Just three little letters. But they've mattered quite a bit in recent politics. They stand for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. And one would think that no one would have a problem with that. But of course, in this insane outrage-driven world, some do.
In particular, the Right-Wing Media Machine casts D.E.I. as anti-white racism.
Look, I'm as opposed to Afro-centric racism as I am to Euro-centric racism. Any form of racism at all is bad. But casting DEI as "anti-white," is just plain sour grapes. Yes, it can feel that way to a job applicant who didn't land the job because a minority applied for the same position, but it's the hiring manager's call as to the applicant's qualifications, not the applicant's. Still, the ones who have been occasionally turned down, or seen applicants turned down, do the sour grapes thing, and Trump loves exploiting those sour grapes for all they're worth.
Don't take my word for it. Here's what Trump himself said this past Saturday at a rally in Las Vegas regarding his executive order disbanding DEI:
"I signed an order that will end all the lawless Diversity Equity and Inclusion nonsense. [Cheers.] All across the government and the private sector. We abolished 60 years of prejudice and hatred with the signing of one order [emphasis mine], all approved by the United States Supreme Court -- we're allowed to do it -- because we are now in a merit-based world, a merit-based country."
Prejudice and hatred?
But some other aspects of what Trump is saying sound fair. What could be wrong with basing things on merit?
But it's not that simple.
What's wrong with pure meritocracy isn't the implementation of it, but the premature implementation of it. In other words, it's not that we're basing things on merit, its that we're doing so right now. Before our culture and society are prepared for it. You see, before meritocracy can produce true equity in a nation where racism still lingers, economic parity must be achieved among minorities, especially black people.
And we're nowhere near that point. Not even fucking close.
Without that prerequisite economic parity, a "meritocracy" (for all the seeming fairness that presents) actually unintentionally acts as a barrier to upward mobility among black people. Because they won't be able to invest in improving their own merit. They won't be able to afford the better schools, better colleges, and better training that white people can afford. And this structural racism is what white people call "fairness." it's what they call "meritocracy."
The indigent will always struggle. But imposing a meritocracy too soon will always result in this kind of unintended oppression. Hard work creates opportunity, but privilege creates it even more, and far more efficiently.
This is precisely what college professors mean when they call phrases like, "The human race is the only race," as "microagression." Note that the phrase itself is 100% scientifically accurate. The human race IS the only race! But the phrase is often used, not to state a fact of science, but as a means of prematurely imposing "merit" in order to hoard economic advantage -- usually by wealthy white people who should really know better than to use that phrase in such context.
You say we're all one race? Fine. Let's act like it, and not withhold economic aid packages that help black people, who are, after all, really our own people.
Trump made reference to the Supreme Court saying that he was "allowed to do it." He was referring, of course to the SCOTUS ruling which struck down DEI in colleges and universities. Back then, in July of 2023, I blogged about it, making essentially the same arguments I'm making now, and lamenting over the fact that nobody else seems to do so.
It's still true. Nobody else points this out. They just assume that it's generally known.
It's not. Especially on the Right.
Instead of keeping quiet about this point, we need to make the point on as many banners, billboards, and advertisements we can. That's precisely why I chose this blog's image at the top. Equality vs. equity. A simple definitional difference, made simple in a clear, unambiguous depiction. It has many variations by many different artists which float around social media from time to time. But even then, it's not seen nearly enough.
As I said back in that earlier blog post, premature meritocracy is like someone seeing a rope which was thrown to someone else down a hole. And then, right before that other person reaches the top, cuts the rope saying, "Well, you're 80% there, you can handle the rest."
No! A thousand times no!
Once blacks and whites achieve economic parity, where average incomes are equal, then we can re-visit meritocracy. And even then, we may have to modify certain things, as parity may be achieved in certain areas but not others. (I'm quite sure the deep South will lag behind in this regard.)
But that's not what Trump has decided to do - or done. He's taken it retrograde. What I've proposed is merely what we would do in a world where people are not driven insane by the Outrage Industrial Complex (thanks again, Bishop Budde!). That means we're going exactly backwards. DEI will therefore not disappear. It will only be temporarily gone.
It will, because it must. Or else the depressive effects of DEI's absence will be repaid upon white people in the form of increased crime and homelessness.
And I would say that then Republicans will have learned the hard way, but the Right-Wing Media Machine will undoubtedly blind them to that lesson too.
Eric
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