An Oregon county including parts of Portland, Oregon, has dismantled its government’s diversity, equity and inclusion programmes.

Efforts to defund the county’s million-dollar DEI programme have taken about a year, Ben West, a member of the five-person county board of commissioners, told Fox this week.

West, a Republican who was elected in 2022, has been a vocal critic of diversity initiatives, which he considers divisive. “In Clackamas, we promote classical liberal and American values, a good functioning government over ideology, promoting and hiring based on merit and competency, and not incessantly focusing on a person’s immutable traits,” wrote West. “The EDI work was divisive and heavily influenced by a radical ideology that measures fairness on the equality of outcomes rather than equality of opportunity. No longer.”

[Well, how ’bout them apples? ~ Beege]