the city’s dismal record on public safety, Chicago also has the second-highest tax burden in the nation for combined state and local sales tax rates, according to a <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/sales-tax-rates-by-city-2021/?utm_source=Tax+Foundation+Newsletters&amp;utm_campaign=7f2ef02e5b-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2019_10_17_07_28_COPY_01&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_term=0_8387957ec9-7f2ef02e5b-429489705&amp;mc_cid=7f2ef02e5b&amp;mc_eid=a9b206fa6a#_ftn13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">study</a> from the Tax Foundation. Lightfoot had introduced a property tax increase but reversed the policy ahead of her reelection campaign, according to a <a href="https://www.illinoispolicy.org/lightfoot-cancels-property-tax-hike-in-announcing-new-budget/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Illinois Policy Institute. Prominent businesses such as food processing company Tyson, airplane manufacturer Boeing, constriction manufacturer Caterpillar, and hedge fund Citadel announced their exits from the city during her tenure even as Lightfoot said on her campaign <a href="https://lightfootforchicago.com/economic-development/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">website</a> that she created “an environment that supports and sustains entrepreneurs and workers who make Chicago their home.”

Lori Lightfoot

Lori Lightfoot Blames Racism, ‘Right-Wing Forces’ For Devastating Loss In Chicago: ‘I Leave My Office With My Head Held High’

Lori Lightfoot Blames Racism, ‘Right-Wing Forces’ For Devastating Loss In Chicago

Al Sharpton

Chicago

Elections

Republican

David Stevens, a senior <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/housing" target="_blank" rel="noopener">housing</a> official under former President Barack Obama, condemned a proposal from President <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/biden-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> that will effectively <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/equity" target="_blank" rel="noopener">penalize</a> financially stable homebuyers to subsidize those with higher risk.
Americans purchasing a new home or refinancing their existing mortgage can <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/biden-now-punishing-americans-with-high-credit-scores-to-subsidize-certain-homebuyers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expect</a> to pay higher mortgage rates and monthly fees starting in May if they have a higher credit score, while those with lower credit scores and smaller down payments will be provided better rates. Homebuyers with credit scores above 680, for instance, would pay an additional $40 each month on a home loan of $400,000, while homebuyers who make down payments between 15% and 20% will receive the largest fees.
Stevens, who previously served as federal housing commissioner for the Department of Housing and Urban Development, asserted that the move is “unprecedented” in an <a href="https://www.foxbusiness.com/real-estate/former-obama-housing-chief-slams-bidens-unprecedented-mortgage-plan-not-way" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> with Fox News. &#8220;We can do better programs to help more minorities get into homeownership,” he contended. “This is not the way to do it.&#8221;
Government-backed mortgage corporations Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the latter of which Stevens used to lead as senior vice president of single family lending, will pivot from a primarily risk-driven assessment toward lowering fees for potential homebuyers with lower credit scores. &#8220;This has really convoluted the entire discipline and credit risk pricing structure that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have followed since their inception,&#8221; Stevens added. &#8220;I totally recognize and appreciate the effort to bring more people into homeownership who have traditionally not had that opportunity. But using Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac for these sorts of political purposes may not be the best thing to do.”
Stevens confirmed that Sandra Thompson, the current director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, made a shift in which she “lowered the fees being charged to borrowers with low down payments and low credit scores” and compensated them by “raising fees on better creditworthy borrowers who are putting down much larger down payments.” He noted that he received an email from an executive at a mortgage lending company who noted that the policy incentivizes borrowers to worsen their credit before applying for a loan in order to improve their fee structure.
Mortgage Bankers Association CEO Robert Broeksmit likewise said in a <a href="https://www.mba.org/docs/default-source/residential-policy-letters/mba-letter-regarding-new-llpa-changes_feb-3-2023.pdf?sfvrsn=b8c9970_1&amp;utm_campaign=Breaking%20AU%20-%20FHFA%20LLPA%20Letter%20-%202-6-23&amp;utm_medium=email&amp;utm_source=Eloqua" target="_blank" rel="noopener">letter</a> to the Federal Housing Finance Agency that the policy would raise costs for typical homebuyers despite the “current stressed housing market conditions already making affordability a challenge.” He called on ​​the loan level pricing adjustments based on income to be removed.
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The implementation of the new fee structure, part of which was <a href="https://www.fhfa.gov/Media/PublicAffairs/Pages/Statement-from-FHFA-Director-Sandra-Thompson-on-Upfront-Fees-Based-on-Certain-Borrowers-DTI-Ratio.aspx" target="_blank" rel="noopener">delayed</a> until August following criticism from mortgage industry professionals, is consistent with White House policies attempting to address claims of racial income and wealth inequality. President Joe Biden recently issued an <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2023/02/16/executive-order-on-further-advancing-racial-equity-and-support-for-underserved-communities-through-the-federal-government/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">executive order</a> mandating that his administration operate under a “whole-of-government approach to racial equity and support for underserved communities” and calling on federal agencies to “embed” the philosophy into all aspects of their decision-making.
The executive order specifically mentioned that agencies should “expand access to capital, preserve housing and neighborhood affordability, root out discrimination in the housing market, and build community wealth.”

