10 Catastrophes the Right Has Tried to Blame on DEI

President Biden took plenty of heat as the U.S. Armed Forces pulled out of Afghanistan in late 2021 after nearly two decades of occupation, triggering a Taliban takeover of Kabul and a disastrous evacuation by embassy staff and other American nationals. Taliban advances across the country forced the administration to redeploy troops it had already removed as it continued to fly people out, including Afghan citizens who potentially faced violence at the hands of the militant group, which ultimately delayed the departures of about a thousand U.S. citizens and Afghans with foreign visas.

While anti-DEI slander was not yet in vogue among far-right ideologues, their criticisms of the of this bungled operation prefigured that rhetoric. Sen. Tom Cotton tweeted, “It’s clear President Biden and his Department of Defense have been more concerned with critical race theory and other woke policies than planning an orderly withdrawal from Afghanistan.” (Fearmongering about CRT, an academic legal framework that is not applied in the U.S. military, was at its peak that year.) Trump fumed in his own statement that Biden had done everything backwards on the advice of “our woke Generals.” So-called “woke generals” continued to preoccupy Afghanistan veteran Pete Hegseth, now Trump’s Defense Secretary, who said on a podcast before his nomination that top officers involved in the withdrawal or diversity initiatives should be fired. “First of all, you got to fire the chairman [of the] Joint Chiefs and obviously going to bring in a new secretary of defense, but any general that was involved — general, admiral, whatever — that was involved in any of the DEI woke shit has got to go,” he said. It’s a comment that illuminates how MAGA Republicans tend to use these phrases interchangeably.

In February 2023, after a Norfolk Southern freight train carrying hazardous materials derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, the company released and burned large quantities of vinyl chloride, creating a massive cloud of toxic gas and forcing thousands to evacuate the area. There was no shortage of factors that may have contributed to the crash, including lax transit regulations, inadequate maintenance, automated scheduling systems, poor working conditions, and reduced workforce per train — which, in the freight business, are growing longer and heavier, compounding the risks of mechanical failure.

Yet Republican Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia, somewhat ahead of the curve on DEI fearmongering, chalked up the ecological catastrophe to diversity mandates when another Norfolk Southern derailed in Ohio the following month (luckily, this one was not carrying harmful chemicals). “After seeing another Norfolk Southern train derailed this weekend, I was reminded of the fact that the company wrote to shareholders stating that it is focused on DEI,” he declared on the House floor. “[The Biden] administration’s focus on DEI is forcing private companies to rethink their goals, and one has to wonder: Was Norfolk Southern’s DEI policies directing resources away from the important things like greasing wheel bearings? Now this insanity must stop.” No further investigation of the accident turned up evidence to support Collins’ theory of workers being distracted from essential duties by these initiatives, though the freight operator does still maintain a DEI page on its website.   

Silicon Valley Bank at one point held the most money of any bank in the region and counted about half of all venture-backed tech startups as clients. But that reality came crashing down in March 2023, when a bank run — brought on by increased interest rates, losses from the sale of government bonds, a downturn in the tech industry, and a panic on social media — caused SVB to fail. Regulators quickly seized the insolvent bank, which had been valued at $40 billion a year prior, with assets of more than $200 billion. It was the largest such collapse since the 2008 financial crisis, and is now the third biggest bank failure in U.S. history, having been surpassed by the implosion of First Republic Bank two months later. 

Rather than accept all the glaring indications that poor risk management and other missteps had led to SVB’s downfall in a notorious boom-and-bust market, conservative pundits and politicians decided that the bank’s “woke” values, which led to investments on the basis of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) considerations, were the likely culprit. Rep. Andy Biggs of Arizona declared on X that Silicon Valley Bank should not receive a bailout for just that reason. “Its resources should have not been blown on woke/DEI initiatives instead of actual financial management,” he wrote. Of course, the bank’s commitments to workplace diversity and relatively minor investments in businesses like renewable energy wasn’t out of the ordinary: Pretty much every bank pursues similar goals, and most of them are still going strong.

A series of alarming failures of Boeing commercial jets kicked off in January 2024 when passengers on an Alaska Airlines experienced the horror of a sudden decompression shortly after taking off from Portland, Oregon. A door panel — installed in a gap in the fuselage of the plane where an emergency exit door could be placed — had blown out of a relatively new aircraft that had logged just 510 hours of service. Fortunately, no one was in the adjacent seat, and the crew safely made an emergency landing with just a handful of injuries reported.

