The members of the Virginia Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus, Virginia Legislative Black Caucus, and Virginia Latino Caucus call for the resignation of the Youngkin Administration’s Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer, Martin D. Brown. Recently, Brown said that “DEI is dead” and called diversity the “wrong mission” at a recent annual “inclusive excellence” training for faculty and staff of the Virginia Military Institute.

“As Virginia grapples with historical and continuing discrimination and racism, Mr. Brown clearly is neither prepared nor willing to perform his duties as DEI Director and must resign,” said Delegate Kathy Tran, Chair of the Virginia Asian American and Pacific Islander Caucus.

“From attempting to whitewash Virginia’s history to downplaying racial health disparities to calling for the death of diversity, equity, and inclusion, Governor Youngkin and his Administration have a deeply troubling record of ignoring, denying, and covering up the Commonwealth’s inequities.”

“This has become a consistent pattern,” said Senator Lamont Bagby, Chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus. “Too frequently members of the Youngkin administration have shared with us who he is, how he sees the world and how he feels about diversity, equity and inclusion.”

“Anyone who doesn’t grasp the value of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion clearly lacks an understanding of Virginia’s history — and our need to address structural and systemic racism”, stated Delegate Alfonso Lopez, Co-Chair of the Virginia Latino Caucus. “If Mr. Martin Brown, Governor Youngkin’s Chief Diversity Officer, doesn’t believe in the mission of his office, he should resign and make way for someone who does.”

The Director of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — a position codified by the General Assembly — is responsible for identifying inequities in state government and implementing measures to address those issues. As one VMI staff member remarked, Brown “killed two parts of his office — diversity and
inclusion. He made a case as to why he shouldn’t have a job.”

We agree: he needs to resign immediately

(Editor’s Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of PW Perspective, LLC or its affiliated stakeholders.)