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May 3, 2023 Editor, The News-Gazette: Martin D. Brown is Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s third appointee to the position of chief diversity officer of the state of Virginia in his short stint as governor. Mr. Brown’s time in this important job is now up since he has repudiated in a recent speech at VMI the entire basis of the mission for his office. He is wasting taxpayer’s money. He gets paid $160,000, plus benefits, perks and travel expenses.
At VMI in a recorded speech on April 21, he stated: “Let’s take a moment right now to kill that cow. DEI is dead…We are not going to bring that cow up anymore. DEI is dead.”
First of all, as a DEI consultant I can assure you that DEI (diversity, equity and inclusion) is not dead in the United States or in Virginia. Second, no one should hold an office and not do the job he or she was hired to do and waste hundreds of thousands of taxpayer jobs here in Virginia. Third, Mr. Brown and others try to defend such statements by arguing they are singling out the work “equity.” They say the word “equity means “equality.” They are wrong.
Dictionary.com defines “equity” as “being fair or impartial.” Fourth, the Virginia NAACP has called for the resignation of Mr. Brown. I call on the governor to fire him immediately.
Until he fires Mr. Brown and stops him from wasting government money, the governor is on record through his appointee saying “DEI is dead.” The governor then also refers to DEI as a “cow.” And to “kill that cow.” We know the racist heritage behind the terms “cowboys,” and “cowhands,” (See https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=SK2XS8YIcik) and his appointee Mr. Brown is doing our state a grave disservice for taking the taxpayers’ money, and using racist metaphors attacking DEI, calling it “dead” when it is very much alive, all while he is supposed to be Virginia’s chief diversity officer. Virginia deserves a real chief diversity officer. HERB RUBENSTEIN Lexington
