Pronouncing DEI with the hard R
Hi friends!
My apologies for a gap in posts. I went on family vacation and meant to schedule a post ahead of time, but … alas. Anyway! Here goes!
Our son is a college student at NC State (a big, fairly prestigious public university in Raleigh, NC) and recently got an email about a course he’s taking.
It’s a “Women & Gender” course. His major — every major — had a requirement to take a class that centered Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
Well.
Guess what?
“DEI IS CANCELLED ACROSS ALL PUBLIC COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES IN NORTH CAROLINA.”
Ooh, this is sneaky.
“What’s the big deal?” you might be thinking.
I get it: we want to normalize.
This is how fascism works, folks.
In-groups and out-groups.
Going after universities and education, books and history.
The Playbook is the Same
The playbook: in-groups grab more power and privilege (or duck their heads, trying to stay “safe”) while characterizing everyone in the out-groups as immoral, illegal, evil, enemies, stupid, violent, dangerous, unpatriotic, dirty. They are smeared, threatened, outlawed, rounded up, impoverished, marginalized, endangered, detained, deported.
Read: On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century by Timothy Snyder.
Or go to the O.G.: The Origins of Totalitarianism by Hannah Arendt.
The Details will be Different
The out-groups may differ, and certainly the language, the diction, will be different.
The prominent out-groups thus far in this second MAGA / DOGE administration are immigrants, transgender folks, “pro-Palestinian” activists —meaning those of us who march(ed) and protest(ed) against the genocide in Gaza— and, of course, “DEI” or “DEIA.”
DEI is maybe not the term of art you think of when you think of the targets of authoritarianism or fascism.
But here we are.
It’s the code for “anyone who isn’t white, especially white men.”
Every time you hear “DEI,” please take a moment to re-humanize this term.
Say the words, all the words, every time: diversity, equity, inclusion.
Diversity.
Equity.
Inclusion.
Those are, all three of them, wonderful things. Ideas and practices I deeply value.
Now: picture the actual humans these terms encompass. Black folks, Indigenous folks, People of Color, LGBTQ+ folks, people with disabilities. Put your arms around them and yourself. Give us a big ol’ hug.
“Anti-DEI” is code for re-segregation.
It is code for elevating white men —and white women as long as we follow the rules— no matter how qualified or even dangerously unqualified we are.
Every time these MAGA and DOGE folks say “anti-DEI,” basically they are using the n-word. And with a hard R.
They want white spaces and white workplaces. Because they are white supremacists.
And before any of y’all get to comfortable pointing fingers at MAGA, understand that if we are white, we too are benefitting from white supremacy. All the time. We are part of the white supremacist gears and machines of this empire. Whether or not we think we are “one of the good ones.”
And yes, white women are also included on both sides of the anti-DEI project. Because as usual, white women benefit from whiteness. It’s both/and.
White women have been the largest beneficiaries of Affirmative Action, so anti-DEI initiatives will affect white women, but/and we white gals will still, always, have whiteness to cushion the blow. None of this will hurt white women as badly as it will hurt all BIPOC folks, transgender folks, and/or disabled folks.
MAGA and DOGE keep adding the “A” (for accessibility) to DEI because they want to include disabled people in the out-group. Fascists always do. Not a surprise if you look at any histories of fascist movements. They usually include eugenicist frameworks. Speaking of which:
“Areas of High Marriage Rates”
The regime will also increasingly talk in coded language about privileging and recruiting folks from places with “high marriage rates” and “families with young children” and “family growth.”
This will always be code for “white people who live in places likely to be MAGA.”
What is the End Game?
Difficult to see, the future is.
But some things we can see from the past:
Fascists do NOT have a plan for governance. They simply destroy and tear down, pointing fingers at out-groups all the while.
They do NOT have a plan other than enriching themselves in the short term.
The out-groups WILL grow.
MAGA and DOGE will communicate an increasing sense of being aggrieved and besmirched.
Their enemies lists grow until eventually, they’ll turn the blame/hate inward on each other. They’ll eventually destroy themselves. That’s what generally happens with fascist regimes. The problem is how much damage they do in the meantime. Irreversible costs to humans and the planet.
The way to defeat fascism and authoritarianism?
Well it’s not by participating in elections every two or four years.
