Several racial justice, social justice and other advocacy groups wrote to Sen.-elect Doug Jones (D-AL) Tuesday urging him to interview and hire people of color to staff his Senate office, especially in senior positions.
Jones was elected in a shocking upset over Republican Roy Moore on Dec. 12 to fill Attorney General Jeff Sessions’ Senate seat, in large part due to incredibly high turnout among African American voters.
Seventeen groups, including the NAACP and the National Urban League, asked Jones “to commit to making diversity a priority in hiring by doing the following:
1. Embrace the Rooney Rule and interview at least one person of color for every senior position in your office;
2. Commit to hiring diverse candidates throughout your offices to ensure that the demographics of your office reflect the demographics of Alabama and America;
3. Commit to hiring at least one person of color for a senior staff position in your Washington office, defined as chief of staff, legislative director, and communications director.”
The letter cited a study from one of its signatories, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which found that just 7.1 percent of senior Senate staffers — as defined in the third point above, plus the role of committee staff director — were people of color.
The Washington Post, which reported on the letter, published a statement from Jones in which he said he is “absolutely committed to having a diverse staff including in top posts in my Senate office. I plan to hire a diverse staff that reflects the people of Alabama.”
The Post noted that minority leaders in both chambers of Congress, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), have asked their caucuses to follow the so-called Rooney Rule, named for the late Dan Rooney of the Pittsburgh Steelers, who promoted the practice for hiring coaching and management positions in the NFL.
H/t Washington Post.
A racial litmus test for staff. Fantastic idea.
I see Democrats are going to work as hard as possible to blow 2018.
Part of me agrees. But the bigger part of me says the Democrats need to do something to show black voters that they aren’t being forgotten. You can certainly argue that the selection of staff doesn’t really make a difference. But the Democrats really need to start doing something different.
Also, too, with the millennial vote. Stop running crusty old geezers that were old geezers when this old geezer (me) was in college.
People getting rewarded or bribed for their votes is how this works.
What gets me, as usual, is look what people would say in the reverse.
“Advocacy groups to Roy Moore: Hire White People As Your Senior Staff”.
The pitchforks would be out instantly. They could even justify it with “…because you wouldn’t have been elected without them”.
Sounds kind of shitty, huh?
Completely reasonable that his staff should represent all of his state, particularly the folks who voted for him. That seems like removing the previous litmus test for whiteness.
[edit]
p.s., I don’t think Roy Moore needed anyone to tell him to hire white folks.
Not the point. Please don’t be disingenuous.