After Hurricane Ian ravaged Fort Myers and produced extensive damage and flooding throughout Florida, Vice President Kamala Harris called for racial preference when it comes to the federal government’s relief response.
According to Harris, “We have to address this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also need to fight for equity, understanding not everyone starts out at the same place.” She added that hurricane relief efforts should prioritize “communities of color.”
Reading between the lines of Harris’ comments, one can deduce that Harris was arguing that the federal government should offer aid and assistance based on one’s victimhood status, which is a clear violation of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Per the Fourteenth Amendment, the government shall not “deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.”
Fortunately, FEMA chief Deanne Criswell does not support Harris’ racist equity plan. “We’re going to support all communities. I committed that to the governor, I commit to you right here that all Floridians are going to be able to get the help that is available to them through our programs,” Criswell said while appearing on CBS’ Face the Nation.
“These people that need our help the most are going to be able to access the help that we offer. I know that the vice president and the president, they share the same values. We are going to be there to support everybody that needs help.”Criswell added, in a clear counter to Harris’ call for an equity-based approach.
Harris’ comments about using equity to measure who should receive federal government relief after a devastating hurricane are reprehensible. In effect, she is calling for current discrimination to cancel what she believes to be past discrimination. However, this approach, wherein the government uses equity to determine who gets what, is a recipe for more, not less, division and future discrimination.
Not that long ago, Martin Luther King dreamed of a world in which we would be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin. Vice President Harris should heed those words.
PHOTO: Kamala Harris. Photo by Gage Skidmore. Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic (CC BY-SA 2.0).
Chris Talgo ([email protected]) is the editorial director and a research fellow at The Heartland Institute, as well as a researcher and contributing editor at StoppingSocialism.com.
