The ego-centric, divisive, and vanity-filled religion of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) is not just a harmless mental exercise. Fully fledged and given the right environment, it can turn into a deadly weapon of discrimination, character assassination and persecution. We have seen the cult wreaking havoc in American schools. It is also rampant in workplaces. Today, our report will take you to one of the most powerful public entities and the country’s largest treated water supplier – the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), where a multiyear, union-led campaign resulted in overt racial discrimination, job losses, harassment and retaliation.

Three former employees at MWD’s Eagle Mountain Pump Plant have sued the district for race and gender discrimination, while one current district-level employee is suing for retaliation. These claims revolve around a union leader who previously worked under the three former employees as an “Operations and Maintenance Tech.” Going to work with an agenda to purge her team of “white males” and “colonialism,” this union personality turned the workplace into a toxic and hostile environment with remarks such as: “all you white boys from Arizona are all racist and bigots,” “I will do whatever it fxxking takes to get rid of [the white manager],” “you better get on board or go back where you came from.” When reported for her bigoted comments and harassment, this individual turned the table and made false claims against her superiors in a “Me-too” style media campaign, effectively causing the subjects of her accusations their jobs and reputation.

MWD leadership, which had just pledged participation in a nationwide movement for equity, dismissed an internal investigation from its Human Resources Department which proved the union leader’s claims false. Instead, they chased the winds of progressive culture and doubled down by calling on law enforcement(including a SWAT team!) to do a threat assessment on one of the managers. And what about the HR manager who did nothing wrong but to report findings of no harassment? She was punished, sidelined and heavily monitored at her job for not siding with the union or diversity.

You may ask: what enables and emboldens individuals to make false accusations, cause tremendous grief to those accused (and their families) and get away with the lies? Well, in the name of DEI, there can be “good racism” and justice warriors can get away with anything! This said union leader is still in active and gainful employment at MWD, while the accused had their livelihood and peace stripped away. In the meantime, the quality of work necessary for moving water for millions of Californians give way to the pursuit of ideological purity. The same kind of dogma has made Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson’s indefensible race-based hiring practices (under the banner of “diversity”) fashionable and acceptable. Luckily, the Federal Government is investigating Johnson’s “racial diversity” scheme. But in California, we still need to fight from the bottom up.

CFER President Frank Xu drove up to Riverside this past Monday to meet one of the former MWD employee Dane and their attorney Arthur in person. We really admire those two gentlemen who are not giving up the fight even though not a single media platform wants to report their story. During the rally, one hater even called us “white supremacist,” just because we want to “end all racism.” Frank had this burning feeling of indignation. Such blatant unfairness is so toxic, and if unchecked, will do great harm to our society. We hope this story alerts you so that you pay more attention to unfair practices around you, pay more attention to your local school district meetings and have more awareness. If you see anything like this, please do not hesitate to let CFER know. We will carefully review all leads and work with our partner groups to bring as many legally actionable cases as possible. Regarding these cases against MWD, we will do our best to help gain awareness and build public support. There are monthly rallies in Riverside County to raise awareness on the salient issue of racial discrimination. If you want to attend in support, let us know and we will share more details. You can check out their past rallies here.

On a positive note, as a follow up to our last week’s post on supporting independent school board trustees, many Santa Ana Unified School District residents and parents showed up in support of Trustee Lebsack and her free speech rights during its Tuesday board meeting. We will continue to work with the local community there to grow its impact and help Trustee Lebsack govern more effectively.

Since 2020, CFER has dedicated itself to fighting for equality in different avenues, notably local organizing, alliance building and legal advocacy. If you believe in our work and record, will you consider making a kind donation today to help us power up CFER’s continued work?