Rep. Jasmine Crockett, D-Texas, had choice words for anyone trying to use DEI as a reason for Los Angeles’ wildfire disaster.
In an appearance Wednesday night on CNN, Crockett got into a debate with CNN’s Republican contributor, Scott Jennings, who alleged that LA’s struggles to contain the wildfires had to do with the exclusion of white men from fire department recruiting programs.
“In California, you might have recalled a news story from last year … there was some interest in the fire departments and the firefighters in California,” Jennings said on CNN’s “News Night with Abby Phillip.”
“The interest was that there were too many white men who were firefighters and we need to have a program in California to make sure we don’t have enough white men as firefighters,” he continued.
The panel erupted in disagreement with Congresswoman Crockett correcting Jennings’ representation of DEI and making a connection to a longstanding history of contribution and service from Black people in America.
“We are looking at qualifications,” Crockett responded. “What diversity, equity, and inclusion has always been about is saying, ‘You know what, open this up. Don’t just look at the white men. Open it up and recognize other people can be qualified.”
Crockett continued, “The fact that we want to, at time when people are dying, decide that a country of immigrants is failing? … The same very people who built this country. The last time I checked y’all didn’t say anything was wrong with the White House and I can promise it was my ancestors who built the White House.”
The Texas lawmaker added, “If we are good enough to build this country, we are good enough to serve and die overseas, we are good enough to serve in other ways … stop trying to act as if only white men are the ones that are capable.”
While it may seem implausible that DEI could be part of a serious conversation about trying to contain a climate disaster, there has been a steady drum of criticism from right-wing media and white nationalist influencers, like Matt Walsh, that firefighters and leaders of color are to blame for LA’s wildfires.
“Los Angeles deliberately set out to exclude white men from becoming firefighters, and now they don’t have enough firefighters to prevent their city from burning to the ground,” Walsh tweeted, linking to another X post about a shortage of Los Angeles firefighters. “DEI is a cancer that destroys everything it touches.”
On FOX News, host Jesse Waters displayed a photo of three women LA firefighter leaders, questioning whether they know what they’re doing.
The firefighter shortage in LA is not a new phenomenon, however, the current crisis has been a perfect storm that includes a water shortage, hurricane-driven winds, and multiple fires happening at once, which have pushed the fire department to the limits.
“No, L.A. County and all 29 fire departments in our county, are not prepared for this kind of widespread disaster,” said Fire Chief Anthony Marrone at a press conference on Wednesday. “There are not enough firefighters in L.A. County to address four separate fires of this magnitude. The L.A. County fire department was prepared for one or two major brush fires, but not four, especially given these sustained winds and low humidities.”
The suggestion that a firefighter’s race – or the lack of white firefighters specifically – has resulted in alleged “incompetence,” reflects a larger anti-DEI philosophy of the incoming Trump-Vance administration and its supporters that will last long after the fires in LA stop burning.