Footage from the harrowing descent back to Portland, with a huge, ragged hole in the side of the plane, went viral, prompting wild claims about the increased dangers of air travel. Billionaire Elon Musk was among those who insisted that DEI programs at both airlines and aircraft manufacturers including Boeing posed a threat to travelers’ safety, implying that these companies were hiring unqualified pilots and technicians. “It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,” he wrote in one post on X, using a favorite tweak on the acronym. Regarding Boeing, he wrote, “Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening.” Some conservatives spent days attacking airlines that had previously promoted their diverse hiring practices or support of LGBTQ pride celebrations, vowing to boycott these brands.

None of Boeing’s quality control issues have been directly linked to diverse hiring practices, nor have there been any commercial aircraft accidents because of an airline hiring a pilot without the proper training and expertise. To the contrary, whistleblowers have claimed that the company is simply cutting corners, mismanaging parts, and falling short of compliance with safety and inspection requirements — all in pursuit of short-term profit. They have also alleged that the company has discouraged employees from reporting dangerous problems in the manufacturing process.

Three U.S. Army reservists died and more than 40 were injured when a “one-way” attack drone — an expendable unmanned aircraft that can deliver an explosive payload — struck living quarters at a military base in Jordan in January 2024. The enemy device, which officials said had been sent by members of Iran-backed militias that form a group called the Islamic Resistance, was possibly not shot down because it had been confused with an American drone returning to the installation around the same time. The U.S. initiated a huge counterstrike against the militias in bordering Syria and Iraq.

But while such casualties are ordinarily viewed as the risk of military presence in regions of escalating hostilities, Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo had a different theory: “Maybe [the military is] focused too much on DEI,” she said on her show during a segment with Rep. August Pfluger of Texas. “There’s a concern at the FBI, because they’re dropping the FBI special agent requirements in the name of DEI. I’m just wondering if that has anything to do with missing an important drone that just killed three of our heroes.” The non-sequitur followed years of conservatives expressing concern that “wokeness” and diversity have weakened U.S. Armed Forces, though without offering specifics of how exactly that might happen. The three service members killed in Jordan, Sgt. William Jerome Rivers, Spec. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, and Spec. Breonna Alexsondria Moffett, were all Black.  

In the wee hours of March 26, 2024, a large container ship, the Dali, suffered a complete blackout and struck a pier of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which spans the Patapsco River in Baltimore. A large segment of the bridge collapsed onto the boat, killing six maintenance workers who had been fixing potholes on the roadway, while two more were rescued from the water. (Other traffic had been kept off the bridge following a request from a the Dali.) The destruction and subsequent closure of the waterway for weeks disrupted thousands of jobs and a vital channel for global shipping via the Port of Baltimore. The state of Maryland expects to replace the bridge by 2028 at a cost of up to $1.9 billion.

The bridge itself was not thought to have structural issues and had withstood a strike from a smaller cargo ship in 1980. The operator of the Dali, meanwhile would go on to pay more than $100 million to settle a Justice Department lawsuit alleging serious breaches of maintenance and safety protocols that left the ship unable to maneuver in the emergency. Yet in the immediate aftermath of the collapse, far-right accounts floated the idea that local political leadership was to blame. “This is Baltimore’s DEI mayor commenting on the collapsed Francis Scott Key Bridge,” wrote on anonymous user on X with hundreds of thousands of followers, sharing a video of remarks from the city’s Black mayor, Brandon Scott. “It’s going to get so, so much worse. Prepare accordingly.” Maryland Gov. Wes Moore, also Black, was subjected to similar racist attacks, including from Utah politician Phil Lyman, who unsuccessfully ran for governor of that state in 2024. “This is what happens when you have Governors who prioritize diversity over the wellbeing and security of citizens,” he posted on X. None of Moore’s and Scott’s critics spelled out exactly how the two men’s race had anything to do with a boat hitting a bridge.

Undoubtedly the defining image of the 2024 election is Donald Trump, his face streaked with blood, holding his fist up after a would-be assassin opened fire at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania. Pictures of the chaotic moments following the gunfire show a number of Secret Service agents attempting to shield the candidate and move him safely off stage. Several of those agents happened to be women, and as questions mounted about what kind of security lapses might account for a shooter getting so close to Trump, plenty of right-wingers let it be known that they believed only men should be hired for the job. “There should not be any women in the Secret Service,” wrote the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh on X. “These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women.” 

