OPINION:
Last week came the welcome news that Americans Paul Whelan and Evan Gershkovich had been released from Russian captivity in a prisoner exchange (“Newly freed Americans are back on U.S. soil after a landmark prisoner exchange with Russia,” web, Aug. 2).
It’s been a long time coming. Mr. Whelan, a straight White man and Marine Corps veteran, has been doing hard labor in a Siberian penal colony for more than five years. Compare that with Brittney Griner, a Black lesbian basketball player who was released from jail after just 10 months.
In 2022, Ms. Griner was taken into custody at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport, when drug contraband was discovered in her luggage.
Back in the U.S., Ms. Griner immediately became the nonstop headline on left-wing cable news, and the Biden administration went into overdrive to secure her freedom. The Democratic Party prioritizes gender, sexual orientation and race over everything.
Identity politics firebrands such as MSNBC’s Joy Reid are zealously committed to ripping our country apart at the seams based on the commandments of their false god: diversity, equity and inclusion. They cry blasphemy when the obvious is stated: Vice President Kamala Harris is a DEI hire.
Ms. Harris was categorically rejected as a presidential candidate four years ago, ending her campaign in late 2019. But Mr. Biden later tapped her as his running mate because at the time, she was identified as a politically expedient Black woman.
On July 31, former President Donald Trump was asked about this in an interview at the National Association of Black Journalists conference in Chicago. Without first expressing sympathy for Ms. Trump’s injury during a July 13 attempt on his life, the ABC interviewer launched into an attack on Mr. Trump’s character and then bluntly asked if he believed Ms. Harris was a DEI hire. In response, Mr. Trump tap-danced around the issue as if it were a taboo topic.
When did it become a sin to say yes?
SCOTT R. HAMMOND
Boston
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