DEI – As American as Apple Pie
Dr. Common Good
I am truly fed up with the constant barrage of DEI demonizing and (to borrow a certain person’s language) “DEI derangement syndrome.” Efforts to implement DEI, or Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs, have become a primary punching bag for the so-called “anti-woke” crusade of the MAGA folk.
And why is that? Like so much of this blowhard rhetoric, the reality is far different than the MAGA media hype. Actor Whoopi Goldberg summed this up passionately and concisely in a retort to Trump press secretary Karin Leavitt’s strident anti-woke comments at her first press conference on Jan 28, at which she asserted, “there will be no wokeness here.” In response, Goldberg said “Let me explain something to you, because without that wokeness, you might not have that job”…”because women were not invited to that table. Women were not invited to many tables in this nation.” “The reason we fought and busted our behinds [was] to make sure that you didn’t have to worry about this. And now to hear you talk about it, and to hear anybody talk about ‘the wokeness,’ the wokeness was put in place for a reason: because Black people couldn’t get into colleges, because women could not get into the colleges they wanted to go to. This is all women, see. This is not Black, Asian women. This is all women. Women were not invited to this party. It was a man’s world, and we busted our a**es to make sure that this was a person’s world. So please, please stop using that phrase and talking about this because you don’t understand what you’re saying.”
QED.
In short, “wokeness” (including DEI efforts) is actually a hyperbolic, pejorative term for what Martin Luther King described as the “arc of justice,” the gradual progress of American society towards the ideals expressed in the founding documents and so many of our most essential statements of American values. In the Declaration of Independence, equality of all is a self-evident truth, the 14th Amendment guarantees equal justice for all, and principles of equality are enshrined in the 19th Amendment (women’s right to vote), the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Act of 1972, among other laws and Supreme Court decisions. These were all reactions against threats and barriers to those founding principles of equality. The vocal detractors of DEI and related approaches cannot deny the historical truth of those threats and barriers, so what is the real issue?
Disagreement with the MAGA distortions of DEI also comes from another quarter — American business. In late January, 98% of Costco shareholders voted down a proposal to question DEI policies at the company, in a testament to the value of these policies. A recent CNN report (January 31) found that many businesses consider DEI practices, which focus on recruiting strategies and employee training, as a way to broaden the talent pool and qualifications of potential employees. The CNN report also cited a study, based on data from 16 countries and 27,000 employees, showing that DEI initiatives boost profits, reduce employee attrition and increase employee motivation. All of this, of course, makes sense. In a globalized economy, where products and services are often developed for a broad and diverse market, wouldn’t a smart business want its employees to reflect and understand that market?
The anti-DEI, anti-woke and, for that matter, anti- “critical race theory” crusades are, sadly, yet another threat to American progress and essential principles. You may dislike how a particular DEI policy or approach is implemented. Fair enough. Criticize and fix it. But to disparage the basic essence and goals of DEI and related movements, to use them as targets of vitriol and retrograde policy, is not only ignorant but deeply un-American in spirit.
So I say to all those anti-woke and anti-DEI crusaders, don’t wrap your hate and your bigotry in the American flag, because that just won’t fly.