WEBVTT - They Got What They Wanted 0:00:01.680 --> 0:00:11.240 Col Zone Media. On February eleventh, twenty twenty five, the 0:00:11.280 --> 0:00:15.320 City Council in Scottsdale, Arizona wrote an epilogue to an 0:00:15.360 --> 0:00:18.400 episode of this show that I thought was already over. 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:24.200 On February twenty sixth, two thousand and four, a bomb 0:00:24.200 --> 0:00:29.080 went off in Scottsdale. A pipe bomb concealed an inconspicuous 0:00:29.080 --> 0:00:32.360 looking brown box exploded in the hands of the man. 0:00:32.400 --> 0:00:37.880 The package was addressed to Don Logan. Inside the box 0:00:38.040 --> 0:00:40.680 was a note one he didn't get a chance to 0:00:40.720 --> 0:00:45.519 read that day. The bomber demanded that Logan, the director 0:00:45.560 --> 0:00:49.120 of the city's Office of Diversity and Dialogue, cease and 0:00:49.200 --> 0:00:56.240 desist his corrupt activities, but he didn't. Don Logan carried 0:00:56.240 --> 0:00:57.920 on the work of trying to make the city of 0:00:57.920 --> 0:01:02.040 Scottsdale lay safe and welcoming place for people of all races, genders, 0:01:02.080 --> 0:01:06.200 and sexual orientations, and after he retired in two thousand 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:10.160 and seven, the office continued that work under a new director. 0:01:12.080 --> 0:01:15.080 A poster printed last year for their Scottsdale for All 0:01:15.160 --> 0:01:19.520 campaign showed Scottsdale residence of all backgrounds smiling under the 0:01:19.560 --> 0:01:23.800 hot desert sun. A sek in his turban A woman 0:01:23.840 --> 0:01:27.200 in her hijab, a man in a wheelchair, black and 0:01:27.319 --> 0:01:32.520 Hispanic residence, visibly queer and gender nonconforming people, all working 0:01:32.560 --> 0:01:36.440 together to make their home and more inclusive place. With 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:38.920 a shoestring budget of a fraction of a percent of 0:01:38.959 --> 0:01:43.319 the city's overall operating expenses, the office put on community programming, 0:01:43.600 --> 0:01:47.920 did outreach to underserved communities, and provided trainings to city employees. 0:01:50.080 --> 0:01:54.240 Until last week, just two weeks shy of the twenty 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.200 first anniversary of the bombing that nearly killed Don Logan, 0:01:58.320 --> 0:02:02.000 the Scottsdale City Council voted five to two to finish 0:02:02.000 --> 0:02:05.600 the job, closing the Diversity Office and ending all city 0:02:05.600 --> 0:02:10.160 funding for programming and training related to diversity, equity and inclusion. 0:02:11.880 --> 0:02:14.360 The weird little guys of decades past may be in 0:02:14.400 --> 0:02:18.239 federal prison for their crimes, but their ideas are alive 0:02:18.280 --> 0:02:21.079 and well. And you don't need to don a pointy 0:02:21.120 --> 0:02:25.360 white hood or a swastika armband to force hateful ideas 0:02:25.840 --> 0:02:29.800 on a city. A smart pantsuit will do just fine. 0:02:31.639 --> 0:02:52.960 I'm Molly Conger and this is Weird Blue Guys. This 0:02:53.080 --> 0:02:57.320 episode is not about a new weird Blue guy. We 0:02:57.400 --> 0:03:01.520 are unfortunately revisiting the aftermath of the actions of a 0:03:01.560 --> 0:03:06.800 guy we've already spent a few episodes discussing. Back in October, 0:03:06.919 --> 0:03:09.440 when the show was still pretty new, there was a 0:03:09.440 --> 0:03:12.440 week where I didn't quite get it together to have 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.520 a full episode ready to go in time. I was 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:17.760 in court for a trial for a couple of days, 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:19.880 I had a death in the family, I had to 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.560 travel out of state for a wedding, and the sixty 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:27.040 plus hours it takes to put an episode together just 0:03:27.080 --> 0:03:31.200 weren't there. So one of the episodes that month was 0:03:31.200 --> 0:03:35.560 a sort of cobbled together collection of personal reflections on 0:03:35.600 --> 0:03:38.520 the work so far and pat it out with some 0:03:38.560 --> 0:03:41.560 odds and ends, things that hadn't made it into past 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.000 episodes that I thought were interesting, and updates on some 0:03:45.160 --> 0:03:48.000 stories that had come to light after the air. Things 0:03:48.040 --> 0:03:52.000 like that, and the episode actually came out pretty good, 0:03:52.480 --> 0:03:56.120 I think, and I decided that the format could be 0:03:56.240 --> 0:03:59.640 useful for future emergencies. You know, every couple of months, 0:03:59.680 --> 0:04:04.000 I could revisit past episodes and tie together loose ends. 