The DEI Hypocrite Running for Governor

GOP gubernatorial candidate Winsome Earle-Sears calls DEI a “cancer.” The initials stand for “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion,” but to her they seem to mean Black victimhood. “Slaves,” she says, “did not die in the fields so that we could call ourselves victims now.” She accuses Democrats of thinking that “minorities can’t succeed without DEI,” echoing Donald Trump’s executive order declaring DEI “dangerous, demeaning, and immoral.”

As with the rebranding of “Critical Race Theory,” it’s unclear what “DEI” actually means. When Judge Abelson placed a preliminary injunction on Trump’s executive order last February, he cited its “vagueness” as one of its unconstitutional qualities. The president failed to “define any of the operative terms, such as ‘DEI,’ ‘equity-related,’ ‘promoting DEI,’ ‘illegal DEI,’ ‘illegal DEI and DEIA policies,’ or ‘illegal discrimination or preferences.’”

Governor Youngkin only objects to the middle letter, issuing his own executive order renaming his administration’s DEI office “Diversity, Opportunity, and Inclusion.” Youngkin applauds what he calls “merit-based opportunity,” implying that DEI policies discriminate against White men by giving preference to less qualified women and non-White people. Among some conservatives, any woman or non-White person in any job means they were hired only for their gender or race. Charlie Kirk, for instance, said: “If I’m dealing with somebody in customer service who’s a moronic Black woman, I wonder: is she there because of her excellence, or is she there because of affirmative action?”

Earle-Sears is now running for the job of governor. Given her visceral condemnation of DEI, she should take great efforts to ensure that voters understand that her gender and race are irrelevant to her candidacy. All that matters are her merits.

And yet, Earle-Sears openly embraced “DEI” in her previous job. When advertising her small business, Shenandoah Appliance Plumbing & Electric, she emphasized that it was “female-” and “minority-owned” to attract federal contractors looking to meet their “diversity requirements.”

Earle-Sears is also an author. Her advertising description of her 2023 memoir, How Sweet It Is: Defending the American Dream, announces her race and gender in the first four words: “The first Black woman elected to statewide office in Virginia.”

Despite his anti-DEI posturing, her current boss also champions her “DEI” qualities. Youngkin’s Certificate of Recognition begins by identifying her race and gender: “Winsome Earle-Sears, a native of Kingston, Jamaica, immigrated to the United States at the age of six, and blazed a path as the first female and first female veteran to serve as lieutenant governor.” After mentioning her gender twice in the first sentence, he repeats her race and gender in the second sentence, proclaiming her “the first black woman to hold statewide office.”

When Earle-Sears was met with angry voters at last year’s Labor Day parade in Buena Vista, she responded by declaring her race and gender: “They’re telling a Black woman to get off the stage. The Democrats are telling a Black woman to get off the stage!”

Earle-Sears was being heckled for her political positions, but she pointed at her race and gender instead to claim she was a victim of racism and sexism. She then praised her own party’s DEI actions, declaring her race and gender twice more: “It was the Republican Party who nominated me, a Black woman, to be lieutenant governor of Virginia. And it was the Republican party that voted for me, the first female Black immigrant Marine lieutenant governor of Virginia!”

If Earle-Sears sincerely believes race and gender don’t matter for political office, why is she shouting her race and gender at voters?

Personally, I think race and gender do matter. I think it is evidence of positive change that a Black woman has achieved such high political status in what she refers to as “the former capital of the Confederacy.” Youngkin thinks race and gender matter, too. He chose a conservative Black woman as a running mate with the strategic hope that her race and gender would attract women and Black voters while muting the progressive appeal of his Democratic opponents. And any voter should recognize that Earle-Sears is a hypocrite for attacking “DEI” while repeatedly stressing her own race and gender as she campaigns for Virginia’s highest office.