POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

One of the neologisms related to the Trump administration with the most pernicious implications may be the phrase “task traitor.” It refers to the appointment of cabinet secretaries and other executive officers who have a deep-seated antipathy toward the departments and agencies that that are being appointed to head. Although I could provide a long list of such appointments to illustrate the degree to which this phenomenon has become the norm under Trump, it will save time if I simply ask you to name a single cabinet secretary or other executive officer who believes in the mission of the department or agencies that he or she leads.

Writing for Mondoweiss, Abed A. Ayoub, Phillip Agnew and Harper Jean Tobin consider the implications of one of the most recent of these nominations—of Kenneth Marcus, who has been put forward to be Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education:

Any day now, the Senate will consider President Trump’s nominee for Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights at the Department of Education, Kenneth Marcus. This is a vote that could have widespread and lasting consequences for the safety and rights of students and faculty across the country, in particular those of people of color, women, and LGBTQ students. . . .

Marcus has long opposed affirmative action, which seeks to correct past and present-day exclusion of Black students, as “racial prejudice” against white students. For Marcus, the fact that Black students are underrepresented at elite universities isn’t due to the legacy and persistence of racism, but the “cultural dysfunction” of Black families. This offensive racial stereotyping is not only factually incorrect but also downright offensive to the millions of Black students who excel in the sciences, art, business, law, etc. in schools across the country. Marcus cannot be entrusted with protecting the civil rights of students of color when he neither understands systemic racism nor respects people of color.

LGBTQ students and faculty can expect a similarly hostile response if they seek to challenge campus homophobia. When Marcus previously served at OCR as Assistant Secretary during the Bush Administration, he argued that universities that tried to address harassment of LGBTQ students were guilty of “religious discrimination.” Many LGBTQ students find it difficult to succeed in the face of harassment and other forms of discrimination on campus, but Marcus isn’t likely to be their ally. As Staff Director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), he opposed investigating violations of the rights of LGBTQ persons. This record is particularly concerning in light of the Department’s hostile actions to date toward LGBTQ students under President Trump and Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos.

The complete article at Mondoweiss is available at: http://mondoweiss.net/2018/03/kenneth-nominee-history/amp/