It hardly helped that the Secret Service Director at the time, Kimberly Cheatle, was also a woman — she was forced to resign 10 days after the assassination attempt. In congressional probes, lawmakers took the opportunity to allege that she had not earned the role. “You are a DEI horror story,” Rep. Tim Burchett told Cheatle during a House Oversight Committee hearing. “My wife and I have told my daughter multiple times about how she is going to succeed. She will succeed in life by achieving. Ma’am, you have not achieved today. You’ve let the American public down, and if it were up to me, you’d be gone.” Rep. Glenn Grothman of Wisconsin asked if she had avoided hiring men to “meet certain targets.” The many male agents present at the Butler rally did not, for some reason, face this level of suspicion.    

The cybersecurity firm CrowdStrike pushed a faulty update to its Falcon Sensor security software on July 19, 2024, that caused millions of computers running Microsoft Windows to crash. In no time at all, the glitch had practically paralyzed airports, hospitals, and business payroll systems that rely on the operating system. Air travel was particularly hard hit, with grounded flights causing a cascade of delays that stranded thousands of people. The infamous Microsoft “Blue Screen of Death” — a critical error message shown on a blue background — took over video billboards in Times Square and the self-checkout supermarket registers.

Musk naturally took notice of what some were calling the largest IT outage in history and mocked CrowdStrike for a 2022 tweet in which the company announced itself as a “a Gold Partner of[Bright Network]’s Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging Panel,” adding that its team “shared their career journeys and tips on how we are creating an equitable and inclusive workplace for all” with the organization, which helps connect students and graduates with employment opportunities. “Not very ‘bright’ right now, is it?” Musk replied two years later, attempting to draw a connection between the botched update and CrowdStrike’s outreach to potential future employees. There was none.   

It’s almost quaint thinking back to when Rep. Marjorie Taylor of Georgia speculated that a space laser controlled by a Jewish banking family had ignited California’s devastating Camp Fire in 2018. Years later, as the Los Angeles area rang in 2025 with a series of wildfires whipped up by dry vegetation and vicious Santa Ana winds, and entire neighborhoods of the Pacific Palisades and Altadena burned to the ground, conservative commentators didn’t necessarily need to reach for conspiracy theories — DEI was right there.

Elon Musk trotted out his usual “DEI means people DIE” line as a caption on a video he shared of L.A. Fire Chief Kristin Crowley talking about efforts to diversify the department. Former Fox News host Megyn Kelly likewise claimed that diversity initiatives had somehow diverted attention from fire preparedness. “In recent years, L.A.’s fire chief has made not filling the fire hydrants top priority, but diversity,” she claimed. “Who gives a shit if the fire chief is gay.” (Hydrants are not filled but supplied by reservoirs.) Mayor Karen Bass, the first Black woman to serve in the position for L.A., was labeled a “DEI hire” by critics.

The truth is that the city faced a number of logistical challenges against an unprecedented crisis — fueled by climate change — that it did not have the infrastructure to handle. Indeed, experts have said no water system in the world would have been sufficient to the task. The Los Angeles Fire Department has meanwhile begged for more funding so it can make up for dangerous staffing shortages.    

The tragic collision this week of a commerical American Airlines jet and a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter over the Potomac River in Washington, D.C., presented a major test for Trump shortly into his second term. All told, 67 victims had perished in the accident, and first indications suggested that staffing shortages may have played a part, with just one air traffic controller managing helicopters around Ronald Reagan National Airport as well departing and arriving planes — duties normally shared by two controllers.

In a press briefing the morning after the crash, Trump swiftly moved on from expressions of condolence to attacks on DEI, falsely claiming that the Federal Aviation Administration had recruited people with intellectual disabilities as air traffic controllers. Trump railing against diversity in government agencies took on new force with the power of his office, and surrogates including Vice President J.D. Vance, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth echoed his incendiary comments. Separately, on Truth Social, Trump cast blame on the helicopter pilots for flying too high. The Army has not released the name of one of those helicopter pilots, a woman, at the request of her family. An investigation into the collision is ongoing, and has yet to implicate DEI in any way.