President Biden in Durham

Former Obama Housing Commissioner Slams Biden Rule That Will Raise Mortgage Fees To Subsidize Low-Income Buyers

Former Obama Housing Commissioner Slams Equity-Driven Biden Mortgage Rule

Biden Administration

Economy

Equity

Housing

LinkedIn implemented features that appear to let <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/business" target="_blank" rel="noopener">recruiters</a> filter potential <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/jobs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">job</a> candidates by their <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/diversity-equity-and-inclusion-dei" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demographic</a> characteristics.
Users on the professional <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/social-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">social media</a> network who edit the demographic information on their profiles, such as their race, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, and current or former military service, can let the platform use the information for “diversity in recruiting” tools, which “allow your demographic information to be used in LinkedIn recruiting features to help recruiters find a more diverse group of qualified candidates.”
The Daily Wire verified the existence of the features after screenshots posted by concerned LinkedIn users circulated on social media.
LinkedIn meanwhile updated a <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/a1336543?lipi=urn%3Ali%3Apage%3Ad_flagship3_profile_selfid_controls%3BPiinFPBiTA6%2F0ZFpWRzRlw%3D%3D" target="_blank" rel="noopener">webpage</a> one month ago explaining that the platform “may use your personal demographic information in recruiting features to surface qualified members that may diversify the group of candidates displayed to recruiters” who work for companies with “public commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion.” Answers to the personal demographic questions are “never directly shared with recruiters or companies,” the webpage added, noting that users can “opt out of this use of your personal demographic information in your settings.”
Increasing the percentage of females or racial minorities in corporate workforces are goals often pursued by firms devoted to diversity, equity, and inclusion, also known as DEI, as well as the environmental, social, and corporate governance movement, commonly known as ESG. Both philosophies have rapidly grown in prominence among leading firms in recent years, even as skeptics contend that they mingle political and social causes with core business objectives in a manner that compromises or distracts from profitability.
Many companies in a variety of sectors, from media and communications to pharmaceuticals and biotechnology, publicly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/businesses-pulled-back-on-diversity-equity-and-inclusion-programs-this-year-new-report-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tout</a> diversity programs as they seek to hire applicants based partly on their race and sex. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania, which ranks among the world’s foremost postsecondary business programs, recently <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/worlds-best-business-school-adds-diversity-and-woke-investing-majors" target="_blank" rel="noopener">unveiled</a> a new set of DEI concentrations for undergraduate and graduate students.
LinkedIn, which software behemoth Microsoft purchased in 2016, also leverages user demographic information for removing “unfair bias from our products,” examining data such as salary ranges and career trends for “purposes such as assessing and improving pay equality,” and providing “aggregate insights to help employers and hiring managers in their efforts to identify more diverse candidates,” according to the webpage.
“Our vision is to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce, and we are working hard to ensure that all members have equal access to these opportunities,” the company added. “One way to make sure people have equal access is to understand the gender, race, ethnicity, and other important demographic information of our members and then to measure whether or not all are being afforded opportunities equitably on our platform.”
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LinkedIn Talent Solutions said in an <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/improve-gender-representation-your-candidate-/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> last year that the platform created notifications when the male-to-female ratio in a given job search is unbalanced so that recruiters can “improve the gender balance” by amending skill, location, and company filters. Firms that recruit on the platform can also “highlight their values and organizational commitments” with dedicated sections of their company pages for diversity, environmental sustainability, and social impact.
LinkedIn faced backlash two years ago for a diversity training <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/linkedin-removes-racist-be-less-white-diversity-training-releases-statement-following-backlash" target="_blank" rel="noopener">program</a> that encouraged participants to “be less white.” The firm removed the course after employees from participating companies leaked slides from the training online.

