Oregon county commissioner rails against $800K proposed DEI budget: 'Progressive widget box'

An Oregon official is pushing back against his county's proposed six-figure diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) budget, arguing the ideology is divisive as the county moves to reconsider the vast measure. 

Clackamas County Commissioner Ben West, R., slammed the proposal during "Fox & Friends First," sharing his broader concerns surrounding the impact the DEI-focused push will have on the community overall. 

"My county makes up a third of the Portland area. And the predominant ideology is diversity, equity and inclusion, and that ideology kind of permeates through much of the work that you see done, not just in corporations and schools and county governments, but it is kind of everywhere," West told Todd Piro Thursday. 

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"As I begin to look at the outcomes that that's creating in my county, I have concerns because I see some negative outcomes from that really cause division and have caused us to pit people against one another based on their immutable traits," he continued. 

County officials voted 9-1 to table and return to a discussion surrounding the $828,403 DEI proposal according to The Oregonian. They are expected to resume discussions on the matter in July. 

According to the county's website, the Equity and Inclusion Office "leads a culture of learning and awareness of equity and inclusion by guiding, supporting and collaborating with employees and residents in order to foster welcoming communities, and create greater connections where all people thrive and belong."

There is even a "Racial Equity Support Line" listed for those "who are feeling the emotional impacts of racist violence and microaggressions, as well as the emotional impacts of immigration struggles and other cross-cultural issues."

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But West, who is a gay man raising a Black child, argued the sharp focus on skin color and other immutable traits is what has divided communities as opposed to unified them. 

"I love this country and I'm proud to be a gay man raising a diverse family in the best country in human history," West said during a budget deliberations meeting last week. "I don't want to live in an America where my son is told that his father victimizes him because of the color of his skin, because of some type of privilege in the ether."

"We allow immutable traits to be used as a wedge to divide," he continued. "It really tends to be something that does not bring our county and local communities together, but I think divides it."

West reiterated the importance of judging an individual by their character and values, as opposed to what they look like physically. 

"I want us to be able to focus on equality and merit and fairness and those things that I think bring communities together, things that bring us together as Clackamas County residents and frankly, people across the United States," he said. 

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"If you look at me just based on the color of my skin or my sexuality or those things, you're distilling me down to something that dehumanizes me," he continued. "It takes away my individuality, it takes away those things and that spark in me that makes me uniquely special, and it puts me in some type of some progressive widget box that that distills me down to the things that are least important."

Despite his pushback to the proposal, West said he remains hopeful society can revert to a time when DEI wasn't the centerpiece of many community-based discussions. 

"I think deep down inside this country is full of great people that want to find that common ground again, that are tired of being told that they have to racialize everything and look at everything through the lens of race," he said. "But I think that neighbors and communities are looking for something different, that they're yearning for something that rings more true, that isn't as hollow."

"I think that we want to live in a community where people aren't putting category oppressor or prissy, but we look at how we can all come together and find that common ground that's so much more uplifting and encouraging," he continued.