Why Do We Keep Forgetting That Diversity and Inclusion Make Us Stronger?

History and modern evidence couldn’t be clearer on this

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Some anthropologists have suggested that human civilisation truly began when we started helping each other through difficulty.

But caring for and sharing resources with everyone in a group, including the vulnerable and injured, wasn’t just an ethical choice — it was a survival strategy. Communities that prioritised it not only developed stronger social bonds, which in turn laid the foundation for more complex cultures, but also likely experienced higher survival rates, allowing their populations to thrive and expand far beyond those that didn’t.

Early humans weren’t unique in this regard, though. Even our closest ancient relatives, the Neanderthals — often mistakenly dismissed as ‘inferior’ — practised cooperation and caregiving, including extending care to their communities’ most vulnerable. Our more distant relatives, primates, tend to do the same.

Yet today, the trajectory of our world is moving in quite the opposite direction. In the US, President Donald Trump has recently signed a series of executive orders dismantling government diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, prompting many organisations to abandon or scale back programs that…