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:07.640 Maybe there were new developments in old cases. It would 0:04:07.680 --> 0:04:10.240 be a good release valve for me, and I think 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:13.800 it's something you all would still enjoy. I keep a 0:04:13.800 --> 0:04:15.960 document where I add those odds and ends as they 0:04:16.000 --> 0:04:18.760 occur to me, but I haven't needed to use it. 0:04:20.000 --> 0:04:24.560 I don't actually need it. This week, I find myself 0:04:24.600 --> 0:04:28.039 writing an update to an old episode, not because I 0:04:28.120 --> 0:04:30.440 had to fall back on my emergency plan for a 0:04:30.480 --> 0:04:35.480 filler episode, but because we all find ourselves in something 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:40.880 of an emergency. I prefer to write stories about the past, 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:46.960 stories that are over. They don't always have happy endings. 0:04:47.040 --> 0:04:51.560 In fact, they rarely do. The good guys don't always win. 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:56.120 More often than not, there aren't really any good guys 0:04:56.240 --> 0:04:59.960 at all. Even when the story ends with some federal 0:05:00.160 --> 0:05:04.240 prosecutor putting a violent white supremacist in prison, there are 0:05:04.320 --> 0:05:09.320 usually uncomfortable questions about why it took so long, why 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:14.000 certain co conspirators weren't charged, how much information law enforcement ignored, 0:05:14.160 --> 0:05:16.880 or how complicit their informants and undercover agents were in 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.080 the harm that was done. But at least at the 0:05:20.160 --> 0:05:24.200 end of the episode, the story is over, a case 0:05:24.279 --> 0:05:28.400 is solved, someone was held accountable, and maybe we all 0:05:28.480 --> 0:05:34.080 learned a little bit of history. Lately, though, I've grown 0:05:34.120 --> 0:05:38.640 increasingly uncomfortable with just how contemporary my stories of the 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:45.840 past are starting to feel storylines are recurring. Fringe ideas, 0:05:46.080 --> 0:05:49.120 ones that I had to dig for hours through decades 0:05:49.160 --> 0:05:52.520 old forum posts to find are now coming out of 0:05:52.560 --> 0:05:57.080 the mouths of elected officials in the evening news every day. 0:05:57.160 --> 0:06:00.240 It feels like I'm reading executive orders that it sound 0:06:00.320 --> 0:06:02.960 like they were written by a stormfront poster who graduated 0:06:03.040 --> 0:06:07.120 last in his class at law school. I don't like it. 0:06:08.920 --> 0:06:12.159 I'm much more comfortable digging through the archives than i 0:06:12.200 --> 0:06:15.919 am talking about current events. There's another show in the 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.400 cool Zone media family that does incredible work compiling a 0:06:19.440 --> 0:06:21.720 weekly roundup of the terrible news coming out of the 0:06:21.720 --> 0:06:25.480 White House. It could happen here puts that ongoing series 0:06:25.480 --> 0:06:29.360 out every Friday, But I've been hiding from the calendar. 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:32.920 Invite our producer Sens for that. I don't want to 0:06:32.960 --> 0:06:38.159 talk about the president Unfortunately. I think I have a 0:06:38.200 --> 0:06:43.159 responsibility to explicitly connect these stories from the past to 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:47.760 their present day consequences. So this episode is a sort 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:50.960 of coda to a series of six episodes that ran 0:06:51.040 --> 0:06:55.360 in December and January, beginning with the episode called Ku 0:06:55.440 --> 0:06:59.720 Klux Cable Access TV that originally ran on December fourth, 0:07:00.680 --> 0:07:02.880 All the way through the five part series on Dennis 