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Today’s 3 Letters of Bigotry
The right wing tries, again, to repackage old discrimination in new words
This installment will be a short one because the idea is pretty simple: The right wing is based on anti-anti-discrimination, but coming out and saying that they’re “pro-discrimination” makes them look bad, so they have to find different ways of communicating their stance, and today’s iteration is railing against diversity, equity, and inclusion policies, also known as DEI.
It’s bigotry with a mask on.
Unfortunately, the mask lets the bigots look at themselves in the mirror and not see who they really are, and this lets them act out their bigotry in public with confidence. The mask also confuses people who don’t understand what’s really going on.
We have an obligation to pull the mask off when we see it.
The 2 Bigoted Myths Behind the DEI Attacks
How nefarious the attacks on DEI really are is not even that complicated. All you need to know is what DEI actually means, and then unpack the criticism of it.
DEI uses training and organizational policies, practices, and culture to ensure better representation for all backgrounds in order to promote justice and make everyone feel included. Companies and other institutions use DEI to create and build a better workforce and a more accommodating workplace.
It’s just anti-discrimination and, while it can be difficult to quantify its benefits, evidence does indicate that companies that use it do better.
In the Right Wing Alternative Reality, however, DEI fills workplaces with less qualified workers. No evidence is presented to back this up, but everything, and I mean literally everything, that goes wrong gets chalked up to DEI:
- Fox News: When Secret Service puts DEI first, its protectees are endangered
- Republican lawmakers and pundits: Kamala Harris would be a DEI hire
- General right wingers: Harvard’s poor handling of the campus protests was because of DEI
- Elon Musk: The door blew out because Boeing prioritized DEI over safety
- Right-wing mouthbreathers online…
