I’ve written a number of times in this column about diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and the campaigns against it in many quarters. But, the more I think about the current state of affairs, the more I’m convinced that there is something more, something darker at play here. I wonder sometimes why it took me as long as it did to realize this.
You see, it was not the DEI programs really that the people opposing them objected to, it was the idea of fair treatment for everyone regardless of gender, race, religion, physical condition, or whatever that they are against. The signs that this was so were always there.
These are the people who oppose programs that consider the status of previously disadvantaged people when deciding about college admissions because to do so is discriminating against the group that has always had preference in admissions.
The unspoken desire there, I really believe, is that we go back to the way things were, when the people who previously had all the advantages because of their privileged birth, once again will be at the top of the head where they belong and will once again be calling all the shots about who gets what.
So, if they’re opposed to a person with a handicap being given a hand up in order to level the playing field, then we will no longer do that. Transgender people can once again be demonized, as they were in the past, and perhaps even persecuted.
An organization founded by formerly disadvantaged people for the purpose of assisting people like themselves, such as the foundation founded by women of color that provided grants to startups owned by women of color can be forced to stop such grants because they are discriminatory. We can go back to the situation where such businesses are routinely ignored as they were in the past.
It might be a stretch, I don’t claim to be some kind of saint who never makes a mistake, but I often wonder if people currently behind such efforts are not direct descendants (or reincarnations) of the same people who put signs on water fountains in my youth that proclaimed different sources of water for people of different colors, or who insisted that regardless of when I got in line at the store to pay for my purposes, I had to wait until after certain other patrons were waited on. Or even worse, when I applied for work as an artist in 1961 or to rent an apartment in 1965 was told that ‘nothing was available’ for people like me.
These programs, beginning with the urging of President John F. Kennedy in 1961 that defense contractions to ‘take affirmative action’ to hire workers without regard to race, creed, color or national origin.
These programs, that provided upward mobility for many minorities and women fore decades, were opposed at the time, and have been quietly opposed since and, in my opinion, will eventually be a target of the anti-DEI crowd. It’s just a matter of time, because there have always been and will always be people who resent having to share their power, perks, or privilege with others. There are just some people who do not want to play fair. | NWI