0:07:02.880 --> 0:07:07.479 Mayhon ending in mid January. I know it's a big 0:07:07.520 --> 0:07:10.160 ask to expect you to be familiar with the storylines 0:07:10.240 --> 0:07:14.480 running through nearly six hours of old episodes, so I'll 0:07:14.520 --> 0:07:17.320 try to jog your memory as we go without repeating 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:24.440 myself too much. Last month, Costco shareholders rejected a proposal 0:07:24.680 --> 0:07:27.920 from the National Center for Public Policy Research, a right 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:31.800 wing think tank, that attacked the company's diversity, equity, and 0:07:31.840 --> 0:07:37.160 inclusion policies. What goes on in corporate boardrooms isn't really 0:07:37.200 --> 0:07:41.560 my wheelhouse, but I know this kind of shareholder activism 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:45.840 isn't exactly novel, and it certainly wasn't the National Center 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:50.280 for Public Policy Researches first foray into shareholder activism. Far 0:07:50.320 --> 0:07:54.160 from it. The think tank founded something called the Free 0:07:54.280 --> 0:07:58.200 Enterprise Project in two thousand and seven, a nonprofit whose 0:07:58.240 --> 0:08:03.480 whole mission is filing right wing shareholder resolutions. On their website, 0:08:03.520 --> 0:08:06.720 they claimed that ninety percent of all right of center 0:08:06.760 --> 0:08:11.480 shareholder resolutions are brought by their organization, and they've spent 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:16.360 nearly twenty years attacking sustainability efforts and diversity initiatives at 0:08:16.400 --> 0:08:22.200 companies like Apple, Microsoft, target, Progressive Ups, IBM, Ford, Coca Cola, 0:08:22.240 --> 0:08:26.640 Bank of America, Best Buy. The list goes on, but 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:33.360 this particular shareholder proposal felt nauseatingly familiar. The National Center 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.480 for Public Policy Research was trying to do in twenty 0:08:36.520 --> 0:08:41.920 twenty five exactly what the neo Nazi group National Alliance 0:08:42.200 --> 0:08:46.280 had done in nineteen eighty eight. And that's a strange 0:08:46.320 --> 0:08:49.240 side story I covered in the episode called Ku Klux 0:08:49.320 --> 0:08:54.040 Cable Access TV back in December. To refresh your memory 0:08:54.040 --> 0:08:57.640 a bit on that side plot. After a Nazi terrorist 0:08:57.720 --> 0:09:00.720 cell stole four million dollars from a rings truck in 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:04.400 California in nineteen eighty four, some of that money made 0:09:04.440 --> 0:09:07.480 its way into the hands of National Alliance leader William 0:09:07.520 --> 0:09:12.000 Luther Pierce, and with that stolen money, Pierce bought a 0:09:12.080 --> 0:09:14.559 large tract of undeveloped land in the mountains of West 0:09:14.640 --> 0:09:18.600 Virginia where he would establish his Nazi compound. But he 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.680 also bought one hundred shares of stock in AT and 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:25.760 T and in nineteen eighty eight, the group made their 0:09:25.800 --> 0:09:28.679 first of three attempts to force the company to end 0:09:28.720 --> 0:09:33.680 their affirmative action program. At that meeting. In nineteen eighty eight, 0:09:33.880 --> 0:09:37.280 Chairman of the board, Robert Allen, denounced the proposal, saying, 0:09:38.559 --> 0:09:40.720 as a shareholder of a sufficient number of AT and 0:09:40.760 --> 0:09:44.160 T shares, this organization has a right to offer a 0:09:44.200 --> 0:09:47.920 shareholder proposal, but we find the intent and wording of 0:09:47.960 --> 0:09:53.000 this proposal highly objectionable. Especially objectionable is the argument that 0:09:53.040 --> 0:09:55.680 some of our employees, because of their race, are less 0:09:55.760 --> 0:10:00.520 qualified than others. This proposal is completely contrary to the policies, 0:10:00.559 --> 0:10:03.520 the culture, and the character of AT and T. It 0:10:03.600 --> 0:10:05.959 is in the proxy only because we could not convince 0:10:06.000 --> 0:10:08.640 the Securities and Exchange Commission to allow us to drop it, 0:10:10.720 --> 0:10:13.800 and their proposal was voted down by the company's shareholders 0:10:13.800 --> 0:10:17.079 in nineteen