STATE EQUITY PROGRAM: Vermont’s Republican governor says the new “IDEAL Vermont” program is for “all walks of life” to promote diversity.
The governor speaking at his weekly news conference promoted “IDEAL Vermont,” a new diversity program designed to foster racial equity at the local level throughout the state.
Gov. Phil Scott insists that the program, which has 14 communities already on board, is for all Vermont residents, not just minorities.
“The fact is we need to do this work because while Vermont is a great place to live with tight-knit communities who care about their neighbors, not everyone has been welcomed,” he said.
The governor said the state needs to attract more diverse families and “respect differences.”
Xusana Davis, executive director of the Office of Racial Equity, is guiding the program. She said racial inequities are built into the fabric of society.
“There’s a lot of built-in injustice in this country that has manifested over the years at the local level,” she said. “Think red-lining, think zoning, think education policy, think policing and community safety; these are all issues that could in part be addressed at the state and federal levels, but they absolutely have to be tackled at the local level as well if we really want to move the needle.”
Davis suggested that critics of state DEI programs may oppose them because they have “privilege” and don’t want to give it up.
“For people who have been in positions of privilege for a long time, getting to equity feels like something is being taken from them, because I’m accustomed to [having] privilege. That’s really an experimental journey that they have to be willing to go on,” she said.
Davis said $220,000 in state taxpayer funds have been committed so far, to be spent over two years. This money will be supplemented by additional funds from the Vermont Community Foundation.
Will conservatives be welcome?
Critics of DEI programs say they don’t include everyone, but favor individuals because of their race, color or ethnicity.
When asked by a reporter if Burlington’s equity and belonging committee was restricting access to community gardens only to residents who sign a diversity pledge, both Scott and Davis said they were not familiar with the issue.
“I think we need inclusion on all levels,” the governor said. “So we want to make this as easy as possible for everyone to be involved, and that means being inclusive to all walks of life. I think it’s important that we welcome people from across the board because we need people to step up to join this effort in order to be successful.”
Scott comments on new supermajority status of Vermont Democrat Party
Following the Nov. 8 election, Republicans have just 38 representatives in the Vermont Statehouse, well shy of the one-third required sustain a governor’s veto. Scott lamented GOP losses and called for Democrats to work with Republicans to find “balance.”
“I had hoped that we would maintain the numbers in the Republican Party to have some more balance in this state but we lost ground,” he said. “We’re going to have to again play the cards we are dealt, and I’m sure that we’ll get a lot done, but we’re going to have to make sure that we’re all working together.”
Michael Bielawski is a reporter for True North. Send him news tips at bielawski82@yahoo.com and follow him on Twitter @TrueNorthMikeB.
I believe in equality but equity is just a term made to fit by racists insisting they are against racism. What is a very obvious racist program in the US? Affirmative action. That exists because of the belief that minorities are intellectually inferior. So what’s Phlipper Phil’s thoughts on that?
This person is a racist. She hates successful people, regardless of color or ethnicity etc… Her words below are inciting and hateful. Who in the hell does she think she is? Shame on Phil Scott for bringing this filth to our great state. Read her words, they’re below here.
I know that most Vermonters are good people, solid, understanding and respectful. For Davis and Scott to say differently is arrogant and clueless. Maybe they need to get out into the communities around our state like I have and talk to everyday Vermonters, not just to politicians and non-profit folks. Do we have some problems here in the Green Mountain state, absolutely we do, and we have (duplication) of statutes to fix any problem(s).
The divisiveness that Davis has brought to our state with Scott sickens me. Telling us Vermonters that we are inherently racist is bull!
“Xusana Davis, executive director of the Office of Racial Equity, is guiding the program. She said racial inequities are built into the fabric of society.
“There’s a lot of built-in injustice in this country that has manifested over the years at the local level,” she said. “Think red-lining, think zoning, think education policy, think policing and community safety; these are all issues that could in part be addressed at the state and federal levels, but they absolutely have to be tackled at the local level as well if we really want to move the needle.”
Davis suggested that critics of state DEI programs may oppose them because they have “privilege” and don’t want to give it up.
“For people who have been in positions of privilege for a long time, getting to equity feels like something is being taken from them, because I’m accustomed to [having] privilege. That’s really an experimental journey that they have to be willing to go on,” she said.”
Equity should start with having a legitimate Republican party in Vermont.
Nothing at all can be declared as “equal” when there is only one side dominating the state making all these decisions.
Having a one party state decide upon what is equal.. good grief, even the Chinese are rising up today, certainly Vermonters can.
