Entitlement of NYC’s Knicks trash-can thief exposes the ingrained flaws of the DEI movement
The gross, entitled actions of Angie Baez, the woman who dumped garbage all over the sidewalk and stole a Knicks trash can this week, as we exclusively reported, expose the deep flaws within the DEI movement of which she was a part.
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Báez, who was fired from her DOI role (which is what they call it) at JPMorgan Chase, built her career around the idea that corporate power and capitalism — not individuals — are to blame for the ills and injustices in the world. And with her trash can stunt, we saw that worldview in action.
When I first saw the video this weekend, the most shocking thing about it wasn’t that she littered and stole — it was that she did it so brazenly.
At that point, we had no idea of her background or career, but it struck me how there was no sneaking around under cover of night, no embarrassment about dirtying the sidewalk or fear of facing consequences.
And, surprisingly, no sense that her actions would conflict with her professional identity, which she claims is built around community, equity and how “making a positive impact shines through in every aspect of her work,” according to a bio.
Hard to see how pouring trash all over the street could ever be considered a “positive impact.”
Later, Baez sat smiling on the subway with her trash can trophy beside her — unconcerned about the sanitation worker who would be stuck cleaning up the mess she made.
While most people were baffled at how she could reconcile such disgusting behavior with her efforts to “lead the way towards a more inclusive and equitable future,” as her bio puts it, it actually isn’t at odds with her work.
Abdicating personal responsibility is baked into the moral framework of the institutionalized DEI that Baez has spent her career promoting — at Saks Fifth Avenue, the Infatuation and most recently JPMorgan Chase.
In the DEI moral hierarchy, people are no longer judged primarily by what they do, but by where they sit in the oppression pyramid. Under this system, victimhood, grievances, and being oppressed or marginalized are considered attributes, while it is always a nebulous “system” — run by elites — that is to blame.
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The problem is structural racism, systemic bigotry, widespread patriarchy. But the movement is so focused on blaming every failure as systemic, it directs all blame outward rather than inward.
Why improve your own behavior if “the system” is rigged and you’re a permanent victim of structural inequity? Why respect public property if property itself is a tool of the “oppressing class”?
This DEI mindset has also infiltrated Democratic politics. Campaign finance records show Baez gave a donation to Cynthia Nixon, the former “Sex and the City” star, former gubernatorial candidate and progressive celebrity activist who has since backed Zohran Mamdani.
Nixon’s politics are the usual progressive cocktail — tax the rich, make billionaires pay, expand government, redistribute money, fix the system.
But her policies, like DEI, attack the system while asking nothing of the individual. Tax someone else’s money, demand the government hand out free health care and change the system, but never blame yourself.
Meanwhile, the conservative answer to social decay has always been less glamorous, but far more effective.
As Voltaire said in response to society’s problems, “We must cultivate our garden.”
Conservatives — who are far more charitable and generous than their liberal counterparts per in-depth analyses from Harvard professor Arthur Brooks — argue we should focus on our own spheres of sovereignty: Help the people around you, donate to the causes you believe in, do what you can in your community.
While I’m doubtful that banks will be hiring directors of personal responsibility anytime soon, they would be a far better use of resources than trashcan-stealing DEI officers.
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