eighty eight, nineteen eighty nine, and again in 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.559 nineteen ninety. In a later interview about that nineteen ninety 0:10:21.559 --> 0:10:26.440 shareholders meeting, National Alliance member and convicted pedophile Kevin Alfred 0:10:26.520 --> 0:10:30.680 Strom claims that he got a standing ovation after his 0:10:30.760 --> 0:10:33.760 presentation of the proposal, and he says he gave a 0:10:33.840 --> 0:10:38.800 rousing speech about the rank injustice and insane business practice 0:10:38.840 --> 0:10:44.960 of discriminating against whites. Strom complained that despite broad support 0:10:45.040 --> 0:10:49.040 from a very large portion of the shareholders, the proposal 0:10:49.120 --> 0:10:53.120 only failed because a handful of establishment hacks who hold 0:10:53.160 --> 0:10:57.439 the majority of shares, voted against it, and, much like 0:10:57.480 --> 0:11:00.320 the AT and T board chairman's denunciation of the Nazi 0:11:00.400 --> 0:11:04.160 proposal in nineteen eighty eight, Costco's board of directors were 0:11:04.200 --> 0:11:07.280 clear and their rejection of the twenty twenty five version 0:11:07.320 --> 0:11:12.640 of the same idea, writing, we welcome members from all 0:11:12.720 --> 0:11:16.520 walks of life and backgrounds. As our membership diversifies, we 0:11:16.640 --> 0:11:19.119 believe that serving it with a diverse group of employees 0:11:19.200 --> 0:11:23.959 enhances satisfaction. The board devotes a portion of their statement 0:11:24.000 --> 0:11:27.120 to discussing the ways in which diverse hiring practices are 0:11:27.240 --> 0:11:31.679 beneficial to the bottom line. Having employees from diverse backgrounds 0:11:31.720 --> 0:11:35.240 informs their purchasing choices, allowing them to offer products that 0:11:35.240 --> 0:11:39.680 appeal to all kinds of customers. And customers quote like 0:11:39.760 --> 0:11:42.600 to see themselves reflected in the people in our warehouses 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:46.920 with whom they interact. But the board statement doesn't just 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:53.120 hide behind shareholder value. It isn't just about the bottom line. 0:11:53.200 --> 0:11:56.319 They firmly believe it makes good business sense, of course, 0:11:57.679 --> 0:12:03.440 but it's also a moral imperative. The board rights, this 0:12:03.600 --> 0:12:07.079 is our code of ethics, our focus on diversity, equity, 0:12:07.080 --> 0:12:10.000 and inclusion is not, however, only for the sake of 0:12:10.040 --> 0:12:13.840 improved financial performance, but to enhance our culture and the 0:12:13.840 --> 0:12:16.200 well being of the people whose lives we influence. 0:12:18.120 --> 0:12:18.400 Look. 0:12:19.280 --> 0:12:24.240 Am I a diehard Costco fan? Yes? Am I wearing 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:28.640 my favorite sweatpants as I type this. Yes. I write 0:12:28.760 --> 0:12:31.800 every episode of this show in my Kirkland signature brand 0:12:31.800 --> 0:12:35.720 sweats with the Costco logo embroidered on them. Would I 0:12:35.800 --> 0:12:40.000 be thrilled if Costco offered to sponsor the show, Buddy, 0:12:40.040 --> 0:12:43.120 I'd be over the moon. But I don't want to 0:12:43.120 --> 0:12:48.520 get carried away praising any corporation, especially one that doesn't 0:12:48.559 --> 0:12:50.640 actually have a great track record when it comes to 0:12:50.760 --> 0:12:55.760 union organizing. I'm not so naive as to think very 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.559 many truly moral stands have ever been taken in corporate boardrooms. 0:13:00.960 --> 0:13:03.560 But this statement is a bold one, and it's one 0:13:03.600 --> 0:13:06.800 I think they can really be proud of. They take 0:13:06.840 --> 0:13:09.800 aim at the authors of the proposal, calling out their 0:13:09.920 --> 0:13:14.400 feigned concern for shareholder value that they've couched this policy position. 