Logo Photo Illustration

LinkedIn Allows Recruiters To Filter Job Candidates By Race

LinkedIn Allows Diversity Recruiters To Filter Job Candidates By Demographics

Jobs

Social Media

<a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/elon-musk" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Elon Musk</a> commented on social media that the nation’s <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/education" target="_blank" rel="noopener">education</a> system and <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/mainstream-media" target="_blank" rel="noopener">media</a> atmosphere are “racist” against white and Asian people.
The remarks from the world’s second-richest man came as several newspapers <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/usa-today-other-newspapers-drop-dilbert-over-creator-scott-adams-racially-charged-comments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dropped</a> the “Dilbert” cartoon after creator Scott Adams remarked that nearly half of black Americans could not agree with the phrase “it’s okay to be white” in a recent survey. Adams jested that he has been “identifying as black” for some time but must have accidentally joined a “hate group” and recommended that white Americans “get the hell away from black people.”
Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1629764614870167552?s=20" target="_blank" rel="noopener">responded</a> to a social media post noting that outlets such as the San Francisco Chronicle called Adams racist but gave black Americans who do not believe “it’s okay to be white” a free pass. He observed that American media “was racist against non-white people” for a very long time but is now “racist against” whites and Asians. “Same thing happened with elite colleges and high schools in America,” he added. “Maybe they can try not being racist.”
Media outlets have advanced the notion that purported white supremacy is a primary threat to the population of the United States. New York Times and Daily Beast contributor Wajahat Ali recently said during an <a href="https://nypost.com/2023/02/20/msnbc-guest-haley-uses-brown-skin-to-launder-racism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> on MSNBC that Republican presidential candidate and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley “uses her brown skin as a weapon against poor black folks and poor brown-black folks” and to “launder white supremacist talking points.” Left-wing commentators blamed the March 2021 shooting at a supermarket in Colorado on “white violence” before news broke that the shooter was a Syrian Muslim immigrant; The Washington Post then ran an <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/04/08/did-boulder-shooting-count-white-male-violence-depends-how-you-define-white/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">article</a> stating that one’s verdict on the matter “depends on how you define white.”
Such assertions have gained a foothold in the federal government: the Biden administration has <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2022/06/19/fact-sheet-the-biden-harris-administration-advances-equity-and-opportunity-for-black-americans-and-communities-across-the-country/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">ordered</a> internal efforts to “root out white supremacy and extremism” within agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security, while Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) filed <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-democrat-files-bill-to-prosecute-conspiracy-to-commit-white-supremacy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">legislation</a> to codify “conspiracy to commit white supremacy” in federal hate crime laws.
With respect to the education system, evidence suggests that elite universities disadvantage white and Asian students to attain higher levels of racial and cultural diversity. One study from 2009 concluded that Asians required an SAT score roughly 140 points higher than white applicants, 270 points higher than Hispanic applicants, and 450 points higher than black applicants, according to a <a href="https://asianamericanforeducation.org/en/issue/discrimination-on-admissions/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> from the Asian American Coalition for Education.
The Supreme Court recently heard cases regarding the legitimacy of affirmative action in the higher education system; members of the conservative majority were <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/clarence-thomas-ive-heard-the-word-diversity-and-i-dont-have-a-clue-what-it-means" target="_blank" rel="noopener">skeptical</a> that racial diversity truly offers educational benefits. “I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” Justice Clarence Thomas said during oral arguments. “It seems to mean everything for everyone.”
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Racial bias in the education system also exists in purported anti-racism trainings, which gained popularity after the death of George Floyd in 2020. Materials for teachers have <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/pizza-hut-pushes-anti-racism-training-for-teachers-talks-of-americas-history-of-police-brutality-and-systemic-racism" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that “racism exists within and beyond schools and communities of learning” and that “the myth of a racial hierarchy remains a dominant part of America’s culture.” One training from a school district in Washington <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/school-anti-racism-training-reportedly-includes-pyramid-of-white-supremacy-pie-of-privilege" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> that “police brutality” and “mass incarceration” sit at the top of the “Pyramid of White Supremacy.”

