Depends how much they deviate from cishet white male and the context of the blame you're talking about.
If there's any way this can remotely be pinned on DEI hiring, the controller will be thrown under a bus in a very public and spectacular manner, not by their own community but by the current administration and the media.
There was a scandal at the ATC which has culminated in a lawsuit Brigida v. Buttigieg, and from what I remember the facts look bad.
They replaced a skill assessment with a completely bizarre biography test where for instance you got +15 points if you listed science as your worst subject, but 0 if you listed math, English, history or P.E.
Then they leaked the answers to black organizations, as well as special keywords to put in their resume to go to top of the pile.
The students who spent years and thousands of dollars and aced the skill assessment but then failed the biographical test are suing in a class action.
I can well believe it has absolutely nothing to do with this disaster, but I don't think either political side has any interest in arguing over the fine points of that distinction.
"... In 2013, the FAA started using a “biographical assessment” to increase the hiring of preferred minority racial groups at air traffic control centers. The assessment asked applicants about their participation in school sports and the age at which they started earning money."
"The assessment disqualified more experienced, qualified applicants ..."
>> In the present day, there is a critical shortage of ATCs, with the FAA having 1,000 fewer ATCs in 2023 than it did in 2012.
> If that's how they were hiring (although they don't do today), I could understand if that has a bit contributed to fewer ATCs today.
The shortage is that they have not been able to quickly replace all of the personnel that took early retirement options during COVID, while also stopping the hiring & training for an extended period during that time.
Wow, I hadn't heard about that. It seems the FAA inserted themselves into the culture wars. I take it all back. Every single thing is now based on identity politics.
Simply wild coming from the person who introduced it where it was not being discussed.
If this is true, it's because you and people like you are inserting it in otherwise innocuous, productive discussions. Have you considered not doing that?
>Asked how he could come to the conclusion that diversity played a role in the deadly midair collision near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, Trump said, “Because I have common sense, OK? And unfortunately a lot of people don’t.”
>He later defended his assertion that diversity initiatives at the FAA could have contributed to the National Airport crash as the investigation continues.
>“No, I don’t think so at all,” Trump said when asked if he thinks his claims about the helicopter, air traffic control and DEI policies were getting ahead of the investigation. He quipped to the reporter that “I think that’s not a very smart question.”
Trump is explicitly blaming programs to hire disabled people. Note that just because FAA had a program to hire people with disabilities, does not mean that they made any changes to the medical standards for air traffic controllers - there are many jobs at FAA besides air traffic controllers, and there are also plenty of disabilities that would not effect a person's ability to be an air traffic controller. FAA does not allow people with psychiatric disabilities to work in ATC.
> “I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here’s one, the FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities. That is amazing. And then it says FAA says people with severe disabilities are most underrepresented segment of the workforce said ‘they want them in, and they want them, they can be air traffic controllers. I don’t think so. This was January 14, so that was a week before I entered office. They put a big push to put diversity into the FAA’s program,” Trump said.
> “Brilliant people have to be in those positions, and their lives are actually shortened, very substantially shortened because of the stress where you have many, many planes coming into one target, and you need a very special talent and a very special genius to be able to do it,” the president added.
> When he was asked to clarify why he thought a “diversity push” at the FAA played a role in Wednesday’s collision, President Donald Trump told reporters Thursday that “it just could have been.”
> “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a higher, much higher standard than anybody else,” Trump said.
On "Truth Social" last night, Donald Trump was explicitly questioning the actions of the ATC. And during this morning's press briefing, he blamed
"the crash on Barack Obama, Joe Biden, former Transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg, DEI and people with disabilities." I'm waiting for the transcript on that one.
Contrast this with the on-screen appearance by American Airlines CEO last night.
Watching it, I wondered: why can't we have a guy like this as president?
Since whitehouse.gov couldn't be bothered, here are some quotes from "Straight Arrow News":
----
President Trump also appeared to blame a “diversity push” at the FAA for the midair collision, reading some news headlines.
“I do want to point out that various articles that appeared prior to my entering office. And here’s one: the FAA’s diversity push includes focus on hiring people with severe intellectual and psychiatric disabilities,” Trump said.
When he was asked to clarify why he thought a diversity push played a role, he said, “It just could have been. We have a high standard. We’ve had a higher, much higher standard than anybody else.”
Trump did not cite any evidence.
He also placed blame on the Biden administration’s transportation secretary, Pete Buttigieg, using an expletive to describe Buttigieg’s time in office.
“He’s a disaster now. He’s just got a good line of bulls—,” Trump said of Buttigieg. “Well, he runs it, 45,000 people, and he’s run it right into the ground with his diversity.”
Trump’s pick for transportation secretary, Sean Duffy, who just started the job, also spoke during the press conference.
“When Americans take off in airplanes, they should expect to land at their destination — that didn’t happen yesterday,” Duffy said. “That’s not acceptable, and so we will not accept excuses. We will not accept passing the buck.”
It's been culminating for years. they don't fire incompetent people and they use skin color and gender as a factor in deciding who to hire. It's federal employment and is linked greatly to politics.
If it's been "culminating for years" why is this the first time this has happened in 16 years? Or are all the white men just doing that great of a job compensating for their dumbass POC/non-male colleagues? It's not like this is a team effort where one competent employee can cover for others; if an ATC is genuinely unqualified, shit is going to go wrong immediately.
Your grievance politics are nonsensical on their face.
