Be serious, conservatives. ‘Wokeness’ didn’t cause Silicon Valley Bank’s demise | Tayo Bero

The right is claiming that political correctness - not capitalism - caused this financial catastrophe. Really?

You'd think that witnessing the second-biggest bank failure in US history would be a sobering moment. Since Silicon Valley Bank collapsed on Friday amid a bank run, however, Republicans have instead been twisting themselves into inelegant pretzels to blame wokeness" for the financial disaster.

For context, SVB - which before it collapsed was the 16th largest bank in the US and worth more than $200bn in assets - proudly reported that aside from 45% of its board being women, it also had 1 Black", 1 LGBTQ+" and 2 Veterans". According to Republicans, the bank's focus on woke" ideals is what led to its ultimate demise.

Tayo Bero is a Guardian US contributing writer