Elon Musk

Elon Musk: Media Climate, Education System Are ‘Racist Against Whites And Asians’

Elon Musk Says Media And Education System Are 'Racist Against Whites And Asians'

Asian American

Celebrities

Mainstream Media

White Supremacy

A new study found that black <a href="http://dailywire.com/topic/taxes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tax</a> filers are several times more likely to be audited by the <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/internal-revenue-service-irs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">IRS</a> than other tax filers, a revelation that comes as the agency prepares to double headcount and receive a deluge of funds to increase audit activity.
Stanford University law professor Daniel Ho partnered with other researchers, as well as economists in the Treasury Department’s Office of Tax Analysis, to examine more than 148 million tax returns. Though filers do not identify their race on their returns, the team was able to predict the probability that a given filer identified as black based on geography and their first and last names. The <a href="https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/measuring-and-mitigating-racial-disparities-tax-audits" target="_blank" rel="noopener">research</a> concluded that black filers are between 2.9 and 4.7 times more likely to experience audits than non-black counterparts.
“The IRS should drill down to understand and modify its existing audit selection methods to mitigate the disparity we’ve documented,” Ho said in a <a href="https://law.stanford.edu/press/irs-disproportionately-audits-black-taxpayers/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">news release</a>. “And we’ve shown they can do that without necessarily sacrificing tax revenue.”
Audits from the agency disproportionately impact taxpayers who collect the Earned Income Tax Credit, which offers tax breaks to low and moderate income households. Black filers accounted for 21% of EITC claims but were impacted by 43% of the EITC audits.
Some 94% of audits among EITC claimants occurred via correspondence audit, which the IRS executes by mail, rather than a field audit, which requires the IRS to use more extensive resources. The agency feeds a “completely secret” algorithm with information from the Dependent Database to automatically generate audit letters to EITC claimants.
“Compared with labor-intensive field audits, correspondence audits of EITC claimants are easy to trigger, cost very little, and require minimal effort by IRS personnel,” the news release continued. “The burden of correspondence audits on EITC claimants is more likely to fall on lower income individuals whose tax returns are less complex and less likely to lead to litigation.”
Considering the magnitude of underreported income rather than the likelihood of underreported income would have resulted in more non-black filers receiving audits than black filers, according to the researchers. Evelyn Smith, a doctoral candidate at the University of Michigan who aided with the research, claimed that “the choice to focus on whether there is underreporting, as opposed to magnitude of underreporting, is connected to broader structural sources of economic inequality and racial justice.”
Whether the disparity in audit rates is ultimately attributable to purported inequities, the study comes as the IRS prepares to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/irs-has-not-yet-finalized-how-middle-class-will-be-affected-by-80-billion-windfall" target="_blank" rel="noopener">expand</a> operations using $80 billion provided by President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration recently noted that the agency’s budget for enforcement activity will increase 69% over the next decade, while the budget for taxpayer services will increase 9%.
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has vowed that the resources will not be utilized to increase audit rates for American households earning less than $400,000 per year “relative to historical levels.” She <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/janet-yellen-vows-irs-audits-wont-rise-for-middle-income-americans-but-theres-a-catch" target="_blank" rel="noopener">failed</a> to clarify that “historical levels” of enforcement were far higher as recently as one decade ago: audit rates for Americans earning between $25,000 and $200,000 decreased 76% between 2010 and 2019, according to <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/gao-22-104960.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">data</a> from the Government Accountability Office.

