Is DEI now DOA?

At the center of the woke world is DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion).  It is the Rosemary’s Baby of identity politics and political correctness.

DEI’s ostensible purpose is to bring greater tolerance in racial and gender matters.  That sounds good, but there are two problems.  It is applied where it is not needed and does not serve the stated purposes.  In fact, it is arguably having the opposite effect by creating racial and gender tensions and divisions where none exist. 

It is not needed because America is not the racist or sexist culture that the racebaiters and gender propagandists claim.   It is not needed because most hiring practices – private and public sector are already driven by diversity considerations.  It is overkill – dealing with a problem that is grossly overstated – and motivated mostly by partisan politics. 

There is an important difference — ignored by the left –between diverse hiring among equally qualified individuals based on merit and forcing less qualified individuals into a workforce based on racial and gender quotas.

In past commentaries, I have noted that billions of times every day Americans of every racial group, nationality, gender, and sexual orientation live harmoniously as neighbors and friends. We work side-by-side … serve each other in retail establishments … help each other and even rescue each other … play on the same teams … love and marry each other.

We have had diversity policies in schools, workplaces and the military for decades.  They were primed by the Republican led civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s – and President Nixon’s affirmative action legislation of the 1970s.  Much of that has already become outdated as the American culture has embraced greater diversity, equality and inclusion. DEI takes America back to a time when the White establishment oppressed Blacks – a condition that does not exist today outside of the last vestiges of institutional or systemic racism that exists in the major segregated cities – and the DEI programs do nothing to address that reality.

Rather than building on the current harmony among the American people, DEI creates a new false narrative – an alleged pandemic of racism at the hands of White folks – especially White men.  It teaches victimization by creating a false pernicious White supremacy that does not exist.  DEI promotes the bogus “replacement theory” that proffers the argument that the White community is driven to racial oppression out of fear of the growing influence of what the left has dubbed “people of color.”

The theory is flawed on two points.  According to the census, 75.3 percent of the American population designate themselves as White – hardly a number being overtaken by a growing minority population. 

More importantly, the greater White community does not live in fear of the various minority communities.  The American White community is among the most accepting and tolerant in the world.  You see this in the interactions of daily life – in the growing number of interracial marriages and adoptions, and in the wide range of social interactions among folks of all backgrounds.  DEI tends to ignore those facts – and tends to reverse the progress of the past 75 years.

DEI is less a social movement than a political movement. It rises from the left as a means to gain and maintain power by creating an enemy that does not exist.  It creates an arbitrary division between Whites and the assemblage of peoples they illogically coalesce under the rubric of “people-of-color.” 

Conversely, opposition to DEI is not an effort to whitewash (no pun intended) or ignore history.  Opposition to DEI is not opposition to diversity, equality or inclusion, but to a specific program the title of which misrepresents its purposes and its outcomes. 

The racial history and current reality of America needs to be part of our social education.  If there is a deficiency in teaching the fullness of American racial history, it has been the Democrat partisan efforts to censor the role and contributions and leadership of the Republican Party.

The more serious racism in America is the last vestige of institutional or systemic racism that has come down from the days of slavery and Jim Crow segregation.  It is found primarily in our large, segregated cities – and exists to serve the political interests of the long standing one-party political machines that have controlled those cities for generations.  DEI does nothing to address institutional racism.

DEI also fails to address reverse racism – but rather promotes it.  Reverse racism is fueled by a class of race baiters who preach victimization for political purposes.  Booker T. Washington aptly described them.

“There is another class of colored people who … do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs”.  Today, they are the political class that bends reality with false claims racism as a political and fundraising strategy. “ (Did I hear the name Al Sharpton?)

The false claims of pervasive racism, White supremacy and universal Black oppression proffered by the race baiters are what have led to such pseudo social movements as identity politics, political correctness … and now DEI. 

DEI programs undermine the concept of meritocracy – achievement based on knowledge and ability.  It replaces success based on achievement with success based on being a member of a “protected class.”   DEI is a concept that embraces tokenism by basing school admissions and job recruitments on quotas rather than performance. It stereotypes White Americans as the enemies of diversity, equality and inclusion

DEI has also created a new extraneous and very expensive workforce – consultants, trainers, teachers and substantial non-personnel resources.  Substantial costs are imposed on government, businesses and non-government organizations (NGOs).

As can be expected, the radical left concept has found its most fertile ground at American colleges and universities.  According to Open The Books – the mission of which is to have all government budgets on line – “American universities have been ideologically captured by left-wing radicalism and are promoting anti-American, neo-Marxist notions under the banner of ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’ (DEI).”  This is occurring at enormous costs to students. 

A Case Study

As one example, Open The Books lists the salaries of highest paid DEI officials at Ohio State University – not one of the most radical academic institutions.

Open The Books reports that “Ohio State University spent $13.3 million on pay for 201 employees with DEI-related roles last year. That’s the equivalent of full tuition for over 1,000 in-state students at its main Columbus campus.”

The Ohio State DEI program also affects high school students. Open The Books reported that, “Ninety people work in the Office of Diversity and Inclusion — 14 staffers work on the Young Scholars Program for high school and college students and another 14 people receive small stipends for the Upward Bound programs for high school students.”

Despite all the money and all the support staff, DEI programs have been seen as ineffective — perhaps even counterproductive, exacerbating tensions between factions and groups.   Rather than encourage tolerance, critics have accused DEI of producing a form of reverse racism.

Now for the good news.

As the flaws and wastes associated with DEI programs have become more apparent, there has been a broad-based backlash against the movement among businesses, parents and voters. The pushback has accelerated since Trump’s election.  According to the Open The Books report:

“Thanks to transparency, Americans have discovered what’s happening in higher education, and a few states have begun pushing back: According to the Chronicles of Higher Education, DEI offices are now banned in seven public state systems, most recently throughout the University of North Carolina schools. Five additional states have also taken smaller steps to rein in DEI, like banning the use of diversity statements in hiring and admission decisions in state universities. More states have similar legislation pending.”

Many local school districts have either banned DEI programs from the classrooms — or have canceled existing DEI activities.  Businesses – such as Meta (Facebook), McDonald’s, Walmart. Amazon, Boeing, Caterpillar, Nissan, Southwest Airlines, Target – are just a few examples, with many others shutting down their DEI programs every day.

It is no exaggeration to say that DEI has been collapsing throughout the United States. State governments are canceling their DEI programs – including Florida, Texas Utah, Alabama, Arizona, Indiana, North Carolina, North Dakota, Tennessee and Wyoming.  Many of the state bans also impact public school systems and state universities.

It may be that Trump has now driven the stake in the heart of DEI with his broad ban across the federal government – the incubator and nest for the DEI movement.  Newly minted Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has made the elimination of DEI in the military his first priority.

It looks like DEI will disappear from public view and relevancy faster than President Biden.  Both good things.

So, there ‘tis.