“Who Cares?” Gave Us Trump
On a very bad liberal habit that just won’t quit.
Kamala Harris’s political skill consists of being an elite liberal from the citadel of elite liberalism. (Anna Moneymaker / Getty Images)
Recently, Jerusalem Demsas and Matthew Yglesias debated the merits of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs on a new podcast for the liberal magazine the Argument. Demsas took the view that these programs are, on the whole, fine. Yglesias argues that they are rotten and politically dangerous.
He gives an eye-popping example featuring billionaire former NBA star Magic Johnson, whose company, Magic Johnson Enterprises, has a subsidiary that’s 51 percent owned by Johnson and 49 percent owned by Sodexo, a French-based multinational corporation with $32.9 billion in revenue. The subsidiary only exists, however, to spin Sodexo’s cafeteria services as “a minority-owned business” — billionaire Johnson is, of course, black — so that they qualify for lucrative contracts with District of Columbia Public Schools.
Yglesias’s frustration is clear. “And it’s like, what is being achieved here right now?
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