Comment on When Harris had to pick a VP, all media kinda agreed it should be a white male, to balance the fact that she is black and a woman. So Waltz is the DEI hire.

• KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

  So from a diversity perspective

  no, from a minority representation perspective she should’ve absolutely gone for another minority candidate who doesn’t get the same rep as these people do.

  But for a diversity perspective, you’re picking the most immediately broad and comprehensive minority and majority/plurality groups available. You want a diverse coverage of the US population, and the easiest way to do like 50% of that is with a white candidate.

  I realize you’re probably talking about the federal government more broadly, but that’s an unreasonable comparison because her running mate, and cabinet picks are what are arguably most representative of the average population here.

  House and senate members are literally voted in, so that’s already a solved problem, just vote in minority candidates. Everyone else is an employee of the government, so who gives a fuck about them.

  because picking a running mate that wasn’t a white man would have tanked her campaign. Everyone knows it, but few are willing to admit to themselves why - racism, sexism, and a bunch of others too.

  you mean to tell me having representation of only like 20-30% of the population means you’re not going to do well? That’s weird.

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  • ShareMySims@sh.itjust.works ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

    But for a diversity perspective, you’re picking the most immediately broad and comprehensive minority and majority/plurality groups available.

    Not when one group is already vastly overrepresented, but well done on missing the point. Your congress is not diverse, and adding/keeping a white man in the mix is never going to make it more diverse.

    you mean to tell me having representation of only like 20-30% of the population means you’re not going to do well? That’s weird.

    And with that, thanks for demonstrating my actual point (and also that you are clearly conflating diversity with representation):

    Everyone knows it, but few are willing to admit to themselves why - racism, sexism, and a bunch of others too

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    • KillingTimeItself@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨3⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago

      Not when one group is already vastly over-represented, but well done on missing the point. Your congress is not diverse, and adding/keeping a white man in the mix is never going to make it more diverse.

      yeah, and the congress is irrelevant and again, voted in by voters. Kamala is not at the reins of the congress, you should be advocating for minorities to run for congress positions then. I’m in support of that, i have nothing against that. I just don’t believe you should be going for ONLY representation in government, you need the correct people in office.

      Might i also add that the kamala ticket is also the most diverse ticket we have in this election cycle, every other candidate you can vote for is old white men, this one is an older black woman, and an older white man who is her VP.

      And with that, thanks for demonstrating my actual point (and also that you are clearly conflating diversity with representation, as well as ignoring every statistical reality about the makeup of your government and population to build your strawman):

      you mean the point you were making about how the US government is a representative democracy which intends to equally represent the demographic of each state relatively equivalent to the population demographics of that state?

      I know it’s so so scary to even imagine, but don’t fret, even if she had picked someone who isn’t a white man, you’d continue to be vastly over-represented for no good reason at all…

      vastly over-represented how? Do my votes count more magically because i’m white? If we’re talking about representation i think we should put mentally ill people into office because i feel extremely under-represented in that category.

      “When you’re accustomed to privilege, equality feels like oppression"

      there is almost no situation in which the presidential candidate and their VP being both of minority status would “increase” diversity in any meaningful way. Arguably since it’s federal, and we’re talking nationwide, the most diverse and representative cast would literally just be a white person, and someone else.

      To be clear, i have no problems with two minority candidates running for office together, if they have good policy and a really good campaign. Kamala and walz have quite literally the best campaign built in a long time. Picking anybody other than walz in this would have likely been a mistake. It just wouldn’t get as much reach as it currently is. And when you’re literally trying to run to gain a representative vote in your country, not having a white person on your ticket is probably going to hurt that representation.

      also, little tidbit en.wikipedia.org/…/Demographics_of_the_United_Sta… some demographics data, as of 2020 census, about 50% of the US population was white, not mixed white, but white, about 20% was hispanic (always bigger than i remember for some reason, i guess i just don’t think about it often lol) every other group except for blacks being less than 10%

      so in your optimal minority pick, you would pick hispanic, and black candidates, which would represent about 30% of the country. Kamala and walz is about 60% of representation, about 2x as much as the optimal minority pick. The OPTIMAL pick would be white and hispanic, at about 70% representation total.

      to make my point clear here, if you’re trying to reach out for as much representation and support based on that representation as possible, which is what the idea behind diversity primarily is, this is a pretty good lineup.

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