Over the past week, President-elect Joe Biden has been announcing the teams that will support him during his soon-to-be presidency. One remarkable announcement was of his senior communications team. An all-female group. For the first time in history, women will have the opportunity to weigh in on any important decision, as well as be a voice for the administration.
Not only does this group of women make history for being all-female, but additionally it is a diverse group of women as well. Biden is successfully representing America as a diverse population by hiring people from many different ethnicities.
Apart from the communications team, Biden has also nominated Neera Tanden as the Director of the Office of Management and Budget. His choice to nominate this individual has spurred some online gossip and controversy, and in an article published by the Guardian, they quoted Tanden from an incident where she assaulted a journalist during Hillary Clinton's first presidential campaign: "'I didn’t slug him, I pushed him,'" in an apology to the New York Times last year. The Guardian responded, "As if that somehow makes things better."
Representation in America has always highlighted men. But recently, movements such as "Me Too" and "Black Lives Matter" have brought to light the unappreciated people in this country who represent so much. Gender roles have begun to transform from what the normal used to be, and with Biden's recent female additions to his cabinet, the younger generations will be inspired to pursue stereotypical male jobs. The representation of females in America has never looked better.
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This new cabinet looks promising as the increase in diversity will allow for better representation from many underrepresented groups, such as women and racial minorities. In contrast to the environment of hate President Trump seems to push for, president-elect Biden appears to be working to bring together people from a variety of backgrounds in order to once again be a symbol of national unity, reestablishing the common identity that we as Americans share. Minorites have come a long way from their lack of power early in American history and what keeps me hopeful of this country is the ability for the government to recognize the errors in its ways and correct them for the future. I am looking forward to the future of the United States as the future inauguration of president-elect Biden will set America on a brighter path.
President-elect Biden's choices are signifying about a positive start. I think representation across many different angles is super important, and he showing priorities of both intelligent staff as well as representation. He advocated a lot for unity during his campaign, and team representation in one aspect of working towards that. And I find this especially important after a presidency that was severely lacking in team diversity. From one angle, people are more willing to believe decisions in government can benefit or be directed towards them if the people making the decisions have their interest in mind. And from another side to this, young children who see people like them in government positions is inspiring, and it will encourage some of these young people to learn more about the systems in the US and maybe one day, work in that field. And even just thinking about people now, it is comforting to know the people he is choosing to work closely with in his future. So Biden's decisions for his teams come with many benefits from the perspective of the general public, and so far, I think he is off to a positive start.
Looking at President-elect Biden's communications team choices, I was pleasantly surprised. I think it's a good sign to see the diversity and inclusion he has already begun to represent BEFORE he's even in office. It's really great to see also that his picks are diverse in race as well as gender. To me, this already shows two main differences from Trump; Biden is following through on large promises he made in his campaign, and he's working hard to create an inclusive America. Trump has repeatedly been racist, misogynistic, and sexist, starting way before he was even elected. Trump has 26 inappropriate contact allegations and "43 instances of inappropriate behavior" against him according to the book "All the President’s Women: Donald Trump and the Making of a Predator." In 1973, he refused to rent to black people and got sued for violating the Fair Housing Act, in the 1990s he claimed some Native American Reservations operating casinos shouldn't be allowed because he didn't think they "looked like Indians," and in 2011 he made repeated allegations and even hired an investigator to "prove" that Obama wasn't born in the US, just to name a few. This isn't someone that should be a role model for other Americans and is dangerous to the goals of equality and inclusivity for all. Biden is already forging his own path to bringing America one step closer to equal representation. I'm very excited to see what else Biden will be doing in the coming months, especially after his inauguration in January.
https://www.vox.com/2016/7/25/12270880/donald-trump-racist-racism-history
This new diversified cabinet will serve well for those who are underrepresented. This especially important because of the effect it has on the president as advisors to his decisions. It essentially is the next step to more equal representation, it always is a plus when minority groups reach the pinnacle of American society as it sets the path for those who have less. This acts as a direct contrast to our previous misogynistic president and the precedence that has been set for empowering males over females since the beginning of government. From everything ranging from women suffrage to the first female vice president, women have made tremendous strides in terms of political power, and this next step just excites me even more. A more progressive nation is taking place and its approval is not only set internationally like all the positive responses towards Biden's future inauguration but clearly, since Trump has lost his votes for a second term, America believes that it is time for a change as well.
I am optimistic that President-elect Biden has already set a solid precedent by establishing his diverse all-female communications team. Working alongside the first-female vice president, Kamala Harris, the new Biden administration is definitely moving in the right direction, and hopefully spurring a movement of more women in the White House in the future.
While the increased female representation in office is refreshing and hopeful for the future, I encourage the Biden administration not to stop here, and continue to increase the role of women in the office as decision makers and voices of change. With more women in the higher positions, different issues will be made a priority as a result, including pay equity, healthcare and education, all extremely important issues that have often been overlooked or ignored by former male officeholders. Women will offer a unique perspective and I am excited to see where the female leaders will take the U.S.
Biden made promises that he would provide more opportunities to women and minorities during his campaign. It is very refreshing to see changes already being made before President - elect Biden's inauguration. This also gives hope that he will follow through with other agendas promised during his campaign. However, as Rosella mentioned they can't stop here. The momentum of implementing change they have gained so far needs to keep going. I am hopeful that with a diverse cabinet we will see change on very important issues and the views of many people represented.
Overall, this is also the representation young kids in our country need to see. We want younger kids to see that they can also grow up to become a leader and shape our country rather than believe they don't belong.
While I do agree that diversity is politics is a very important thing, especially when it comes to representing the many facets of America's wide variety of peoples and cultures, we shouldn't blindly force diversity when the country itself may be at risk from the people placed in these offices. As mentioned in Emily's blog, one of the nominees for Biden's cabinet is Neera Tanden. Despite being from an immigrant background, her personal background speaks louder than her tokenistic values as a diverse member of the cabinet. Among her many achievements things like being funded by the UAE and Saudi governments to downplay the human rights violations, torture, and murder committed by those governments shine much more brightly than her value as a diverse member of Biden's staff, as well other as things such as donating $200,000 to a right-wing think tank and censored censoring criticism of Israel and NYPD surveillance of Muslim communities. These shady dealings weigh a lot more on her character than her appearance as a diverse yet token member of Biden's staff.
I definitely agree that women and minorities should be actively placed in government positions to adequately represent the public. For example, it doesn't make sense for there to be an overwhelming majority of men in these jobs when women make up half the population. However, I think that Vitaly's point has some merit. Not only will the placement of a corrupt woman potentially hurt the country, it could also hurt the image of women in government. Because the inclusion of women in American government is a relatively new thing, I feel like biased news sources could twist corrupt actions into a reason why women / minorities should not be represented in government. Maybe that's just paranoid thinking, but there's always the possibility. However, I was happy to hear that everyone on this communications team is well-qualified for the job. It's a step forward for underrepresented groups, and hopefully progress like this will continue going forward.
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