Vice President Kamala Harris has received strong criticism after affirming yesterday that “The Biden government will focus on “providing resources based on equity” directing funds to “communities of color”, in relation to federal aid to victims from Hurricane Ian.
The statement was interpreted to mean that “communities of color” would be first in line for aid in the devastating aftermath of the hurricane.
“We have to approach this in a way that is about giving resources based on equity, understanding that we fight for equality, but we also have to fight for equity,” Harris said yesterday during a discussion with Priyanka Chopra at the “Democratic National Committee’s Women’s Leadership Forum”, in Washington DC.
“If we want people to be in an equal place at times, we need to take those disparities into account and do that job,” added the Democratic vice president, quoted by New Y ork Post.
Harris’s comments immediately drew a backlash, including from Christina Pushaw, director of rapid response for Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis .
“This is false. @VP’s rhetoric is causing undue panic and needs to be cleared up”Christina Pushaw, Director of Florida Government Rapid Response.
“This is false. @VP’s rhetoric is causing undue panic and needs to be cleared up. Individual assistance from FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) is now available to all Floridians affected by Hurricane Ian, regardless of race or background,” Pushaw said on Twitter.
Sadanand Dhume, Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute and columnist for The Wall Street Journal , added that “real people don’t talk like that. “If a hurricane hits a state, we should expect the government to help everyone affected: black, brown, white, purple, green,” he wrote on Twitter.
Even Elon Musk, the richest man in the world, weighed in by saying that the allocation of resources “must be according to greatest need, not race or anything else.”
At the moment the African-American Vice President Harris has not reacted publicly to these comments. In Florida, at least 23 have been confirmed dead by the passage of the hurricane and it is estimated 25 in Puerto Rico, in addition to hundreds of injured and thousands of victims who lost their homes.