account

As IRS Expands, Study Shows The Agency Audits Black People At Least Thrice As Much As Other Racial Groups 

IRS Audits Black People At Least Thrice As Much As Other Racial Groups 

Internal Revenue Service (IRS)

Taxes

President <a href="http://www.dailywire.com/topic/joe-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Joe Biden</a> appeared to suggest on Wednesday that airlines were engaging in racial discrimination when they charged a premium for seats with more legroom, saying that &#8220;people of color&#8221; were most impacted by the additional fees.
The president was addressing what he referred to as &#8220;<a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/10/26/politics/biden-bank-fees-speech/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">junk fees</a>&#8221; — from concert ticket &#8220;processing fees&#8221; and additional booking fees tacked on by resorts and hotels to fees charged by airlines to guarantee a seat with a little more space between the purchased seat and the seat directly in front of it — and he argued that those fees disproportionately impacted those with lower income levels in addition to &#8220;people of color.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Biden: &quot;Some airlines, if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money but you don&#39;t know it &#8230; these are junk fees, they&#39;re unfair and they hit marginalized Americans the hardest, especially &#8230; people of color.&quot;<a href="https://t.co/CItQrOjaXP">pic.twitter.com/CItQrOjaXP</a>
&mdash; Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDailyWire/status/1585295101194108935?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Some airlines, if you want six more inches between you and the seat in front, you pay more money, but you don&#8217;t know it until you purchase your ticket,&#8221; Biden claimed. &#8220;Look, folks, these are junk fees – they’re unfair and they’re hitting marginalized Americans the hardest, especially low-income folks and people of color. They benefit big corporations, not consumers, not working families. And that changes now.&#8221;
Red State Deputy Managing Editor Kira Davis was quick to call out the president for what she said looked to be the Democrats&#8217; new strategy. &#8220;Tell me the last thing you did &#8230; and add &#8216;people of color hardest hit.&#8217; That seems to be the Democrat strategy these days &#8230; just tack on &#8216;people of color&#8217; to any old statement. I just made a sandwich. #PeopleOfColorHardestHit.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Tell me the last thing you did&#8230;and add &quot;people of color hardest hit.&quot; That seems to be the Democrat strategy these days&#8230;just tack on &quot;people of color&quot; to any old statement. I just made a sandwich. <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/PeopleOfColorHardestHit?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#PeopleOfColorHardestHit</a> <a href="https://t.co/hOiNV8hh3u">https://t.co/hOiNV8hh3u</a>
&mdash; Kira (@RealKiraDavis) <a href="https://twitter.com/RealKiraDavis/status/1585347914020188160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Airline ticketing is now ‘racist.’ Easy for a dude to say who flies an Air Force 747-200 to Delaware every weekend. Has there ever been a more tone deaf president?&#8221; Red State&#8217;s Buzz Patterson <a href="https://twitter.com/BuzzPatterson/status/1585346703346978816" target="_blank" rel="noopener">added</a>.
