Bad DEI

[fbhjr]

The current administration is very against the policies that promote “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion” in things.
I am generally in favor of them. I’ve got friends from all over the world of many different skin colors, religions, preferences and all sorts of other categories that have been used to separate and harm people over history.

But, there are times I do think it goes too far.
When my brother and I were young we were diagnosed with what would today be called, ADHD, dyslexia and put somewhere on what is not called the autism spectrum. I won’t use the “R” word that was assigned to us as it is considered offensive these days, but it was used a lot 50+ years ago.
My brother is every bit as smart as I am. But, he decided very young that by playing these things up he could get things he wanted as long as he played dumb.
I got mad people were calling us stupid and did my best to prove them wrong.

So, in school I ended up 4 years ahead of my brother who was 2 years younger, and went on to engineering school and my career.
He dropped out of school and got a job through a DEI program with the state that hired “mentally challenged people”.

I don’t remember exactly when this happened, but my mother told me about it, and I stopped talking to her in 1996, so some time before that.

My brother had a job at a company that made sporting goods. His job was to take volleyballs from the machine that made them and bring them to the people who put them in boxes.
One day he came home from work early, and when asked said that he had been fired.
My mother called the company to complain and his supervisor told her he had been fired for throwing a knife at him. It had not hit his supervisor, but had apparently buried itself in the wall next to his head.
My mother explained that she was sure my brother had not thrown it at his boss on purpose. She proposed he turned quickly and centrifugal force had pulled it from his hand and it was only coincidence it hit the wall near his boss.
His former boss explained, I’m told quite forcefully, that he did not believe this and my brother was still fired.
My mother then called the state and complained to the department that gave a bonus to this company for hiring challenged people.
They called the company and told them to rehire my brother or lose the bonus.
They rehired my brother the next day.

I am 100% sure this was a mind game on my brother’s part where he told his boss “I can do whatever I want and you can’t do anything about it.” And demonstrated by throwing the knife. He used to practice throwing knives and there is no way the turning quickly story adds up.
The next week my brother’s foot was run over by a forklift three times.
I am also 100% sure this was his boss saying “I can’t fire you, but I can make your life hell.”
No more knives were thrown.
My brother worked there until the company relocated to a different state and did not bring the workforce with them.

I met some of my brother’s coworkers back in the day. The ones I met totally needed this program to get a job as they were not very qualified for the work force.
I totally support special programs for people who very clearly need them.

The problem is with evil people like my brother who use these programs because they are lazy, evil and abusive.
They aren’t the majority. And, I’d rather a few evil people got jobs than no one who really needs it did.
But, I do understand how people like my brother give these programs a bad name.