No, DEI is NOT the new “N Word”
You are unintentionally being a water carrier for racism if you are promoting the idea that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is the new “N-word.”
DEI is not synonymous with the hiring of Black people and adding in the pejorative word makes it an even worse thing to say. Doing an internet search on DEI will show results laced with more negativity than positivity, and it will usually mention Black people. Let’s be real about DEI. It is not about Black people, in the context framed by the racist idea that Black people in positions of power are not as qualified as their non-Black counterparts, and are only there because of mandatory quotas. This is a ridiculous and false narrative.
No other demographic has been hired more based on race versus ability than White people, and White men especially. This is not a dig. It is a reality. You only have to look at the world around you to see that no one demographic is smarter, brighter, or more superior than others even as one demographic has continuously held power longer due to the almost impenetrable infrastructure built by that same demographic. The pushback to DEI, the ending of Affirmative Action (which benefitted White women the most), and the tireless questioning of the merits of anyone non-White, especially Black people penetrating that infrastructure, helps that power-hold grip continue.
Donald Trump the reality television host who became president with no political experience, holds a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) degree that his sister and others allegedly helped him receive after two years at Fordham and two at Penn State. Trump brazenly threatened to sue anyone releasing his college transcripts but publicly demanded transcripts (along with a birth certificate) from then-President, Barack Obama, a Harvard graduate, attorney, Constitutional professor, and former Senator.
Lauren Boebert, a former, gun-themed restaurant owner, flunked her General Education Degree (GED) exam three times and is rumored to have paid someone to take it before receiving the diploma a few months before becoming a member of Congress.
Congressional Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, (AOC) is often denigrated for an alleged lack of intellect for having been a waitress and bartender, despite graduating cum laude from Boston University with two degrees.
Congressional Representative Jasmine Crockett, earned her B.A. in Business Administration from Rhodes College and her Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of Houston. She is licensed to practice law in Texas, Arkansas, and Federal Courts. She has been publicly mocked and ridiculed for her intellect by Congressional Representative Margerie Taylor Greene, who possesses a B.A., and (according to Greene) an imaginary PHD in Bullshit Detection. Greene is a believer in QAnon and is known for pushing conspiracy theories like a prominent Jewish banking family used space lasers to set wildfires in California. AOC and Crockett, like other women of color, are often forced to defend their right to exist in spaces that traditionally did not include them. In contrast, women like Boebert and Greene are revered for challenging the status quo.
DEI is needed because life is not merit-based.
Measures toward equality are why there are women of all colors in Congress, even if some had to work harder to get there than others. It is why work discrimination against different cultures, faiths, and physical challenges is illegal. Requiring forms of equality is why people who look like the world around us have more jobs today than they had in the past. The link to DEI is Civil Rights, not inadequacies. Black people are seldom given credit for putting the work in that helps more than just Black people to advance in the world. The Civil Rights protests opened the doors for all women and non-White people. Women have benefitted the most from the 1964 Civil Rights Act. Because White women are the larger demographic, they have made the most advances from Civil Rights, but you wouldn’t know that considering the stance of many.
DEI is a lot more than just “diversity hiring.” DEI is about the types of inclusion that helped produce the American Disabilities Act (ADA) which includes providing accommodating access to all, and safety measures like truncated domes and detectible tactile paving (paving that can be felt) so visually impaired people will know where the sidewalk begins and ends.
In school, DEI is why children cannot be denied an education based on their color, religion or class. So when you say that DEI is the new N-word, you are forgetting the real meaning of DEI and why it exists.
You are allowing a small faction to hijack and redefine terminology in a negative manner that affects the whole. In the same way we allowed the Affordable Care Act to become the downgraded “Obamacare.” In the same way we allowed any discussion of race or equality in school to be conflated with Critical Race Theory (CRT) which is taught in college.
Please stop carrying the water. It is okay to dump this bucket of water.
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