&#8220;Is Biden saying people of color are all poor??&#8221; @HodgeTwins <a href="https://twitter.com/hodgetwins/status/1585335140686843904" target="_blank" rel="noopener">asked</a>. &#8220;Never knew seats on an airplane were racist.&#8221;
National Review&#8217;s Jim Geraghty added, &#8220;Less than 2 weeks until the midterm elections, and the president of the United States is in Washington, talking about the amount of legroom on airlines.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Less than 2 weeks until the midterm elections, and the president of the United States is in Washington, talking about the amount of legroom on airlines. <a href="https://t.co/2bfQKlK0wb">https://t.co/2bfQKlK0wb</a>
&mdash; Jim Geraghty (@jimgeraghty) <a href="https://twitter.com/jimgeraghty/status/1585334052277493762?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Sometimes it feels like @JoeBiden saw that old Eddie Murphy &#8216;White Like Me&#8217; SNL skit and didn&#8217;t realize it was satire,&#8221; radio host KC O&#8217;Dea <a href="https://twitter.com/KC_ODEA/status/1585314993226285056" target="_blank" rel="noopener">commented</a>.
Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs (former WWE wrestler Kane) joked, &#8220;I have long felt that airline seating is extraordinarily unfair to oversized people such as myself and warrants Federal intervention. Thanks to @POTUS for giving this crucial issue the attention it deserves. (For those lacking a sense of humor, this is called sarcasm.)&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I have long felt that airline seating is extraordinarily unfair to oversized people such as myself and warrants Federal intervention. Thanks to <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> for giving this crucial issue the attention it deserves. (For those lacking a sense of humor, this is called sarcasm) <a href="https://t.co/yn3KPJo5yC">https://t.co/yn3KPJo5yC</a>
&mdash; Glenn Jacobs (@GlennJacobsTN) <a href="https://twitter.com/GlennJacobsTN/status/1585314153647919108?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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Americano Media&#8217;s Emmanuel Rincón took a different approach and objected to the idea that Biden was essentially telling private businesses how they could and could not operate, tweeting, &#8220;Biden now wants to tell private companies how to run their businesses. A politician should never have the power to interfere in executive decisions of companies (whether you agree or not), this is an abuse of power.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
🚨 | Biden ahora quiere decirle a las empresas privadas como manejar sus negocios. Un político no debería nunca tener la potestad de entrometerse en decisiones ejecutivas de las empresas (esté usted de acuerdo o no), esto es un abuso de poder. <a href="https://t.co/Jl9SQHJZN7">https://t.co/Jl9SQHJZN7</a>
&mdash; Emmanuel Rincón (@EmmaRincon) <a href="https://twitter.com/EmmaRincon/status/1585320834331295768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 26, 2022</a></blockquote>
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President Biden On His Administration’s New Actions On The Economy

