Has Our Side Gone Overboard on DEI?

 

Republicans in general and Donald Trump in particular have made clear their absolute opposition to DEI -- Diversity, Equity and Inclusion.  Trump has been ferociously nativist while winning nearly half the Latino vote and made significant inroads into the Black vote despite being the most racist candidate for President since George Wallace.

So this raises an obvious question -- has our side gone too far on DEI issues?  And I am inclined to think that the answer is yes.  Various polls have shown that white, college educated Democratic voters stand well to the left of Black and Hispanic voters -- even on issues of race.  When the intended beneficiaries of your anti-racism politics think you have gone too far, it is a sign that you have gone too far.

And it is not so hard to see why Black and Hispanic voters might get tired of endless identity politics.  Constant focus on peoples' racial and ethnic identity tends to put people in pigeon holes and deny their individuality.  Telling people their identity is now and forever as a victim and can never change is not exactly an uplifting message.  Encouraging people to focus constantly on their ethnic identity and nothing else can be stifling.  And some ideas about "white" versus "black" approaches to thinking and management sound suspiciously like old stereotypes in new packages.  

Complaints about the "woke" left being the language police are not crazy.  At the height of the George Floyd protests, there was even talk about whether it was retrograde to say "master bedroom."  I recall reading from a report all the way back in 2016 asking women who supported Trump what the appeal was.  The women said their concern was over "political correctness."  Specifically, they found themselves up against incomprehensible rules over what was and was not acceptable to say, and that if they ever figured out the rules, someone would change them, and that this felt like class oppression.  They also feared that their husbands could lose their jobs for saying things that were perfectly acceptable to say just a short time ago.

These are reasonable concerns.  DEI went too far.  People lost their jobs, and were exposed to online harassment and shaming for careless remarks.

But Trump's backlash is truly going to extremes.  We have reached the point that if a plane crashes or a ship strikes a bridge, it is immediately blamed on hiring unqualified minorities.  Instead of forcing people to attend tiresome DEI training, the Trump Administration is now firing people for being forced to attend DEI training.  Instead of internet shaming for unthinking remarks, people are being shamed on the internet for being too DEI.  Whole websites are being taken down to scrub them of possible DEI language.  Tip lines are being set up to report covert anti-racist language.  And the new language police are banning terms like:

Anti-Racism
Racism
Allyship
Bias
DEI
Diversity
Diverse
Confirmation Bias
Equity
Equitableness
Feminism
Gender
Gender Identity
Inclusion
Inclusive
All-Inclusive
Inclusivity
Injustice
Intersectionality
Prejudice
Privilege
Racial Identity
Sexuality
Stereotypes
Pronouns
Transgender
Equality

Many of these words are used in non-DEI contexts.

And it seems frankly absurd that after running a campaign based on denouncing experts and intellectual elites, the Trump Administration suddenly proclaims itself in favor of pure meritocracy.  Appointing officials like Pete Hegseth and RFK, Jr. should be more than ample proof that being white and male is not in itself proof of being qualified.  Trump appealed to minority voters by promising to MAGA (Make America Great Again), but really his slogan should have been MRRA (Make Racism Respectable Again).

And who knows.  Maybe Latinos supported Trump because they like nativism.  Maybe Black people moved in his direction because they found his open racism refreshingly honest.  Maybe Hispanic voters who are harassed by ICE, asked to prove citizenship, arrested, and even have their tires slashed will be pleased at the Trump Administration's zeal in cracking down on illegal immigration and see any personal inconvenience as a small price to pay.  Maybe Black people want to be scapegoats every time something goes wrong and be fired from any good jobs as unqualified DEI hires.

But it seems unlikely.