GOP Sen. Wendy Rogers unleashes her inner bigot, calls diversity 'a rot'

Most of us aren’t business analysts, but I’d guess if I were to ask you if a company like, say, Google, was successful, you’d say yes.

And if I was to ask the same thing about Nike or Apple or Dell Technologies or Intel or JP Morgan Chase Bank or TD Bank or General Mills or Home Depot or American Express or Progressive Insurance, you would say yes again.

And you’d be correct.

Now, what if I told you that one of the attributes that makes these companies what they are, one of the things about which they are most proud, was described by Republican Arizona state Sen. Wendy Rogers as “rot”?

It’s their diversity.

Rogers equates diversity with 'rot'

According to Forbes Magazine, the businesses listed above are among the 100 best employers in America for diversity.

Rogers apparently hates the thought of that.

She and fellow Republicans are among those supporting House Concurrent Resolution 2056, an attempt to get Arizona voters to end the pursuit of a diverse workforce within state government.

In a hearing last week, Rogers said in part that an “obsession with diversity” has “created a rot in our military and industry, in education, in aviation … .”

She represents another kind of 'rot'

I’d guess that the very successful companies listed above, among many, many others, might disagree.

However, a person could argue that there is a rot in a political party in which one of its elected officials praises a white nationalist, as Rogers has done several times with Nick Fuentes.

Or when that same elected official talks of being honored by the endorsement of a notorious antisemite like Andrew Torba, which Rogers also has done.

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Or when that same state senator suggests on right-wing social media that the racist who killed 10 people in a supermarket in Buffalo, N.Y., might have been part of a federal conspiracy, saying on the site Telegram, “Fed boy summer has started in Buffalo.”

Rogers' reviled 'rot' is actually you

Or when this same election-denying, conspiracy-spreading politician suggested that her political opponents should be hanged.

There are several Arizona companies mentioned in the Forbes list, as well as in a similar list published by Newsweek, which noted Arizona Public Service, Arizona State University, Honor Health and Microchip Technology.

The fact that these businesses are diverse means there are individuals working there of different ages, races, genders, sexual orientation, religious beliefs and ethnicities.

Look around. Look in the mirror.

The “rot” that Rogers vilifies and reviles is … you.

Reach Montini at ed.montini@arizonarepublic.com.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Sen. Wendy Rogers bares her inner bigot, calls diversity 'a rot'