DEI, NOT A BLOW AGAINST WHITE MEN

By Ruth A. Sheets

It seems Donald Trump and his handlers are obsessed with DEI.  They toss the letters out as though cursing in anger.  Trump would have no idea what the letters he is blurting out mean if asked by a member of the White House press corps, which is why none of them ever ask him when he tosses the swear word at them.

DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) is the term used to identify efforts to make businesses, workplaces, education, and other entities more inclusive of the variety of people living in this country.  It used to be called “Affirmative Action” until the Supreme Court said educational entities could no longer accept students through Affirmative Action, even though it was not clear the justices even understood it beyond their thinking that it meant letting Black students in.  Their wrong understanding was that white students would be kept out and replaced by Black students of lesser ability.  That was not Affirmative Action, but it didn’t matter because the word of the Supreme Court is law, right?

 

Colleges and Universities were looking for a positive way to make their student bodies, faculties, and programs more inclusive, but it seems the majority white Supreme Court conservative justices (including Thomas the white wannabee) just couldn’t have that, a white man who might not get in where he wanted to attend because an inferior woman or Black man got in instead.  So Affirmative Action was labeled by right-wingers as baaaad!

 

Women and people of color were not going to be stopped, so a new title for such inclusive education and institutions was needed.  Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) was the name settled on.  This title has served to recruit and keep thousands of students so student bodies could be more diverse not only by race and gender, but also by experience, talents/skills, and region. 

 

The new right-wing trope from white men is that they are being excluded by those less-educated, less qualified inferiors.  It is true that white males will no longer automatically be accepted over everyone else, but competition is good if without prejudice. Whether the cry of male exclusion is untrue doesn’t matter because it sounds good to groups like the MAGAs.  They take as gospel whatever is tossed out to them either by their Toddler-Trump or that shows up on Fox Not Nearly News, mostly white men, with a few white women hired to be the female faces of male aggression and claimed superiority.  Viewers came to believe that what the right-wing media presented must be true, no evidence required. 

 

I was commenting on a Substack thread this morning and one of the participants tried to say that DEI discriminates against white men.  I had to reread that one several times to get the gist of his words.  I challenged him saying that he as a white man has privilege just for being white and male.  He claims he does not have any such privilege because his life has been hard.  He couldn’t get the idea that it is likely that had he been a woman or person of color, his life would most likely have been even more difficult. 

 

I am amazed at the inability of some white men to get it that they are consider the default human in many parts of the world, including here.  They seem to want to wallow in the injustices done to themselves and their white male buddies.  They believe they have never discriminated against anyone and that every single job or opportunity that came to them was due to their own personal abilities, skills, and superior thinking and education.  That may be true, but it may equally be due to their male whiteness.  They will never know because white privilege means people will always see them first. 

 

One important thing to remember is that this is not really the fault of white men in general.  Those living now didn’t set up the system, devise ways to be sure that everyone not white and male would be kept in place below men.  Today’s white males didn’t skew laws to favor white men and nor did they institute slavery and the other systems that kept white men on top.  However, it is white men with some support that keep those practices in place.

 

That being said, today’s white men of privilege can learn to understand their privilege and can move toward Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion if they choose. 

• They can take time to look at their situation and that of other white men they know and see how the system has worked for them. 
• - They can listen to women and people of color and note the critique that could change the ways white men relate to the people around them. 
• - They can ask questions of themselves:  do I objectify women by their looks; do I assume everyone else is less qualified or coming after what I have; do I vote for white men even if I have doubts because I can’t envision a woman or person of color in that job/position; do I treat a white male boss differently from any other boss?  These are just a few of the questions white men can ask themselves.  They are questions all of us can ask ourselves too because white men did not get their privileged position on their own.  Women provided the early education that promoted that stance.  People of color just as white men and women, have hierarchies of who they see as superior and inferior.

 

DEI is just a tool to help us appreciate the diversity of humanity on this planet and to realize that each individual and group has something important to offer the whole and that no group is better than the rest in everything.  DEI gives a framework for business, education, the workplace, communities and nations to start to notice others and the gifts they bring to the table.  It helps us to develop those gifts for the benefit of all. 

 

trump and his white male cadre of sycophants do not want self-examination.  They want things the way they were at some mythical time in the past when straight white men ruled in every sphere of life.  That time will not come again, so it is up to all of us, including white males to embrace DEI (whatever it ends up being called), and demand its use everywhere for the benefit of all.  Then challenge when Trump or anyone else tosses out the term DEI as a slur or curse.  Such contempt proves they have no clue.