Are You Qualified to Be a Journalist or a DEI Specialist?

The following six questions will determine if you are qualified to be a journalist or a DEI specialist.

Question 1

Examine the following three photos and decide the race/color of each individual.  The correct answers follow the photos.

According to a story in the Feb. 9, 2025 edition of the Wall Street Journal, all three of the above are “nonwhite,” which was the adjective that was used to describe them in the story. In addition, the guy in the first photo was described as “Latino,” and the women in the second and third photos were described as “Latina.”

The story was titled “The Minority Voters Who Love Trump’s Dismantling of DEI.”

Perhaps you believe that people of Latin American descent can be of any race or color, can be of mixed race or color, and can come from any of the 33 countries that comprise Latin America and the Caribbean. Well, you are wrong. They are whatever journalists and DEI specialists want them to be.

Question 2

Look at the following photo and decide the race, color and ethnicity of the individual. Hint: He was an Olympic gymnast for Argentina.

According to journalism conventions and DEI doctrine, he is white and not a Latino, although he is swarthy and was born in the Latin American country of Argentina. You see, his name is Frederico Molinari, and he is of Italian descent, as are something like 30 million Argentinians. That disqualifies him from being a Latino or a person of color.

If you understand the logic, please explain it to me. Even with my 30 years of experience in equal rights, equal opportunity, affirmative action, and racial sensitivity training, I don’t understand it.

Question 3

What is the race, color and ethnicity of this woman?

This is Gabriela Sabatini, the former tennis star from Argentina. As with Frederico Molinari, she is of Italian descent. As such, you know the correct answer.

Question 4

Now it gets harder. What is the race, color and ethnicity of this guy?

This is the Argentinian football star Lionel Messi. His dad is of Spanish ancestry, and his mom is of Italian ancestry.

What is the correct answer, then? The correct answer is under lock and key in the placement office of Harvard University.

Question 5

The question is the same for this person.

This is Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum. Normally, her Mexican nationality would automatically qualify her under journalism and DEI rules as a person of color and a disadvantaged minority. However, she is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent, which automatically disqualifies her.

That makes her a nothing.

The woman below was born in Brazil. What’s her race and color?

She is of Japanese descent, one of the many descendants of the estimated 190,000 Japanese who immigrated to Brazil to work on coffee plantations, beginning in 1907 and continuing for a few decades.

By DEI definition, she can’t be a Latina (or Latinx). She looks white to me, but you’ll have to ask a DEI specialist of journalist what color she is.

If you correctly answered all six questions, you have what it takes to tie yourself into intellectual knots and be a journalist of DEI specialist.

My condolences.

Mr. Cantoni resides in Tucson and can be reached at craigcantoni@gmail.com.