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America: Apple Pie and DEI [1]
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Date: 2025-01-26
Like Affirmative Action, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is easily misunderstood and, therefore, very easy to malign. And the cultural and political radical right is skilled at trashing everything and anything that threatens White Supremacy. For years, I was reluctant to use the term “White Supremacy.” While I was anti-racist, it seemed to me that it was going too far. Yet slowly, as I learned more and reflected on racism, I realized that I couldn’t make sense of the history of America or its ongoing cultural and political struggle without the frame of White Supremacy.
The Black Power movement emerged around the time Malcolm X was assassinated on February 21, 1965. It lasted until the 1970s. In the spirit of Malcolm X, it promoted black self-determination, racial pride and identity, economic and political empowerment, and defiance against police brutality and state violence. Of course, it was attacked in mainstream media and by the FBI’s Counterintelligence Program. The White Power movement in America began in 1619 and is being reenergized in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling against Affirmative Action in 2023 and the racist actions of a second Trump administration. You might wonder why White Power isn’t attacked as Black Power was. Strange!
The most recent struggle for Civil Rights has been over DEI, of which Florida Governor Ron DeSantis said in “1984” “DEI is better viewed as standing for discrimination, exclusion, and indoctrination, and that has no place in our public institutions.” (Source:
https://thekingcenter.org/what-the-florida-dei-bill-means-to-us/) In his second Inaugural Address, Trump said, “We will forge a society that is colorblind and merit-based.” This sounds so good, so fair, so noble and uplifting, but if not resisted, it will create another Jim Crow. Ta-Nehisi Coates writes in his book, “Between the World and Me,” “The idea of a ‘colorblind’ society is a dangerous illusion. It assumes that race can be erased, and that ignoring race will lead to fairness. But it is precisely the failure to acknowledge race that perpetuates racial injustice.” He also writes, “The idea that America is a meritocracy is as American as the myth of the frontier, as American as the myth of individualism. But that myth is grounded in the history of slavery, segregation, and persistent inequality.”
The 2023 dissents against the end of Affirmative Action by the U.S. Supreme Court are instructive. Justice Ketanji Jackson Brown wrote, “The Court today changes the rules of the game. It is not simply that the Court overturns settled law, it is that the Court does so in a manner that imposes a colorblind approach to the real-world effects of race.”
In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote, “The Court’s decision… will profoundly damage the entire nation.” She added, “The denial of race-conscious admissions is a denial of equal protection to all of those who are affected by race-based obstacles, from slavery through Jim Crow to today.” (Source:
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/read-text-dissent-supreme-court-affirmative-action-ruling-opinions-justices-sotomayor-jackson/)
The obliteration of Affirmative Action laid the groundwork for the now unrelenting attack on DEI, which is now being demonized and destroyed.
DEI is a valuable concept. It would even be beneficial in an all-White society. It might even be as American as apple pie because it lifts up important American realities and ideals.
True diversity goes beyond visible characteristics. For instance, within a group of 100 White people, you would find staggering diversity in terms of gender identity, sexual orientation, cultural backgrounds, economic circumstances, religion, political perspectives, learning styles, and life experiences. A good leader recognizes and values this diversity to create a more effective and inclusive environment so the group can be as effective as possible. When we add People of Color, the diversity becomes even more complex. This complex diversity must be effectively utilized and managed to make the whole greater than the sum of the parts.
Inclusion is perhaps the simplest to understand. People want to feel valued, respected, and able to contribute fully. It’s not rocket science; it’s what a good kindergarten teacher does with five-year-olds.
Where we trip up is over equity because it appears to be unfair—someone getting help that we are not getting. It seems unjust because, since we were born, if we are White, we have been fed the mother’s white milk of 1776-style equality and its twin, equality of opportunity: you can achieve success based on talent and effort, not birth or privilege. Great! Except!
Jefferson proudly wrote, “All men are created equal.” Still, the word “men” was a code that meant white male landowners—not poor white men, not white women, not black women who were slaves, not enslaved black men who were diminished by being 3/5th of a man, and not Native Americans who were experiencing genocide—such a strange notion of equality that persists in America.
Equality of opportunity is based on the imaginary level playing field—if it is level, then there are the potholes that people fall into—women, people of color, the differently abled, the immigrant, the poor—and so it goes. Because of this, equity is necessary. At its basic level, equity builds a bridge over those holes. But it does more. It asks, “What do you need so you can fairly access equality of opportunity?” because we are not created equal. Since we are not created equal, equality of opportunity is a deception without equity.
Equity? Consider the vintage carousels that operated in the U.S. from 1880 to 1930. Many featured metal or brass ring dispensers that riders on the outer horses could try to grab. While a few dispensers could be adjusted in or out, most were stationary. If you were tall, with long arms and good coordination, you could likely grab a ring every time one was dispensed—earning a prize or a free ride.
But what if you were shorter, with shorter arms? No matter how hard you stretched, the brass ring would always be out of reach. Equality and “equal opportunity” meant nothing if your physical stature left you unable to participate fully.
Equity seeks to address inherent and other differences that create disadvantage. Perhaps you’d be given a pole with a hook to help you reach the ring. Or maybe some horses closer to the edge would be reserved for shorter riders. Without these adjustments, some people would never have the chance to grab the brass ring, no matter how hard they worked.
If you are White and feel that someone—perhaps a person of color or someone with a disability—is receiving an unfair advantage over you in the workplace or elsewhere, take the time to talk to them. Hear their story and compare it honestly to your own. One of two things is likely to happen. You may come to understand the challenges they face and why the support they’ve been given is both necessary and fair. Or, though less common, you might realize how you, too, are facing disadvantages and could benefit from equity. Of course, some people will reject equity because they want all of the advantages and spoils for themselves. Eliminating DEI benefits them, but not society.
President Lyndon Johnson, who grew up in a racist society, understood equity. Perhaps he did so because he was so disadvantaged by extreme poverty as a child. In a speech at Howard University in 1965, Johnson famously said: “You do not wipe away the scars of centuries by saying: ‘Now, you are free to go where you want, and do as you desire, and choose the leaders you please.’ You do not take a person who, for years, has been hobbled by chains and liberate him, bring him up to the starting line of a race and then say, ‘You are free to compete with all the others,’ and still justly believe that you have been completely fair.” (Source:
https://www.americanyawp.com/reader/27-the-sixties/lyndon-johnson-howard-university-commencement-address-1965/)
Equality without equity is the most perverse oppression that exists—intersecting with every other ism. It parades as fairness while being inherently unfair. It is the most effective tool White Supremacy has to keep its foot on the neck of America’s underclass. The fight for DEI is not just about fairness; it is about dismantling the structures that uphold inequality so that we can create a society where everyone can thrive.
Time left to January 20, 2029: 1,455 days
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