The Anti-DEI Movement Spawns An Unlikely Alliance
Make no mistake, November’s election is a referendum on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
When conservative activist Leonard Leo booked 1.6 billion dollars fueling the growing efforts of Christian Conservatives, Evangelicals, and the Religious Right to shape the country’s political, legal, and cultural landscape, I thought hmmm, that’s wild. However given the backlash the Obama presidency sent through the country, I was not surprised.
Neither was I surprised when Florida Governor Ron Desantis’ anti-woke tirades gained him some traction nationally. Again, the country was ripe for those intent on plowing asunder the global citizenship consciousness that began to grow during the early 2010s. Though concerned, I wasn’t taken aback by those who would choose to be asleep rather than be woke.
Reasons for Isaac Asimov’s words, “The strain of anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that ‘my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge,’” are usually not in short supply.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend
Then Elon Musk, who has now pledged 45 million dollars monthly to the Trump campaign, began to be more vocal on his platform demonizing DEI. Bill Ackman got his pound of flesh, leading the charge to oust Harvard’s diversity hire, as he called her, from office. Vivek Ramaswamy used his bully pulpit, as a candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, to lambast DEI for undermining the country. It would have been easy to dismiss them as just rich folks pushing back against the ground their egos told them they’d lost during the Obama presidency. For most assuredly they lost no money.
However, as if these alliances were not enough, the middle class, what’s left of them, and the working poor have joined together to remove DEI from the country’s landscape, which is surprising to me.
The middle class and the poor have the least to gain from an authoritarian society. It’s as if they do not care that people — their friends, and neighbors, who were charged with looking out for their interests also — are being let go. Some without severance or advance notice. All of these facts now point to a truth that I had thought inconceivable: DEI, as a hard-fought-for societal value, for which many have made the ultimate sacrifice, is dying.
So, given the added value diversity brought/brings, why the rancor?
History teaches, that the answer lies in the “equity” and “inclusion” part of the DEI equation. Fundamentally, both of these values are promised by the Constitution and Declaration of Independence. They are aspirational for a reason. Like the God-centered beliefs, John Winthrop admonished his flock in Plymouth, Massachusetts to understand, that these are principles not born of privilege, as many now believe, but of stewardship. Being “that shining city upon the hill” brings a responsibility that only God will judge.
Equity, and inclusion, these days, are seen as undermining the very essence of the country’s capitalistic ideology. The roots of this line of thinking have strayed mightily from Winthrop’s intentions to Reagan and Trump’s meaning. The call for stewardship, discipline, and God’s Grace has been lost in the thinking behind imperialism, colonization, and nationalism, making equity and inclusion antithetical to the country’s way of being in the world. This is what American Exceptionalism has come to mean to many.
The religious persecution that drove settlers from Europe to the British North American colonies sprang from the conviction, held by Protestants and Catholics alike, that . . . there was one true religion and that it was the duty of the civil authorities to impose it, forcibly if necessary, in the interest of saving the souls of all citizens. — Library of Congress
People from “shithole countries” trying to get into heaven
Inclusion demands belief in equality. However, the doctrine spawning American exceptionalism, Manifest Destiny, Jim Crow laws, Christian Nationalism/The Religious Right, and the Make America Great Again movement do not abide by such beliefs. Theirs is a blending of dogma and social engineering in support of self-enrichment. The differences between capitalism and God’s grace fused to produce a religion of prosperity. All one has to do is consider the Three-Fifths Compromise of 1787 to understand the depths and implications of such a marriage of convenience.
Perhaps enamored by the swagger that engulfed the country throughout Western expansion, the Industrial Age, and WWII, the “America First” echoes that have reverberated around the country stand upon the firm ground created and occupied by ego. Well proselytized principles extolling beliefs in White Europeans and their descendant’s ascension while “evil others” are to be subject to their dominion and God’s punishment have made many a preacher and politician millions.
“The modern conservative is engaged in one of man’s oldest exercises in moral philosophy; that is, the search for a superior moral justification for selfishness.”
