DEI Hasn’t Just Infected the Left
Mike Gonzalez /
Diversity, equity, and inclusion seems to have entered the bloodstream of U.S. politics, and it’s not just one party with it in its veins. Sure, the Biden administration and its allies have sworn a loyalty oath to this bizarre ideology, but Republicans pledging to fight it are at times indistinguishable from the radical Left.
So, yes, let’s by all means decry that Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., obtained in the recent omnibus a $477,000 earmark so that the Equity Institute can provide “professional development” (read “Marxist indoctrination”) to teachers in his home state.
But let’s recognize, too, that making DEI a top agenda of every single subcommittee of the House Financial Services Committee is profoundly unserious at best and probably worrisome. Yes, that is “House,” as in the U.S. House of Representatives, where the GOP has a majority and Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., rules.
These priorities are not just wasteful and unnecessary. They are disgraceful, too.
DEI’s durability is due, no doubt, to the apple pie nature of words such as diversity, equity, or inclusion. Who could oppose these ideals? It’s like the term “black lives matter.” Of course they do—greatly.
Until you find out that the BLM founders are committed Marxists nursed by an international network dedicated to overthrowing America and its entire system. Then you decide to have nothing to do with these organizations and networks.
It is the same with DEI—and for exactly the same reason. The Left likes to hide its agenda behind American twangs.
So it is important to repeat again, clearly, what DEI has come to mean. Each of these words means the opposite of what we think.
Diversity doesn’t mean celebrating people of different colors, according to the Left. It means a tightly policed uniformity of views. Just ask Rep. Byron Donalds, R-Fla., who is black and rising fast in his caucus. Someone recently sent him an illustrated copy of “Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” implying that he is a race traitor because he holds conservative views.
At best, diversity has come to mean an identity-based approach to society and racial quotas. At worst, it is a rigid enforcement of leftist orthodoxy. By definition, if you hire only people who pledge attachment to diversity, you ensure having a workforce with the same mindset—or one that is too cowed to speak out.
Inclusion is a call for language codes because it demands that people only use “inclusive” language as defined by the Left. It means you can’t wear a T-shirt that says “Jesus saves” in a mall because a mall cop will toss you out because “Jesus is associated with religion and it’s offending people,” as happened recently.
Equity, perhaps the worst distortion of the three, has come to mean that the government must treat people differently because of their race, country of origin, or other immutable characteristics. The goal is to guarantee an equality of outcomes, which used to be the Marxist goal, not the American one.
All these things violate American ideals and laws. Diversity is all but a call for quotas, which are illegal. Inclusion violates the First Amendment. Equity violates the 14th Amendment equal protection clause, as well as the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
But it’s this ideology that Congress just voted to fund via Whitehouse’s Equity Institute. The organization is committed to “anti-racism,” a doctrine that is the brainchild of Boston University’s Ibram X. Kendi, who openly calls for discrimination in the present and well into the future.
And sure enough, the institute promises to “convene BIPOC [black, Indigenous, and people of color] teachers, administrators, professionals, and community members to support and cultivate meaningful, cross-sectoral interactions that promote and support the development of antiracist educators, schools and educational communities.”
Yes, one could argue tongue-in-cheek that to leave the “non-BIPOCs” out of sessions does them a favor. But a school can’t sort people out by race. It’s illegal.
To give federal money to these programs should be a crime. But at least Whitehouse openly embraces this superstitious gibberish. Republicans get elected by running against it.
So why is the subcommittee on capital markets pledging to identify “best practices and policies that continue to strengthen diversity and inclusion in the capital markets industry?” Why are the other subcommittees doing likewise?
Republicans should not be under the illusion that pursuing these goals will buy them peace. Financial Services Committee Chairman Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., is already coming under blistering criticism from liberals for getting rid of the subcommittee on DEI. He told Politico that there is “bipartisan” concern about the term equity.
He’s to be commended for getting rid of that subcommittee, and he is a vast improvement over his predecessor, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif. But McHenry should not think that equity is the only one of the three terms that conservatives find problematic.
Originally published by the Washington Examiner
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