0:13:14.440 --> 0:13:19.720 In writing quote, the proponent's broader agenda is not reducing 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:25.080 risk for the company, but abolition of diversity initiatives and 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:27.480 they make it clear that they are very aware that 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:31.839 this think tank has published a document called Balancing the Boardroom, 0:13:32.040 --> 0:13:36.280 which describes its shareholder activism as fighting back against the 0:13:36.480 --> 0:13:42.200 evils of woke, politicized capital and companies. And just like 0:13:42.280 --> 0:13:46.480 the early similar proposal put forward by literal neo Nazis 0:13:46.520 --> 0:13:51.839 thirty seven years ago, this one failed to except no 0:13:51.880 --> 0:13:56.120 one's laughing this time. In nineteen eighty eight, the press 0:13:56.120 --> 0:14:01.319 covered National Alliance's efforts as a side show those Nazi 0:14:01.360 --> 0:14:04.199 freaks from a compound of the mountains didn't belong in 0:14:04.240 --> 0:14:10.679 a boardroom. Today, that same idea is taken very seriously. 0:14:12.400 --> 0:14:16.160 Not long after Costco's shareholders voted down the proposal, the 0:14:16.160 --> 0:14:20.280 Attorney's General in nineteen States penned a letter to Costco's 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:23.840 CEO warning him that he had thirty days to end 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:28.840 the company's DEI policies. There is a heavily implied threat 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:33.640 that those state attorneys general would do something to the 0:14:33.680 --> 0:14:37.680 company if they failed to comply, but there's no clear 0:14:37.760 --> 0:14:42.480 explanation of what, if anything, the company has actually done 0:14:42.520 --> 0:14:46.760 that would allow any legal action to be taken. The 0:14:46.800 --> 0:14:51.600 President's avalanche of executive orders attacking civil rights don't have 0:14:51.640 --> 0:14:54.320 the force of law behind them that would actually outlaw 0:14:54.360 --> 0:15:00.360 a private company's HR policy. It's not clear yet how 0:15:00.400 --> 0:15:03.440 this is going to play out, but I'm willing to 0:15:03.440 --> 0:15:07.800 bet it involve some questionably legal state level enforcement actions 0:15:07.880 --> 0:15:25.680 and a lot of lawsuits. The story I sat down 0:15:25.720 --> 0:15:31.240 to write, though, is about Scottsdale, Arizona. When I finished 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.720 that five part series of episodes about Dennis Mahon, I 0:15:34.800 --> 0:15:38.040 was ready to be done with him. I never expected 0:15:38.040 --> 0:15:41.479 his story to spin out in so many directions, but 0:15:41.520 --> 0:15:43.800 once I started writing it, there was no way to 0:15:43.800 --> 0:15:48.000 condense his life into anything less. For more than a 0:15:48.040 --> 0:15:51.280 month on this show, we followed Dennis Mahon all over 0:15:51.320 --> 0:15:55.440 the country the world, even from his childhood on a 0:15:55.440 --> 0:15:58.120 farm in Illinois to his rise to prominence as a 0:15:58.160 --> 0:16:01.520 regional clan leader and his years as Tom Metzger's right 0:16:01.560 --> 0:16:05.200 hand man in the White Arian Resistance. He won a 0:16:05.280 --> 0:16:08.200 lawsuit against Kansas City for his right to broadcast a 0:16:08.280 --> 0:16:12.160 racist public access TV show, and he lost a lawsuit 0:16:12.200 --> 0:16:16.640 to Fred Rogers. He was deported from Canada, banned from 0:16:16.680 --> 0:16:20.480 Germany and the United Kingdom. He was investigated as a 0:16:20.480 --> 0:16:23.320 suspect in a male bombing that killed a federal judge 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:26.440 and accused by a federal informant of helping plan the 0:16:26.440 --> 0:16:31.840 Oklahoma City bombing. After a lifetime as a self professed 0:16:31.880 --> 0:16:35.320 serial bomber, he was finally caught in two thousand nine, 0:16:35.840 --> 0:16:37.680 and he'll spend the rest of his life in prison 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:39.840 for the two thousand and four bombing of the Scottsdale, 0:16:39.880 --> 0:16:44.720 Arizona Office of Diversity and Dialog. Through the lens of 0:16:44.760 --> 0:16:48.400 Dennis's life, I learned some history that I would never 0:16:48.440 --> 0:16:52.560 have otherwise encountered. In the third episode in that series, 0:16:53.120 --> 0:16:55.800 I talked about a lawsuit his twin brother, Daniel, filed 0:16:55.800 --> 0:16:58.720 against American Airlines after he was fired for creating a 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:03.600 hostile work environment. Daniel had been involved in the company's 0:17:03.840 --> 0:17:09.159 Caucasian Employee Resource Group, an employee affinity group for white people. 