A 2022 report from Issue One found that 13% of congressional aides based in the U.S. Īccording to a House Office of Diversity and Inclusion report from July 2021, entry-level staffers can make as little as $30,000, with a median average of $59,000. One aide testified to an informal code of silence around workplace quality, further commenting: "if you don’t like your boss, you leave and go to another office". Among their grievances, aides cite overwork, low pay, a toxic and sometimes discriminatory workplace culture, and a continued lack of staff diversity, with an increasingly low ability to influence public policy at all. 2022–present: Platform for congressional staff īy the end of January, the account's role had expanded to documenting the perceived poor treatment of congressional aides in general. The account's request for stories from its followers garnered a significant number of responses, which were reposted to Dear White Staffers under the condition of anonymity. The memes continued for a couple of years Dear White Staffers gained little traction until January 2022, when it was prompted to "get a thread going of horror stories driving your member of Congress around". The account's name is a reference to Dear White People, a film and later a Netflix series about black students at a fictional university in the Ivy League. ĭear White Staffers' first post was on January 30, 2020, depicting an image of a person putting on clown shoes it was captioned "getting ready to get off at Cap South to make less than my white male counterparts". Democratic offices have an informal " Rooney rule", which stipulates that at least one candidate of color should be considered for each position Republicans do not have a similar rule. There is some disparity between Republican and Democratic Party congressional offices in the matter – writing for The Bulwark, Jim Swift attributes more of the blame in hiring disparities to Republicans, pinning most of the effect to the fact that Republicans are simply less likely to be black. Staffers of color often feel that formal channels of complaint are not responsive to them for some negative experiences, such as frequent microaggressions. Dear White Staffers recounted to Politico that he has been confused for a valet attendant when taking part in congressional events with his employer, and has been treated differently than white staffers by United States Capitol Police. population, and people of color made up just 10% of senior-level Senate staffers despite making up 40% of the U.S. In covering Dear White Staffers, The Bulwark highlighted a 2020 report from the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which noted several racial disparities in Capitol Hill staffing: Black Americans comprised just 3% of senior-level Senate staffers and 2% of the Senate offices' chiefs of staff despite comprising 13% of the U.S. The account was created primarily to post memes, seeking to document the experiences of being a person of color in the disproportionately white environment of congressional staffing. He also goes to substantial lengths to protect his anonymity, clearing out his camera roll daily and not revealing his connection with the account to anyone except his partner. Dear White Staffers is claimed to be closely watched by high-level congressional staff and even sitting representatives.ĭear White Staffers is run anonymously, although Politico identifies the manager as male, and he identifies himself as a person of color who worked on Capitol Hill as of April 2022. Despite the unverifiability of any one case, the account has received praise for bringing attention to the plight of congressional staffers in general, a conversation that resulted in some staffers moving to form unions. The content on Dear White Staffers has been described as gossip, and frequently remains unconfirmed by independent fact-checkers. Dear White Staffers frequently facilitates " vibe checks" on incumbent lawmakers, inviting the reposting of crowd-sourced and unverified anecdotes from congressional aides who send anonymous messages to the account. The account was created primarily to post memes about being a person of color in the disproportionately white environment of congressional staffing, but a thread in January 2022 changed the account's focus to documenting poor treatment of congressional staffers in general, and significantly increased the popularity of the account overall.Īides face a significant number of challenges in performing their jobs, including long days, poor pay, a lack of diversity, and – as is frequently covered by the account – workplace bigotry and poor treatment by higher-ups. Dear White Staffers is an anonymous Instagram account that documents instances of alleged poor behavior by sitting members of the United States Congress, in their capacity as employers of congressional staff.
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