Biden Suggests ‘People Of Color’ Can’t Afford Or Don’t Know How To Choose Airplane Seats With More Legroom

Biden Suggests 'People Of Color' Can't Afford Or Don't Know How To Choose Airplane Seats With More Legroom

Air and Space

Air Travel

Executive

Joe Biden

The global creative firm Wieden &amp; Kennedy (W+K) released a new film in May, just in time for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) month.
“The Myth” is the perfect title for the new film promoted by the leading advertising firm. That&#8217;s because the entire film is based on sophistry and a conspiratorial theory, resulting in a story that totally ignores Asian excellence, stokes racial tensions, and worse, outright promotes Anti-White animus.
How, you ask, could I say such a thing?
After all, the film starts with a little Asian girl next to an American flag. It’s a story about belonging and inclusivity, right? That’s a wonderful thing, isn’t it?
If only that’s what “The Myth” was about: The American story of an immigrant population who, in spite of real hurdles like, yes, racism, have managed to achieve stratospheric success.
Asians, in fact, have <a href="https://thepractice.law.harvard.edu/article/the-model-minority-myth/">the highest median income</a> of any group in America. Far higher than whites, who, we are constantly told, oppress and prevent other non-white groups from succeeding.
But to understand the message of the film, “The Myth”, you must first understand the underlying poisonous argument of its narrative. A lie emanating from the Left today.
<h4>&#8220;The Myth&#8221; Embraces A Conspiracy About White America</h4>
The argument being made by the Left and embraced in “The Myth” is this: White people are the source of all ethnic tension and “whiteness” is what truly ails us as a society—specifically, those twin scourges of “white privilege” and “white supremacy”.
White people, the argument goes, are born racists by deign of their skin. And everything they have created—all American laws, institutions, and policies—are, therefore “systemically” racist and “white supremacist”.
This is the basic premise of the Critical Race Theory (CRT) and the Diversity, Equity &amp; Inclusion (DEI) movement. In a nutshell, these movements claim the very fabric of America was woven together with the expressed purpose of oppressing people of color, to keep them in check. All done with the intention of preserving “white power”.
Unfortunately, when it comes to Asian Americans, CRT/DEI’s porous logic runs into the hard brick wall of reality. Asian excellence defies the assertion that “People of Color” (POC), can’t succeed because of America’s supposed “systemic racism”.
Asian achievement throws a monkey wrench into the Left’s “white supremacy” argument &#8211; a charge that’s recently been mainlined into America’s body politic by the Democratic Party. 
Asian American success bears witness to the imperfect, but still enviable, U.S. system of individual rights, free markets, and equality before the law (not equity which demands equal outcomes). 
This may explain why so many Asians immigrate here and are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the country.
So, why is the progressive Left hellbent on dividing Americans into warring tribes? And what does it have to do with America’s overachieving Asians?
Conjure up a new pernicious myth.
<h4>&#8220;The Myth&#8221; Replaces A Positive Myth With A Negative One</h4>
“The Myth” attempts to blow up the stereotype of Asians as America’s “Model Minority”.
What is the “<a href="https://breaking-taboo.org/2021/03/03/modelminority/">Model Minority</a>”? It’s essentially a common, positive stereotype about Asian-Americans:
<blockquote>it’s an ethnic minority demographic group whose members are perceived to achieve a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average. This success is typically measured by income, education, low criminality, and high family/marital stability” [1]. Asian Americans are commonly seen as the ‘model minority’.</blockquote>
While the film’s title suggests the goal of the piece is to shatter the “myth” of the &#8220;Model Minority”, bringing more nuance to the Asian-American story, it doesn’t actually do that. It just swaps one “myth” about Asians for another, replacing the supposed “myth” of Asians being high-achievers with another more vile myth: that Asians are servile, agreeable, and “model citizens”, but only because white people made them this way.
<h4>Dissecting The Not-So Subtle Racism In &#8220;The Myth&#8221;</h4>
The filmmakers of “The Myth”, start the film, with a uniformed, forlorn-looking Asian girl, about to have her school picture taken. White hands from a man appear from out of frame, as he raises her chin to orient her for the photo.
“A model student… a model citizen”, the narrator says as we watch this.
The suggestion here, of course, is that she is already being molded into some perfect “white standard” by white people, even as a young girl.
It’s instructive to note that by constructing a new “Model Minority” myth, the film avoids any depiction of Asian success. Our female Asian hero is fatherless and low income. She is presented as servile, quiet, and agreeable—all familiar Asian stereotypes—and “They”, she tells us, made her this way.
Clearly, this is the new “myth” about Asians we are being asked to accept.
But that’s not the only troubling part.
