NEW “N-WORD”: Black Baltimore mayor slurred by MAGA Republicans
DEI, or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, is an effort at course correction after a long history of exclusion and discrimination in America. Some Republicans hate it so much that they’re using it as the new slur, as the Mayor of Baltimore pointed out.
In fact, after a bridge collapse in Baltimore, Maryland, right-wing social media accounts made the meaning (to them) of “DEI” clearer than ever by declaring Mayor Brandon Scott “Baltimore’s DEI Mayor.”
Mayor Scott was elected in 2020 in the usual Democratic process, ending with 70.5% of the vote (compared to 7.1% for the leading Republican candidate and 20.2% for an unaffiliated challenger), which firmly negates that the actual definition of DEI practices had anything to do with it.
Republicans and right-wing media figures are being called out for using “DEI” as a substitute for the word “Black,” but Mayor Scott put it far more starkly than that. He says:
“As I’ve said already this week, I am a young Black man and a young Black mayor in this country, we know there are a lot of racists and folks who don’t think I should be in this job…I didn’t want to be out there that night answering questions about DEI, I was focused on the loss of life. We know how it is, those folks are afraid, as I said this week, to use the n-word.”
As he says, it’s not his first time addressing these comments.
A few days ago, Scott addressed the same issue, saying that there are a group of people he terrifies as a young Black man, because he represents an America where they don’t have the certainty of enjoying comfort and privilege while others suffer. He further joked that he’s decided to interpret “DEI” in this context as “Duly Elected Incumbent.”
It’s not just anonymous social media accounts that have used “DEI” as an attack on Baltimore following the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, either. Phil Lyman, for instance, a Republican State Representative in Utah, blamed “governors who prioritize diversity over the well-being and security of citizens” according to the Baltimore Sun.
It’s an odd argument to make from a member of a party that is actively fighting against providing federal funding for the reconstruction of the bridge.
Former Florida GOP House Member and current candidate for the same, Anthony Sabatini tweeted out a screenshot from the right-wing DailyWire, bizarrely connecting the fact that the port commission has a DEI consultant to the disaster, although said consultant was not responsible for piloting the cargo ship that hit the bridge; nor for maintaining the ship’s electrical system; nor even for any aspect of constructing the bridge, which was built in 1972.
Watch Mayor Scott respond below.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott on Republicans calling him "the DEI mayor": "Those folks are afraid, as I said this week, to use the n-word." pic.twitter.com/m39xJZSI99
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 31, 2024
Here are some of Mayor Scott’s prior comments on being called Baltimore’s “DEI Mayor.”
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott responds to being called the city’s “DEI mayor”
“What they mean by DEI, in my opinion, is duly elected incumbent.”pic.twitter.com/wnrxjNicW1
— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 28, 2024