Or thinking your Republican senator will suddenly grow a spine or some morals.
Yes, keep using your 5 calls app. Go to marches. Show up at town halls. Vote, especially in local elections. Keep doing all that.
But please don’t think that “voting Blue no matter who” will turn this ship around. Democrats have explicitly stated, and again recently, that they are invested in taking money from billionaires. With exceedingly few exceptions — I want to note Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett as exceptional — they have shown themselves to be absolute cowards in the face of Constitutional collapse.
We need a positive vision of the future that includes a big ALL: an uncompromising moral vision including universal health care; decent housing as a human right; good schools for everyone; environmental protection; public parks, after-school programming of arts, sports, and recreation; guaranteed jobs; a Green New Deal; support for unions; and aggressive taxation of the wealthy. We need folks who are fearless and courageous and don’t answer to same effing Democratic strategists who have been wrong for decades and still get paid millions, including your $20, no matter who wins.
The best way to start is by looking to the past.
Look to the people who have been resisting and surviving for hundreds of years. Look to indigenous wisdom. Black resistance. Learn from folks who have seen much, much worse than what’s happening to the average reader of Unruly Quaker right now, and who have lived to tell about it.
Then, envision the future you want.
But you know what? Another thing first.
The focus of your vision had better be constantly, doggedly, anti-racist, anti-colonizer-mindset. And it must be pro-planet.
A fundamental core value of building our future must —and I mean must— be the dismantling of white supremacy and capitalist greed.
Elsewise we will end up right back where we are today.
If you don’t know how to be actively anti-racist, if your every day isn’t dedicated to dismantling white supremacy, figure it the fuck out.
There are so many resources to engage with and learn from.
Oh, and white people: it’s not enough to have attended one training, read a few books, or be open to feedback. This is a down-to-our-bone-marrow commitment. Put on your big girl pants and get with the program.
Dream your future, join it, live it.
Me, the future I want is very much like the Restorative Justice community I’m in.
We’re a multi-generational, racially diverse, LGBTQ+-inclusive, ragtag group of do-gooders (and some trouble-makers) who really do want to do good (trouble).
Specifically, we are engaged in creating an alternative to the criminal punishment system in our town, in our lives. So that’s what we do.
First we welcome people into community circles. We meet monthly for community circles, to welcome new folks and to deepen the relationship we have. We meet to listen to each other. To learn from each other. Then we train facilitators in RJ practices — and continue in ongoing trainings.
We do our best to encircle people in community and care who have done harm and who have been harmed, to name the harm and to make things as right as possible.
We practice based on our core values: respect, honesty, integrity, responsibility.
Our guidelines:
Listen to understand, not to respond.
Honor the talking piece.
Take the time you need while remembering others need time.
Lessons can leave the circle; stories cannot.
It’s okay to speak in “rough draft.”
What world do you want to create?
Anyway - back to NC State.
For many students, that letter, and subsequent changes like it, are BAD news. Just think of the huge, important learning opportunities students will miss. Full-time tuition may NOT cover a class that doesn’t meet a requirement in a student’s major.
Plus: the faculty and graduate students this will affect. It is awful.
DEI — diversity, equity, inclusion — used to be a requirement.
No longer. And this is the thin edge of the wedge.
It’s revolting how quickly, and without a peep of public objection or protest, the entire UNC system, and NC State within it, are complying with anti-DEI —diversity, equity, inclusion — Executive Orders. It’s almost like the UNC Board of Governors were happy to comply.
Let’s don’t be like those folks at the helm of the UNC system.
Let’s say the words: diversity, equity, inclusion.
Let’s live the values.
Ask yourself: in what ways do I value diversity? How do I make sure this shows up in my everyday life? How can I do better?
Ask yourself: in what ways do I value equity? How do I make sure this value shows up in my everyday life? How can I do this better?
Ask yourself: in what ways do I value inclusion? How do I make damned sure this shows up in my everyday life? How can I do better?
Let’s fight for everything we believe in, every step of the way.
Let’s fight for each other.
And by God, my angelic trouble-makers, my hell-bent do-gooders, let’s fight to win.
XOXO
This whole issue is so upsetting to me. How long has this country used WMO as their mode of operation? White men only is all we had for centuries. How does that give us a better pool of applicants?
the attacks on gaza have started again, they are not over