Just saying Thanks… for the mention. Also to explain my own absolute dislike for any of these programs. I am by outward appearance a big black guy, but unknown to most, I am 1/2 white. My mother a VERY white woman ( who I never saw and still do not see that way . It is more of a humorous fact of life) is one of the reasons I still live in VT. She and my father ( a black man) moved us all here to get away from the crime especially and the other more liberal ideas of MA. I remember being so happy with things, until I went to school and was taught how “different” I was. It was never them being taught to see me a just a kid but to have me change to accept all the abuse. I still see the counselors from then, around the papers, he is one of the same people trying to make all this “inclusive” garbage come to fruition. He has been patted on the back for being so “wise” and through in his plan to minimize any behavior that was not just accepting of the abuse.
Oh, did I mention he was /is white.
All the people who were telling me they were here to help were white and they DID NOT HELP. They just labeled me and others like me and collected a check as all the liberal/progressives do for another job well done.
Vt will never be what it used to be until we get back the Republican government we had during the Snelling years. These others want a haven for Satanic baby killers, pedophiles and satan worshipers.
Still not gonna leave.
Thank you Mr. McLamb for speaking the Truth! God bless you! Many of us taxpayers here are beyond fed up with funding blanket libelous defamation of character. It is high time they are taken to task for their gross misconduct with a fat class action lawsuit! The Truth they conveniently do not address is the Democrats voted against nearly every civil rights act presented. Hillary Clinton’s hero, Senator Robert Byrd, was a member of the KKK. Joe Biden, on a number of occasions, spoke real racist rhetoric. Bill Clinton and Kamala Harris are responsible for more people of color being behind bars than anyone! Yet here we are being gaslighted by an opportunist grifter and the panderer- in-charge! Perhaps we should change our State song to Ebony and Ivory and put rainbows on our flag! They are nothing more than bullies at their pulpits of deceit. Germany 1934
Hey, you forgot to mention a biggie…Sen. Al Gore senior:
“It is easy to control the minds of a people. All one has to do is change history by lying about the past. This is exactly what has happened with the legacy of former Democratic U.S. Senator Al Gore, Sr. of Tennessee – the father of Al Gore Jr.– and his mythical “support” of civil rights. ”
In 1964 there was a life changing bill & vote in the Senate….’The Civil Rights Act of 1964″…..it passed….but WITHOUT the help – of DEMOCRATS…largely southern ones. Al Gore Sr. VOTED AGAINST the Civil Righst act (for Blacks)….TWENTY THREE….23…other DEMOCRATS followed suit saying NO,,,. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 was champoioned. and PASSED…BY REPUBLICANS….the same Republican party that freed the slaves….which DEMOCRATS fought & died to keep!
if you are a Democrat, you are either a FRAUD, IGNORANT of truth & factual history…most likely a LOW IQ…or you aomehow are being “paid off”. Vermont’s Ms X-U-Sana is both ignorant of historical FACTS , and being “paid off” to agitate her reverse racism.
Amen. The grifters poured in here for the big non-profit bucks or take a newly created State government job. Create grand illusions and steal every nickel they can get their hands on before the immenient collapse. They can’t get real jobs, so opt to be paid freaks of misery in the State of Vermont. It obviously attracked clown buses full of them. They should be ashamed, but they have no conscience and no brains to feel anything but hatred and entitlement – aka sociopathy.
This woman is an agitator, it’s plain and simple.
She should be fired for disturbing the peace and made to leave the state..since she apparently thinks it’s so bad.
Ms. “X-U-Sana” isn’t going anywhere, unless her vaunted DEI is ruled illegal as reverse racsim….because she makes just about $100,000 a year, along with Gold Plated Union benefits. Not bad for VT!…and I am sure she is well aware that there are hundreds and hundreds of gov’t employed race baiters, just like herself, who have already locked in all the other cushy DEI jobs in other much larger $$ states…so, clearly it is better for her to be the “big fish in a small pond”…so she can be “adored & feted ” by all those who want to be “feel good” :)….always followe the money1 Just ask race fraudsters Al Shappton, jesse Jackson….his criminal son – and of course the financially fraudulant….BLM…funding their many million dollar houses and lavish lifestyles…all donated by “Feel Good BLM Suckers”… from all over VT and USA 🙂
I can’t wait to see the Supreme Court decison (Harvard reverse race admission discrimination) whch I pray and hope will make her reverse racism race baiting job…illegal .:)
This woman Davis is a racist nit wit. oh…yes, we are so privileged. We are just horrible White people. Privileged. Let me tell you something you very stupid woman: We Whites worked for everything we have . We didn’t sit around begging for handouts and welfare. If we didn’t speak English, we learned it…fast! This country is English speaking; founded by English people. We took pride in ourselves and our ability to care for our family without help from the government. We didn’t expect the country to cater to us and translate everything into other languages. We didn’t expect anything from the government at all. What is coming into our country are real losers when they expect US to give them everything, like they deserve it or something. And don’t act like these illegal aliens are somehow escaping death and starvation and are nice little poor families. Most are young males. Millions of them. Who are given cell phones, hotels rooms, and they just laze around on the American dime. I have no respect for them. None at all.