0:17:10.800 --> 0:17:14.800 The issue wasn't that employees were organizing around whiteness. The 0:17:14.840 --> 0:17:18.800 company actually had no problem with that. The problem didn't 0:17:18.840 --> 0:17:22.199 arise until Daniel wore a Nazi T shirt to a 0:17:22.240 --> 0:17:26.120 meeting with management about the clan inspired pamphlets he made 0:17:26.160 --> 0:17:31.080 for the employee Diversity Fair. In my research for that episode, 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:35.840 I explored the kind of surprising history of employee Resource Groups. 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:41.560 It sounds like corporate hr hot air, but they originated 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:45.879 in nineteen seventy with the National Black Employee Caucus at Xerox. 0:17:47.280 --> 0:17:50.720 After the Rochester Riots in nineteen sixty four, the president 0:17:50.760 --> 0:17:55.520 of Xerox invested years and millions of dollars in diversifying 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:59.160 his workforce, eventually leading to the creation of the first 0:17:59.200 --> 0:18:03.640 corporate employee group. I didn't set out to learn about 0:18:03.640 --> 0:18:07.879 a photocopier company's radical investment in black community development in 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.760 the sixties, but it's a history I'm grateful to know now, 0:18:12.440 --> 0:18:15.240 as the modern employee resource group is on the shopping block. 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:21.280 Like corporate diversity initiatives, ergs are under attack after Trump's 0:18:21.280 --> 0:18:26.359 executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion programs. Just last week, 0:18:26.440 --> 0:18:29.560 the Seattle Times reported that the employee resource groups at 0:18:29.560 --> 0:18:33.240 the shipyard in Bremerton, Washington had been suspended in response 0:18:33.240 --> 0:18:37.520 to those executive orders. Mark Layton, the president of the 0:18:37.520 --> 0:18:42.040 Bremerton Metal Trades Council, said that those orders were demeaning 0:18:42.240 --> 0:18:45.920 and a little derogatory, and he told the paper quote, 0:18:46.440 --> 0:18:49.480 we don't have any token people here. You can either 0:18:49.480 --> 0:18:52.560 turn a wrench or well adjoint do the work. Required 0:18:53.359 --> 0:18:56.960 or you don't work here. At an event last year, 0:18:57.160 --> 0:19:03.560 Shipyard Commander Captain J. D. Crinklaw praised the employee resource groups, saying, quote, 0:19:04.000 --> 0:19:06.600 these groups allow us to build better teams and increase 0:19:06.640 --> 0:19:10.359 our ability to contribute. They are critical to who we 0:19:10.520 --> 0:19:14.720 are as an organization, and Mark Layton emphasized to the 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:18.560 Seattle Times that those affinity groups don't give their members 0:19:18.640 --> 0:19:24.320 any special workplace privileges or advantages. They only exist as 0:19:24.320 --> 0:19:27.400 a way from employees to network and support each other. 0:19:29.680 --> 0:19:33.600 A recent article published by the Society for Human Resources Management, 0:19:33.720 --> 0:19:38.199 a professional association for people working in HR, indicates that 0:19:38.240 --> 0:19:42.440 there is a growing anxiety in corporate America about how 0:19:42.480 --> 0:19:47.400 to comply with these confusing, questionably legal missives coming out 0:19:47.400 --> 0:19:51.639 of the White House. Their advice is that ergs that 0:19:51.680 --> 0:19:56.120 are open to all employees likely do not violate these 0:19:56.200 --> 0:19:59.920 new White House policies, but some private companies are too 0:20:00.040 --> 0:20:03.520 using to end these programs out of fear and confusion. 0:20:05.200 --> 0:20:09.240 For federal employees, those groups are gone, not just the 0:20:09.240 --> 0:20:14.720 ones centered around race, all of them. Ergs may have 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:18.119 started with the Black Employee Caucus, but in the decades since, 0:20:18.720 --> 0:20:21.800 the idea has grown to encompass a wide variety of 0:20:21.840 --> 0:20:26.800 shared characteristics and interests. A lot of them are still 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:34.399 centered around protected class identities like race, gender, disability, and sexuality, 0:20:34.600 --> 0:20:39.280 but most companies with ergs also have groups for working parents, 0:20:39.480 --> 0:20:44.320 groups for veterans, groups for new hires, people