I started my morning at the gym, per usual, but instead of being fueled by my Alani Nutrition pre-workout, I was fueled by anger at the audacity of people like Scott Jennings and their privileged and bigoted views of the world.
Lynsey Jordan Cavallo (who you should read for fashion thoughts) sent me a clip of Scott being smug in his Scottness blaming the catastrophic wildfires in California on….you guessed it DEI firefighters.
I won’t link to CNN because they have him on and pay him handsomely for just that. They want us to click on it and be mad. So nah.. I’ll share screenshots.
In short— Scott and others like him saw a woman fire chief, saw Black and women firefighters and said that climate change was not to blame for this —because duh— and it was the incompetence of those non-white men.
Bro what?
Rep. Jasmine Crockett was having none of it and schooled him on how the MOST educated demographic in the United States is Black women AND how DEI was never about excluding white men, like they claim, but including overly and more qualified people who are often ignored in their favor. I mean— been there a few times myself.
Rep. Crockett then referenced the fact that we are the very people who built this country including the White House, and while we are deemed qualified enough to build and die for this country we are often seen as unworthy of doing anything of substance. Preach.
She ended by astutely pointing out the fact Scott was currently at the table with three very qualified Black women as he spouted this nonsense. The others at the table were Rep. Stacey Plaskett and Abby Phillips. While being thoroughly educated, however, Scott just sat there—smug.
You Are Not an Equal Scott
And that gets me to my point of ire this morning. He has no business on CNN at this table with members of Congress like he is their equal. But for people like him and many in the country— his white maleness makes me anyones superior. They are above him. They have had to endure many more challenges and barriers to get there and still they made it past him. He is rich…yes. He worked for a President once…cool. They are sitting members of Congress my guy. Black women who overcame ALL ODDS to be there in fact.
But here in America it doesn’t matter what we do or how overly qualified some of us are, if we don’t look a certain way we are always less than. To assert that the fact some of the firefighters were not white men is how the wildfires have been able to spread is asinine and dangerous.
There is a prevailing view in this country that the white man can fix it, when history says the exact opposite. The white man always breaks it, and the Black people, especially Black women, have to fix it.
It may seem trivial to some people to bring this up in this space, but every little micro and macro aggression matters.
Bigotry is Ingrained
We just had an election where a sitting VP. Former Senator from the largest state. Former AG of the largest state. Highly educated. ETC woman was seen as not worthy and not qualified. This was in comparison to a 91 time indicted, 34 count convicted, adjudicated sexual abuser. Hmm wonder where people get that idea?
Those things are taught and reinforced. It starts simple like placing mostly white kids in schools gifted programs…often just on assumption of ‘gifts.’ It continues with things like the firefighter debate where whiteness is just assumed superior.
We reinforce these beliefs so much to the detriment of large groups and some people don’t even know they are participating. They just have accepted the bias into their subconscious and they agree with the likes of Scott when they pull this idiocy.
Look at how this is being spun on their side…
A racial arsonist? Oh I see what you did there…
The Audacity
But for real, the audacity of caucasity is real. After law school my first job I was paid slightly above minimum wage and my boss was a high school dropout white man. No one batted an eye. The following job, I was paid 37,000 less than the next closest colleague despited having the same or more education and experience. White men. One guy, another high school dropout younger than me— made 4.5X my salary. White guy. And on and on and on.
The problem is not just that this happens, but that people accept it like it is okay. It goes unchallenged because the people with power to spread information are….you guessed it…rich white men. Look at Elon and Zuck.
We are predisposed to accept their greatness and question our own. Scott Jennings has no business at that table but he gets to sit there everyday. And yesterday, he was not an equal or superior…but he sure does play one tv.
Love the way that Rep. Crockett took him down! "Racial arsonist" is craaaaazy work. Wow.