What, specifically, is this “privilege” Xusana states I and others like me possess? It appears to me they are claiming “special privileges” to gain advantages in housing, loans, grants, headlines, offices, titles, authority, wages, education, etc. They are stepping over others to get their “privileges.” Enough with these fools, their fake authority, their fake victim stories, and their fake justice. All they do is create division and demoralization. They are goose-steppers. I declare and decree, in the name of our Lord, their lies and deceit are brought down to the ground on this day! Let it be so!
If the Supreme Court rules against the reverse racism (?) of mandated DEI policies (Harvard discriminatory admissions case)…… as I think they will (and VT is full of DEI)….I hope that Clarence Thomas writes the opinion, as a Black Man…and it becomes the “law of the land”….ending all racism, once and for all…reverse racism (DEI) or otherwise…in the USA. I’d also wager that if (?) they rule it illegal and Justice Thomas writes the cast-in-stone-forever legal opinion (?)….Justice Thomas will simply have to quote Dr. Martin Luther King as proof & vindication of his “D.E.I.-Is-Racist” opinion:
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by their character.”
D.E.I. in VT is a racist program…just reverse racism …by choosing people & forcing mandated programs for them, solely based your skin color – to be mandatory – “included”.
OMG! Read my last reply to Mr. Shannon on the fraud of “racial equity”. It is racism’s ugly head, in REVERSE. Racism is Racism. The Supreme Court will soon rule on the abject racism soon….and their decision CANNOT BE APPEALED. Harvard and every university (almost) in USA discrimates against highly qualified non-black students (in particular of Asian & India descent) for admission. Harvard (as well as VT) “Dumbs-Down-America” soley based on the color of your skin…while others (non -black) rejected, are far better qualified. I am pretty sure this Supreme Court decison (?) will upend ALL the purely race based “diversity, equity & inclusion” – as ILLEGAL. I also guess that the Court’s opinion will be written by a “Black Man”….Clarence Thomas….and it will be his crowning achievement of decades on the Court…to END ALL racism, reverse racism or otherwise, once and for all – in the USA.
Since VT is illegally discriminating (I believe) with all this forced, mandated “D.E.I” stiff..it is just a matter of time till VT get’s SUED by a “white discriminated & aggreived” person…for millions $$$…And when the first VT racist DEI case wins, based on Supreme Court precident – which cannot be overruled…VT is in DEEP LEGAL DOO-DOO $$$. VT WILL LOSE IN COURT. At that point “Ms. X-U-Sana….(WHY can’t she just say she is “Susanna”… I can’t pronounce “X-U-Sana”… it must be her Black identity power trip?)….. Ms. “X-U-Sana” will face two outcomes..Quit her job as the top “race baiter” and leave VT…(because without her “Race-Based-Employment-Hustle” I bet she has few qualifications for any other job in VT). SECOND? Ms. X-U-Sana better soon be prepared (?) to spend the majority of her “job time” in COURT – on the witness stand, defending her illogical (and VT’s) “reverse racist” policies – against a well defined Supreme Court legal decison – a “mandate”.. Lucky for her….she will not be “personally liable” for $$$$$$$, since the STATE OF VERMONT mandates & forces all these employment & racist – programs & DEI policies….just another in a long line, by race baiters & “Feel Good Liberals”….recently crowned off by the documented BLM financial fraud. …The pendulum will soon enough turn…To end all Racism…”reverse” – or other wise, in the USA…as well as Ms. X-U-Sana’s race baiting in VT.
So Mr. Klar! You are a lawyer…set up your office, seek people racially rejected because of DEI in VT…wait for Supreme Court…and you too can be a “race-lottery-multi-millionaire ” contingency fee lawyer – representing those in VT racially aggrieved, because they are white skin, by VT’s (soon?) illegal DEI mandates.