with particular hobbies, 0:20:44.480 --> 0:20:47.600 or things like people who want to get together after 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:52.520 work and clean up litter. I hope these affinity groups 0:20:52.560 --> 0:20:57.320 will continue their work, continue supporting and advocating for one another, 0:20:58.600 --> 0:21:00.320 even if they aren't allowed to be listed on the 0:21:00.320 --> 0:21:04.919 company website anymore. And I guess I can't talk around 0:21:04.920 --> 0:21:08.720 it anymore. I've been avoiding getting to the thing. I 0:21:08.760 --> 0:21:11.920 sat down to write the story. I spent all those 0:21:11.960 --> 0:21:16.639 weeks writing all forty some on thousand words of it. 0:21:16.640 --> 0:21:22.320 It all led up to one thing. The bomb. A 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.080 lifelong racist, a man who claimed to have bombed abortion 0:21:26.200 --> 0:21:30.760 clinics and synagogues, a man who ran hotlines and newsletters 0:21:30.760 --> 0:21:35.040 dedicated to spreading the word of white supremacy, took drastic, 0:21:35.640 --> 0:21:39.320 violent measures to end the work of diversity, equity and 0:21:39.320 --> 0:21:44.240 inclusion in Scottsdale, Arizona, in two thousand and four. He failed. 0:21:45.680 --> 0:21:49.440 The bomb went off. Yes, Don Logan and two other 0:21:49.480 --> 0:21:54.000 employees in his office were injured. Logan's injuries required multiple 0:21:54.000 --> 0:21:58.320 surgeries and skin grafts. Rinne de Lnyard would later testify 0:21:58.359 --> 0:22:00.679 that doctors had been unable to remark a piece of 0:22:00.720 --> 0:22:04.560 shrapnel that had entered through her eye and lodged itself 0:22:04.560 --> 0:22:08.960 in her brain. But the people Dennis Mayhon tried to 0:22:09.000 --> 0:22:13.760 intimidate with that bomb said no, they didn't back down. 0:22:14.560 --> 0:22:19.960 They wouldn't let a klansman's bomb dictate city policy. They won. 0:22:21.000 --> 0:22:24.880 Dennis Mayhon went to prison, and Scottsdale, Arizona, maintained its 0:22:24.920 --> 0:22:30.359 commitment to being a more inclusive city. Like I said, 0:22:31.080 --> 0:22:33.760 most of these stories don't really have happy endings, but 0:22:34.720 --> 0:22:36.959 that part at least was as close to one as 0:22:37.000 --> 0:22:41.760 I'm likely to get. So it hit doubly hard when 0:22:41.760 --> 0:22:43.520 that turned out not to be the end at all. 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:02.439 Last week, I was rolling idly past the daily parade 0:23:02.480 --> 0:23:05.760 of horrors on my social media feed when I saw 0:23:05.760 --> 0:23:09.480 a post from a friend of mine. I wasn't trying 0:23:09.520 --> 0:23:11.920 to see the news. I was trying to avoid the news. 0:23:12.760 --> 0:23:15.880 I just wanted to see silly little posts from my friends. 0:23:17.040 --> 0:23:20.159 A feudal endeavor, really, because a lot of my friends 0:23:20.240 --> 0:23:25.679 are people like me, journalists, researchers, collectors of terrible facts 0:23:25.720 --> 0:23:29.680 about terrible men. And the post that caught my eye 0:23:29.720 --> 0:23:32.800 was from Nick Martin, a journalist who has spent years 0:23:32.840 --> 0:23:37.120 researching and writing about right wing extremism. He also happened 0:23:37.200 --> 0:23:39.199 to work at the East Valley Tribune back in the 0:23:39.240 --> 0:23:42.160 early two thousands, so at the time of the bombing 0:23:42.359 --> 0:23:45.840 he was covering news in the Phoenix metro area, and 0:23:45.880 --> 0:23:48.760 by the time Dennis Mahon was brought to trial, Nick 0:23:48.840 --> 0:23:52.399 was covering the story for Talking Points Memo, and it 0:23:52.480 --> 0:23:56.720 was from Nick that I first got this news. His 0:23:56.800 --> 0:24:01.240 post read. In two thousand and four, white supremacists bombed 0:24:01.280 --> 0:24:04.440 the city Diversity office in Scottsdale, Arizona, in an attempt 0:24:04.520 --> 0:24:08.240 to destroy it. Last night as part of the new 0:24:08.320 --> 0:24:13.399 anti diversity panic, the Republican led city council finished the job. 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:19.640 I saw that post on Wednesday night, which is coincidentally 0:24:19.760 --> 0:24:23.040 usually the part of each week when I realize I 0:24:23.080 --> 0:24:25.600 do need to figure out what next week's episode is 0:24:25.600 --> 0:24:30.800 going to be about, so I really had no choice. 