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The Pursuit of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion is Not Just Harmless Mental Exercise

An egregious case of workplace discrimination at the Metropolitan Water District

By Wenyuan Wu, June 14, 2025 2:50 am

Proponents of the diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) brand their philosophical inclinations as noble intentions and kind gestures. They just want everybody to respect each other’s cultural/racial/gender… differences, affirm some crude group identity, acknowledge historical marginalization and ultimately get along.

As a society, we are well past this point of wishy-washy naiveté on judging the impact of DEI and its ideological derivatives. According to the late journalist Richard Bernstein who had prophetically defined multiculturalism, an early iteration of the group-identity-based school of thought, as:

A universe of ambitious good intentions that has veered off the high road of respect for difference and plunged into a foggy chasm of dogmatic assertions, wishful thinking, and pseudoscientific pronouncements about race and sex.

Fully fledged and given the right macro-environment, the orthodoxy can turn into a deadly weapon of discrimination, character assassination and persecution. The cult-like thinking has wreaked havoc in American schools. It is also rampant in workplaces, including one of the most powerful public entities and America’s largest treated water supplier – the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD). 

At MWD, which pledges full participation in a nationwide movement for equity, a multiyear campaign to purge a management team of disfavored race and gender has resulted in toxic racial animus, job losses, harassment and retaliation. Since 2020, an Operations and Maintenance Tech employed at MWD’s Eagle Mountain Pump Plant has gone to work with an agenda to cleanse her management team of “white males.” This individual also happened to serve as a local union leader of the American Federation of State County & Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Local 1902. 

In the workplace, she intentionally created a toxic and hostile environment with remarks such as: “all you white boys from Arizona are all racist and bigots,” “I will do whatever it fxxking takes to get rid of [the white manager],” “you better get on board or go back where you came from.” When reported of the harassment, this individual turned the table and made false claims against her superiors in a “Me-too” style media campaign, effectively causing the subjects of her accusations their jobs and reputation. Publicly, she waged warfare, claiming MWD harbored “a hardscrabble culture” in which “managers treat the camps as ‘colonial possessions’” and endorse “ a highly sexualized environment where women were harassed without consequence.”

An internal investigation ensued, with a district-level human resources manager and a third-party behavioral psychologist coming to the conclusion that her claims were false. Sadly, MWD leadership gave into the smear campaign and pressure of political correctness, dismissed the investigation, and doubled down by calling on law enforcement (including a SWAT team!) to do a threat assessment on one of the managers accused of racism and sexism by the union leader. 

Real consequences followed. Three managers from MWD’s Eagle Mountain Pump Plant were let go. The HR manager who supported the managers’ report of workplace harassment due to the words and deeds of this Operations and Maintenance Tech was reprimanded, sidelined and heavily monitored on the job. By sharp contrast, the perpetuator is still in gainful employment at MWD. In the universe of racial diversity and equitable treatment, bad-faith individuals are emboldened to make false allegations, cause tremendous grief to those accused (and their families) and get away with the lies. After all, in the name of DEI, there can be “good racism” and justice warriors can get away with anything!

The three former managers have sued MWD for race and gender discrimination (Ryan Tiegs v. MWD, Dane Crawford v. MWD, and Darren Reese v. MWD), while the HR manager is taking MWD to court for retaliation (Alicia Lorentzen v. MWD). More than legal recourse, those negatively affected and their legal counsel wish to spotlight the salient issue of race-based thinking in a public entity as powerful as the Metropolitan Water District. The accused had their livelihood and peace stripped away. In the meantime, the quality of work necessary for moving water for millions of Californians will inevitably give way to the pursuit of ideological purity. 

At the end of the day, one cannot fight fire with fire and expect desired results. Forced equality is not equal or fair at all: it is discrimination, pure and simple. 

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