Scared white men get to work wiping America's history of women and minority characters.
Hits & Misses
By Katharine Biele @kathybiele
Miss: Male Fragility
White people are so frightened. More accurately—white men are frightened. They have a deeply-held belief that women and minorities are pushing them out of power and out of jobs they deserve because they are so much better qualified and smart. There simply is no other explanation for the nationwide movement to eliminate diversity, equity and inclusion from daily life and vocabularies. Lt. Gov. Deidre Henderson was apoplectic when she heard that the White House was removing women from the Arlington graves list. BTW, that includes the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. Oh, that's not all. Pages for African American history and Hispanic American history were removed, too. As the woke hunt goes on, the University of Utah's business school is under investigation for a program supporting underrepresented students. And just to top it off, the Legislature killed the state's Women in the Economy Commission this year. It's not just insulting, it's fundamentally stupid, too. But that can't be if all those white men are in office because of their big brains.
Miss: Bulletproof
Back to those big brains. Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill was compelled to give a pass in a police shooting that injured a suspect, even though the shooting was clearly unjustified. Why, you ask? In 2023, the Legislature decided they didn't want to punish officers for acting recklessly or accidentally shooting someone, so they exempted them from punishments that would apply to anyone else. We're talking about felony discharge of a weapon. In this case, the Highway Patrol tried to stop a fleeing truck when the suspect fled into some tall grass. At that point, the patrolman pulled his gun and shot blindly into the grass. No matter what the cause of the shooting, the public should be confident that officers are trained and skillful when playing with deadly force.
Hit: Campus Cliques
Despite the Legislature's disdain of those uppity women, the new state auditor had her day. At least for the foreseeable future, Auditor Tina Cannon will retain an office in the Capitol despite an attempt to move her out. It was not a pretty sight. Cannon, in fighting for the office, brought Senate President J. Stuart Adams into the public fray, saying he had yelled and threatened her budget. Adams, as legislators will, felt it was all untoward and inappropriate. In other words, she should have shut up and let it happen. Meanwhile, Cannon has set up a transparency hub where the public may come in, get help and search for any government financial information. This comes after lawmakers eliminated the government records commission. Now, Utahns may find it easier to see how taxpayer dollars for the Utah Fits All Scholarship are being spent.
About The Author
Katharine Biele
A City Weekly contributor since 1992, Katharine Biele is the informed voice behind our Hits & Misses column. When not writing, you can catch her working to empower voters and defend democracy alongside the League of Women Voters.
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