0:24:30.960 --> 0:24:35.320 Twenty one years after that bomb went off, the Scottsdale 0:24:35.320 --> 0:24:38.440 City Council did exactly what that bomb was meant to do. 0:24:39.920 --> 0:24:42.600 In a five to two vote, they passed an ordinance 0:24:42.640 --> 0:24:47.200 stripping all city funding for diversity, equity and inclusion, ending 0:24:47.240 --> 0:24:52.359 the work that Don Logan nearly died for. So I 0:24:52.400 --> 0:24:56.040 watched the meeting and I read every email sent by 0:24:56.040 --> 0:24:59.680 Scottsdale residents to their city council about that agenda item. 0:25:00.520 --> 0:25:04.560 Fifty one people spoke at the meeting. Only two were 0:25:04.560 --> 0:25:08.840 in favor of ending the diversity program. Two hundred and 0:25:08.920 --> 0:25:13.359 twenty three emails were sent about the ordinance. Only twenty 0:25:13.440 --> 0:25:17.160 seven were from people in favor of the proposal. Two 0:25:17.160 --> 0:25:20.560 of those emails were actually identical messages sent a day 0:25:20.600 --> 0:25:24.560 apart by one man who also spoke at the meeting. 0:25:27.040 --> 0:25:30.920 I listened to every one of those comments. I read 0:25:30.960 --> 0:25:36.600 every one of those emails, and I wept. People from 0:25:36.640 --> 0:25:39.680 all walks of life showed up to speak out against 0:25:39.720 --> 0:25:43.720 the ordinance. The CEO of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of 0:25:43.720 --> 0:25:48.320 Commerce made an economic argument. Former city councilor Betty Janek 0:25:48.359 --> 0:25:52.639 said the ordinance was unnecessary and mean spirited. The city 0:25:52.680 --> 0:25:56.439 code already requires merit based hiring. This wouldn't change anything. 0:25:57.960 --> 0:26:00.840 A rabbi reminded the councilors that loving your neighbors as 0:26:00.880 --> 0:26:06.440 a mitzvah. The city's LGBTQ liaison, an army veteran practicing 0:26:06.480 --> 0:26:10.879 attorney and transgender woman, seemed to almost dare them to 0:26:10.920 --> 0:26:13.200 tell her to her face that she's a dei hire. 0:26:15.600 --> 0:26:19.639 And then a dozen or so comments in someone mentioned 0:26:19.680 --> 0:26:23.960 the bomb. Neil Shearer had been the city's human resources 0:26:24.000 --> 0:26:28.000 manager back in two thousand and four. This was personal 0:26:28.000 --> 0:26:29.080 for him. 0:26:30.480 --> 0:26:33.240 Almost twenty one years ago today, a man affiliated with 0:26:33.320 --> 0:26:36.800 the White Aryan Resistance sent a pipe bomb through the 0:26:36.800 --> 0:26:39.679 mail addressed to my friend and colleague, Don Logan, the 0:26:39.680 --> 0:26:43.320 first director of the Office of Diversity. In dialogue, Don 0:26:43.440 --> 0:26:45.640 was seriously injured when he opened the package, as were 0:26:45.640 --> 0:26:51.720 two of his coworkers. It strikes me beyond ironic that 0:26:51.840 --> 0:26:56.760 a convicted felon white supremacist, through hate filled and violent means, 0:26:57.200 --> 0:27:01.879 could not succeed in silencing the office, Yet the city 0:27:01.920 --> 0:27:05.600 Council could accomplish the same end by shutting down the 0:27:05.640 --> 0:27:09.719 office through a simple majority vote of the Council in 0:27:09.800 --> 0:27:11.439 your first thirty days in office. 0:27:13.920 --> 0:27:17.119 And then a few minutes later I realized Don Logan 0:27:17.240 --> 0:27:22.439 was there. He was in the room. He first appeared 0:27:22.440 --> 0:27:25.480 on camera standing behind Jen Dolan, who'd been the city 0:27:25.520 --> 0:27:29.040 manager at the time of the bombing. He placed a 0:27:29.080 --> 0:27:32.000 hand reassuringly on her shoulder as she approached the microphone 0:27:32.040 --> 0:27:32.760 to speak. 0:27:35.080 --> 0:27:39.679 Don Logan, who was the diversity director when I was 0:27:39.760 --> 0:27:45.040 the city manager, who they tried to kill. I ask 0:27:45.200 --> 0:27:50.920 you do not try to kill diversity and its efforts. 0:27:53.920 --> 0:27:56.720 Logan flashed a bright smile when she said his name, 0:27:57.680 --> 0:28:01.439 but it vanished a millisecond leader as Dolan reminded council 0:28:01.520 --> 0:28:04.560 that he'd nearly died for the office they were killing. 0:28:05.880 --> 0:28:10.119 Speaker after speaker urged council to rethink this course of action. 0:28:11.440 --> 0:28:13.719 There had been no study done to evaluate the claims 0:28:13.720 --> 0:28:16.159 they were making about the negative consequences of the city's 0:28:16.160 --> 0:28:21.040 diversity program. A pastor who had, in her prior career 0:28:21.080 --> 0:28:24.600