Pelosi has been touting the diversity of the Democratic Caucus since Election Day, declaring it the most diverse “in the history of civilized government.” While some think that goes a bit far, the increase in diversity is a point of pride for the House conference.
Brathwaite said a leadership staffer dedicated to recruiting minority staffers would help improve the process. “It really needs to be someone’s job to wake up every day and figure out the best strategies to connect qualified minority candidates to open positions,” he said.
In the Senate, Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada hired a staffer, Maria Meyer, to fill that role.
Already, 15 of 48 newly elected Democrats have hired minorities as chiefs of staff, according to a list provided by Pelosi’s office. The list includes one Asian, five Latinos, two African-Americans, nine women and two gay men. The gender numbers overlap with the racial categories. Most other offices haven’t yet hired chiefs of staff.
“Now that the election is over and we will have more than two dozen new Democratic Members, our leadership will continue efforts to assist Members to find the most qualified, experienced and diverse staff to work in their offices,” Drew Hammill, a Pelosi spokesman, said in an email. Hammill added that Pelosi was pleased by Hoyer’s institution of the résumé bank and its goals.
Weldon Rougeau, a retired attorney, said that when he began working in the Senate in the 1970s, there were only five other black aides. He said it sounds as if the newly elected members are making progress, but he encouraged hiring of minority staff outside of the Congressional Black Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus.
Rougeau said greater diversity provides members with a broader range of opinions on the political issues they vote on.
While the significant increases in diversity are an obvious point of pride for Democrats, some critics say Pelosi and other top leaders have gone overboard in claiming the caucus is the most diverse in the “history of civilized government.”
Although women make up the majority of political parties in Sweden and other countries, in some places, political parties of ethnic minorities have dominated nations, sometimes in pernicious ways.
“Of course, the word ‘diversity’ is up for grabs. If you define it as what the Democratic Party has treated it as in its most recent convention, then I suppose you would look in vain around the world to find another civilization, state, [or] city that has exactly the kinds of diversity that the contemporary United States lays claim to,” said Peter Wood, an anthropologist and author of “Diversity: The Invention of a Concept.”
“The claim, taken in a more thoughtful way, is just ludicrous. There are many places and times in human history where the mixing of peoples was a much greater extent than we see now in the organs of the U.S. government,” Wood said.
Hammill said the Democratic Caucus’ multiple types of diversity, including racial, gender and sexual orientation, make it the most diverse.
Lois Lerner, director of exempt organizations for the IRS, arrives for a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing on the investigation of the IRS' targeting of political groups. Lerner invoked her Fifth Amendment right to not testify and caused a protest from some committee members when she offered an opening statement and engaged in dialogue with members before invoking the right.
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