― John Kenneth Galbraith
Deconstructionism; the wind beneath the wings of the fight against equity
In architecture, deconstructionism seeks to tear down existing structures and forms, reconceptionalizing them free of the prevailing rules for design. Applied to human and societal development, deconstructionism is a way of taking apart others’ cultures, communities, and societies.
If this were the field of psychology, a therapist would join with their client to deconstruct who they perceive themselves to be to rebuild themselves — healthier. Deconstructionism in this case isn’t about making people healthier. It’s about profiteering!
The practices that have built the United States are antithetical to any concept that holds equity as a value
Native Nations were eradicated, cultures erased, and the lives of millions destroyed as a price paid for the expansionist will of Europeans. Human capital was monetized by a system of eternal enslavement using kidnapped skilled workers, laborers, hunters, childbearing women, and children for nation-building.
Indeed, the practices that have built the United States are antithetical to any concept that holds equity as a value. Nations in West Central Africa, Central, and South America, and the Caribbean were deconstructed by colonization. Their spiritual practices, belief systems, and cultures have evolved over generations; their regard for the planet attended to values for sustainability; and their systems of governance and education were all taken apart and replaced by European values, beliefs, religious practices, attitudes, and behaviors.
“Capital is reckless of the health or length of life of the laborer, unless under compulsion from society.” — Karl Marx
Al Fin: DEI is contrary to wealth-building
We are a deconstructionist-thinking society. Principally because we are a wealth-building nation. From the uber-rich to the laborers they employ, many are anti-DEI because their enterprises have valued deconstruction as a means to higher profit. Essentially, DEI calls for a level of self-regulation and sharing that capitalistic greed cannot abide by. Which, according to Pope Francis, makes it the “dung of the devil.”
Consider, in the Pacific Northwest government agencies, power companies and citizens diverted rivers and streams by building dams to supply electric power, to recreate, to have drinking water, and more. Lots of people made lots of money. Meanwhile, the lives of Native peoples were deconstructed. Their food source diminished so greatly many went hungry. Fish and other wildlife died by the tens of thousands through the years. The land and the people protested by word, deed, and suffering. For decades nothing but sorrow resulted from their pleas.
Now, after decades, in perhaps the largest reclamation commitments the world has known, many of the dams built decades ago are being removed thanks to a stunning admission by the U.S. Government, “The government afforded little, if any, consideration to the devastation the dams would bring to Tribal communities, including to their cultures, sacred sites, economies, and homes.” — APNews
One has to think there are tribal members, while certainly relieved by the enormity of the gesture, wondering whether it’s enough for ecological balance and cultural heritage to be restored. Will the salmon run again, heading upstream to spawn, in the millions annually, as they once did? Will killer whales return to feed off the salmon, sensing that their past hunting grounds are thriving again? Will Native peoples finally have their wisdom, cultures, and customs valued?
November 5th, Election Day, will give the answers as to how long DEI will last. As the only firewall, it seems, shielding diversity’s value, equity’s application, and inclusion’s presence from destruction is the man now in the president’s chair. What I hope people understand is the degree to which DEI opponents are in this for the long haul. It took this movement seventy years to get here (their fight started with Brown v Board). They are well-funded and well-organized. For them, it’s not a battle. Theirs is a holy war.
It is a war that must be waged and won, now, however! As a tsunami lies in wait just off the country’s shores. Generation Z, the most racially and ethnically diverse generation in U.S. history, is maturing. And, according to NBC News, within their generation, “Thirty-eight percent of voters aged 18–25 identified as people of color.” Meaning, that Gen Z is DEI, organically. They’re global thinkers, tech-savvy, independent, authentic, entrepreneurial, and collaborative. And though they tipped the scale for Biden in the last election, they also stood against him and Israel, protesting in support of Palestinians. They’re citizens of the world (not just the country). So, buckle up, whatever happens, this election, the war will not be over. The country, assuredly, will be in for a very bumpy ride!
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