<h4>A Film Dripping With Anti-White Racial Animus</h4>
What reveals “The Myth” to be anti-white? The narrator’s monologue.
Repeatedly she says “They” did all these terrible things to her. “They” made her a “model citizen”. “They” wanted her to comport to some inauthentic cultural standard.
The film continues with its conspiratorial invocation of “They”.
“They”, our “Model Minority” heroine says, created a “false reality designed to serve a purpose, to serve a people.” We hear this as we see her serve a table filled with mostly white male businessmen.
Later, as she angrily stares into her mirror, the message is clear: white people turned her into the servile, unhappy “model minority” she now loathes herself for being.
“They” did it to her. White America did it.
“The Myth”, reinforces this assertion by reminding the viewer that white America is indeed very very racist. To prove this, in one early scene, “The Myth” shows our main character watching a racist cartoon caricature of Asians—a cartoon created before the invention of color television.
But why go back more than a half-century  to demonstrate racism against Asian-Americans when Anti-Asian racism is alive and well today?
For example, at Leftist-dominated universities Asians are blatantly discriminated against—right now—because they are overrepresented on campuses across America due to their high performance. So Asian applications are routinely denied based on their ethnicity. But to point this variety of racism out, would be to implicate the progressive Left who proudly discriminates in the name of “Equity.”
<h4>&#8220;The Myth&#8221; Almost Tells The Truth. Almost.</h4>
“The Myth” does something really surprising about half way through the story: It almost tells the truth. Sort of. 
The film acknowledges the very real tensions between the Asian and black communities today while showing what appears to be footage from the LA riots. However, one wonders why one of the many, terrible recent acts of violence done to Asians wasn’t shown. Instead, the creators opt for 30-year-old LA riot footage. 
In any case, you’ll never guess who’s at fault for modern-day tensions between the black and Asian communities?
That’s right, again, “They” are to blame.
Implied in the film, white people have forced Asian people to be “model minorities.”
Which then, we are told, makes black people perceive the Asian community as their enemy.
If you’re confused by “The Myth’s” logic, remember, white Americans must always play the part of the privileged oppressor, or the Neo Marxist/CRT critique of America’s system would be shown to be a fallacy. And Asians must be portrayed as oppressed, but certainly not by another oppressed “POC” group (black  Americans). That won’t do, because that would also debunk the “white supremacy” fallacy.
This explains the tortured and conspiratorial through-line on display in “The Myth”. We’re asked to believe—sans evidence—that it’s conniving, racist white people who have somehow, cleverly and inexplicably, turned Asians and black people against each other by making Asians into “The Model Minority” against their will.
<h4>A Beautiful Film With An Ugly Theory</h4>
While the film is well-shot and beautifully edited, the obviously talented creators could have achieved a similarly powerful statement by exploring the idea of a “Model Minority Myth&#8221; without blatantly stoking racial division. They could have explored racial tensions without imparting blame (without evidence). They also could have explored what role, if any, Asian culture might play in perpetuating the supposed “Model Minority” myth.
But ultimately, “The Myth” opts for social justice sophistry, casting all Asians as hapless victims, bereft of any free agency. Indeed, “The Myth” presents Asian-Americans as being uniformly shaped and defined by whites alone and, what’s more, would have us believe that white Americans have successfully executed a plot to make black Americans see Asians as their enemies.
That’s one very ugly conspiracy theory.
The film would also have us forget all Asian-American achievements while seeking to debunk a very positive reality: That Asians as a whole, like so many other minority immigrant groups, are a true American success story.
But in a world that celebrates victimhood, “The Myth”, wants to convince us that success is actually a myth for Asian Americans.
Grievance, you see, is the new success.
“The Myth” never explains why Asians keep immigrating to America en mass only to suffer such abuse at the hands of a country filled with “white supremacy”. Perhaps the film doesn’t attempt to answer this question because it can’t explain the obvious contradiction.
And because of all this, “The Myth”, in the end, only delivers, well, more myths.
Myths about Asian-Americans. Myths about white Americans. Myths about our nation that won’t help us heal, but most assuredly will further our ethnic divides.
Brett Craig is EVP, Creative at The Daily Wire. He has created multiple Superbowl ads and was featured on Adweek’s Top 50 movers and shakers list.
This is an edited version of an article published on the author&#8217;s Substack page ADWOKE.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

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"They" made Asians the "model minority," pitting them against black Americans

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