'If A Group Of Males... Identifies As A Woman Of Color...': Cory Mills Questions DEI Chief At State

thank you Mr chairman uh thank you ambassador feel that in the role that you're in right now do you support self-identification yes yes I do and and understanding that if you were to have a group of males of Caucasian or any skin color who identified as a woman of color would you describe that room as being a diverse room I can't even wrap my mind around that I don't have an answer for that but that is actually what your department is about is understanding diversity and equity and inclusion correct yes so again I asked my question you believe in self-identification if a group of males Caucasian or any skin color identifies as a woman of color do you see that as a diverse room not believe that they would have to identify as a woman of color for it to be a diverse room they would absolutely agree with visible disability they I yes so then to go follow up on that is diversity defined by race and gender or by experience and ideology it's it's defined by many many things the executive order is a much broader definition than simply the classes that are protected under U.S law so we would start with the law but it is much broader than that you see you said that the Foreign Service officers test one of the things that our process does not do is test for racist or sexist or homophobes or ableist those are the things that we need to be screening for but let me be clear I agree there shouldn't be any hateful people in the ranks of our state department or diplomatic services or in government as a whole I would strive to say that our Endeavor would be to not have that anywhere in America yeah but what I would say however and critically is I think I speak for many Americans who have a good reason to believe that the state department has a deeply misguided belief that hate is labeled and applied to anyone who has a disagreement in their ideology or the political affiliations and see just to be clear on that point the differences in opinion or belief is not racist or sexist or ableist or any other type of labeling and what you see is is that when an individual disagrees whether it be on his political opinions or things like this he's immediately labeled based on his skin color that he is to have as my colleague was pointing out white privilege right and that is the immediate assumption so I want to know because you've talked about the fact that and this is your quote that we hire based on Merit if it's hired on Merit why would we even need an office to focus on diversity equity and inclusion if we're hiring by those who are most qualified success and inclusion and but access is granted by Merit correct access you submit your application and if you're the most qualified then no sir you should have it basically but but that's what we're looking towards right the idea of Merit being the defining Factor when I say access for instance one of the things that Congress has helped us do is pay our interns I could not afford to be an intern at the Department of State I come from Ohio I head to work my mother and father my dad spent 30 years in prison my mom spent seven years in prison I bounced house to house until I was raised and finally adopted by grandparents after sleeping on couches of house neighbors and things like this and he was a welder my grandmother did hair as a beautician we came from a below the average line of Economics which guess what I sit here as a United States Congressman of which 11 500 on average has done in our entire history not based on diversity Equity inclusion but on the ideas that equal opportunity exists thanks to America and the things that we fight for I want to ask what is the definition and difference between equity and equality there are many wonderful examples of how to describe the difference between the two equality is that you each are in a place and you get a ball with the target ahead of you Equity is if you are smaller weaker you might be placed closer to the Target see I can answer that really quickly my opinion of the equity and equalities Equity is about equal outcome no and equality is about equal opportunity and that the bottom line is is that I would love to find out in my last few seconds how d-e-i-a helps us win strategic competition when it comes to China pushback on Russia's illegal war in Ukraine or prevents nuclear Iran you know can you name one meaningful contribution that Dei efforts would make towards those priorities and with that I'll yield back to you Mr chair man sir yes ma'am you may okay uh to have a wider array of experiences at the table as we grapple with these problems is going to help us come up with a wider array of options to address them if you have the same people sitting at the table with similar backgrounds similar experiences you are going to have a very narrow range of options that is why we're trying to broaden the aperture in that fashion that is our belief and as I said I think this Rich discussion today makes my point very very well thank you chair now recognize

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Length: 5min 57sec (357 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 13 2023