Discrimination, Exclusion, Inequality
Why Trump's attack of DEI is Un-American
The United States of DEI
The founding principles and Constitution of the United States are the ultimate expression of DEI. Diversity because except for our indigenous population we are all immigrants. Equity as expressed in the promise that all men people are created equal. And inclusion, which is nothing more than ensuring equality for people who don’t conform to social norms.
Efforts to remove barriers to marginalized populations have proven to be effective and to benefit our society and economy by enlarging the pool of talented workers. According to an article in Forbes magazine “the impact of DEI is overwhelmingly positive”1.
With the inclusion of Title IX in the Education Codes of 1972, equal access to higher education and to professional schools became the law. The long-range effect of that one straightforward legal passage beginning “Equal access to education programs…,” has been simply phenomenal. The number of women doctors, lawyers, engineers, architects and other professionals has doubled and doubled again as quotas actually limiting women’s enrollment in graduate schools were outlawed2.
So if DEI initiatives are aligned with our founding principles and beneficial to our economy why would the current administration expend so much effort to attack them?Their claim is that, rather than remove barriers, these policies somehow deliver an unfair advantage to the recipients, who then take jobs from more deserving candidates and lower the quality of the workforce.
Women and minorities who excelled in science
But if that’s the case it seems that legacy admission programs at Ivy league universities should also be eliminated. For an extreme example of unfair advantage we just need to consider Trump’s recent cabinet picks, which demonstrate a complete lack of concern for experience or ability in favor of loyalty.
And a recent proposal to support Afrikaners immigration due to government oppression while deporting brown skinned people fleeing the same threats seems based on race rather than principle.
The real reason may be that opposition to DEI is more about the recipient's race or gender than ability. Recent actions by the Trump administration don’t mention any specific deficiencies or objective facts. Just a wholesale purge based on identity. A credible approach to addressing concerns about the potential for unqualified employees would focus on performance. Here are some recent headlines as examples
Trump Orders NASA to Purge All Mentions of Women in Leadership On Its Websites3
Trump fires first woman to head a US military service4
Trump administration puts federal diversity, equity and inclusion staff on leave5
While these policies aren’t consistent with their claimed goal of ‘leveling the playing field’ they are consistent with a long standing conservative philosophy based on white Christian nationalism6 where women and minorities are assumed to be inferior.
Questions
Do DEI initiatives give their recipients an unfair advantage?
Will Trumps anti-DEI actions improve our workforce?
Is racism and sexism prevalent in US society, or are all people treated equally?