Jackie Robinson holds a revered place in sports history as the first man to break the color barrier in Major League Baseball, not to mention his Hall of Fame accomplishments on the field. He also holds an honored place in America's military history, having been drafted in 1942, and serving with the 761st 'Black Panthers' Tank Battalion at Fort Hood, Texas. (Robinson was also Rosa Parks long before Rosa Parks when he was court-martialed for refusing to move to the back of an Army bus but later acquitted of all charges.)
Earlier this week, Robinson made the news again when his biography page on the Department of Defense website was inadvertently deleted, causing leftists across America to melt down and scream, 'RAAAYCISSSS.' The left claimed that this is what Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth meant when he promised to end DEI at the DOD.
This was obviously ridiculous. It's unclear whether Robinson's page was removed by accident (it may have been because the letters 'DEI' were part of the URL) or another case of 'malicious compliance,' as when someone in the Air Force leaked the lie that the military was not allowed to teach the story of the Tuskegee Airmen. Hegseth quashed that falsehood immediately. Similarly, in Robinson's case, regardless of why his page was initially removed, it was restored on Wednesday with the full-throated support of the Defense Department.
But the error with Robinson didn't just reveal how the left will weaponize anything and everything against the Trump administration, it also revealed that -- intentionally or because they're just plain dumb -- they don't understand what DEI means at all.
Watch below as sports podcaster Nick Wright tried to claim that Robinson was the epitome of a 'DEI hire.'
(If you don't want to listen to the whole thing, and I can't blame you for that, the relevant section is from 2:30-5:00 and then the final minute.)
Folks on the right side of history have to stop ceding ground to the charlatans and must stop agreeing to argue on their terms.
— nick wright (@getnickwright) March 20, 2025
Here’s the truth: Jackie Robinson *was* a DEI hire, and he is the perfect example of why DEI policies exist.
pic.twitter.com/EHeBDgtHSL
OK, first of all, anytime someone says they are 'on the right side of history,' you can bet on the fact that everything they're about to say after that is complete nonsense. People who think that men can have babies and people who wave Hamas flags also claim to be 'on the right side of history.'
But this clip also shows that the left continues to not get it. At all.
Eliminating DEI does not mean 'don't hire black people.' It never did. That is what racists like Nina Turner and Joy Reid tried to claim, but people should know better than to listen to them because their unadulterated racism is exceeded only by their stupidity.
DEI is the practice of elevating identity as the ONLY qualification for a job, a scholarship, a promotion, a spot on the team, or whatever. Ending DEI means that we hire people who EARN it, based on merit. The color of their skin, their sex, sexual orientation, or any other irrelevant aspects of their 'identity' have nothing to do with it.
Thankfully, independent journalist Matt Taibbi was on hand to set Wright straight on his gross (and possibly deliberate) misinterpretation of history in a tweet that was pure gold.
This is exactly wrong - Jackie Robinson was the opposite of a DEI hire and the mediocre white ballplayers he displaced were undeserving beneficiaries of race based hiring. Jackie Robinson’s story is about the triumph of merit over racial policy https://t.co/APbbe3pzvV
— Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) March 21, 2025
What he said. One hundred percent what he said.
It took Wright 12 minutes to spin his false historical revisionism with twisted pretzel logic.
It took Taibbit two sentences to demolish that with the obvious truth.
What Wright fails to realize is that the color barrier that used to exist in sports and other parts of society was DEI. It was everything that DEI is about. Only people of a certain race would be considered for a position, regardless of merit. It was just that, back then, that version of DEI policies favored whites, whereas today's version punishes anyone who is not a POC.
Right. When the color line was broken, US sports became (over time) the role model for identity blind meritocracy.
— Dave Daucher (@DaveDaucher) March 21, 2025
Strong take by Matt. Hiring (or not hiring) based on race was the reason only whites played in that era. That racist practice was wrong then, and still is wrong now, whatever the race.
— No To Twits (@JonDMutch) March 21, 2025
Put another way, DEI is racial discrimination. And, sorry Ibram X. Kendi, you don't fix racist policies of the past by instituting racist policies today.
Matt is so right. It goes to show you that not all Women and POC hires are DEI hires. And when a person is called out as a DEI hire, that person is not targeted because of sex or race, it's because of lack of ability or experience. https://t.co/rotWf6kbUB
— Freely Offensive (@FreelyOffensive) March 21, 2025
People didn't give Karine Jean-Pierre the nickname 'Karine Diversity-Hire' because she was black, or a lesbian, or whatever else she called herself. She got that nickname because she sucked at her job and it was clear that she was only given that position because she checked off the boxes that Joe Biden wanted checked off, regardless of her qualifications or ability.
Similarly, Claudine Gay at Harvard didn't get into trouble because she was a black woman. She got into trouble because she had almost no academic accomplishments, and the few she did have were clearly plagiarized from more qualified academics like Dr. Carol Swain. (In Gay's case, the virulent antisemitism didn't help matters either.)
Yes, it is true (especially on Twitter) that sometimes the right can hurl the term 'DEI hire' as an insult, even to people who don't deserve it. But that's just trolling and Twitter wouldn't be Twitter without endless trolling.
In reality, whether it be in government, the military, corporate HR departments, academia, or sports teams, ending DEI means that we WANT people like Robinson to get the opportunity to excel. Because he earned it. The racist (DEI-like) policies of his day are what held him back.
His excellence, his motivation, his superior talent, and his relentless drive to be the best is what made him a legend.
That, Nick Wright, is the opposite of DEI. That is why you are on the wrong side of history.
And that is why everyone will remember Jackie Robinson and no one will remember you.
