DEIsappearing Act
The Future is Bright, the Past Cannot be Forgotten
One of the hallmark efforts of the new administration will be to find and uproot the government kudzu that is diversity, equity, and inclusion.
For the past four years – and well before – DEI has infested not only public debate and the culture in general but has also buried government agencies and the nation in a pointless and parasitic blanket of imposed guilt and despair.
One of the first acts of the Biden administration – who knows if Joe had any real idea what it really meant – was to implement a “Hole of Government” (typo intentional) approach and spend billions of dollars, countless hours, and untold energy on the least pressing, most non-existent problem facing the nation.
That executive order read, in part, “…entrenched disparities in our laws and public policies, and in our public and private institutions, have often denied that equal opportunity to individuals and communities. Our country faces converging economic, health, and climate crises that have exposed and exacerbated inequities, while a historic movement for justice has highlighted the unbearable human costs of systemic racism.”
This dictat threw government agencies at all levels into a useless frenzy of meetings and capacity building (read vote buying) and busy work trying to ensure that everything anyone could think of was no longer racist.
Foundations and schools and local government agencies quickly learned that if they wanted any federal money, all they had to do was mention the word “equity” in the grant application and the tap word be turned on, no matter how absurd the request.
This is a key element in the explosion of the DEI industry over the past few years – let’s follow the vulturous circle.
First, DEI and CRT and other related silliness is birthed in academia.
Second, those people who moved from academia into the real world were very discomfited at how “real” the world was, looked back for comfort and an avenue to immediate power and found DEI and began implementing its constructs.
Third, the underlying lie of DEI became the driving force in most of the “culture war” divisions, creating another power lever.
Fourth, DEI advocates moved into positions of power, in large part because no one wanted to be branded a racist by publicly saying the movement is unnecessary and extremely counter-productive.
Fifth, even before the Biden administration, government agencies started dispensing funds based solely on DEI credentials. Universities, foundations, local “grassroots” activist groups, researchers and scientists all benefited from the largesse which they, in turn, turned into political support for the administration.
Sixth, the media touted the the process and the concept incessantly.
Seventh, those who got money became, somewhat paradoxically, both more dependent on handouts and more powerful in the culture. That is typically not the case.
Eighth, those receiving the funds used said funds and their status to push for more DEI funds and programs.
Ninth, anyone who said otherwise was aggressively censored, de-banked, de-platformed, fired, or had their careers stalled.
Rinse and repeat and the cycle was set in stone by the above-noted Biden administration actions.
And now that is coming to an end as the new administration will be removing DEI edicts and enforcers en masse.
This will not just impact government, but society as a whole because every part of the movement was utterly dependent upon either government funding or government approval or both. Take that away and the scheme collapses.
It should be stressed that once the feds are out of the DEI game, that’s it. There is simply no “market” for the concept, for the DEI widget, to be sold anywhere else.
It becomes essentially a spiral into nothingness - no money supporting the cultural sway and no cultural sway supporting the money. And with neither money nor sway, the “studies” that the media is so quick to tout dry up, speeding the irrelevance spiral.
As it brings negative value to any organization (see Bud and Jaguar) it will cease to exist. In other words, everyone making money in DEI right now – and there are a lot and it is a lot of money – will have nowhere else to turn to sell their services.
Yes, private companies have created DEI plans and departments and such, but that was done so they could point to them and say “see, we’re not racist.” With the imminent public collapse of the scam, the private erosion will follow.
And the academic erosion will swing into full force - already has in Michigan – when government agencies like the NIH start demanding actual science be done by actual scientists with the public’s money.
That being said, society should not forget the rampant stupidity lest something similar raises its head in the future.
We are waking up from a bender for all seasons and we do have a certain responsibility to remember the bad and silly and dangerous parts before the hangover goes away, hence the need for a little slog down memory lane.
In no particular order, because none of them actually matter (then or now,) here are some examples of how DEI wormed its way into government. They will be gone soon (unless you live in California or another “Trump-proofing” state) but they should not be forgotten.
From the federal Department of Transportation equity action plan:
Proactive Intervention, Planning, and Capacity Building: Ensure historically overburdened and underserved communities in urban and rural areas benefit from access to generational
investment in the nation’s infrastructure through direct, hands-on technical support for transportation projects with local impact.
Institutionalizing Equity: Continuously provide resources to embed equity, civil rights, and social justice initiatives into the Department’s decision- making processes – including meaningful public involvement – and ensure that equity is a core part of the Department’s mission and culture.
Gobbeldy, meet gook.
By the way, every single federal government agency has an “equity action plan” and people paid to create and, um, enforce? it. Just pick an agency and search “equity” and you will be amazed.
Obviously fed agencies have such plans, but do others?
Well, here’s California plan to make water anti-racist.
The taxpayer-adjacent inanity continues from topic to topic to topic.
Lawns? Racist.
Paint? Racist.
Parks? Racist.
Government, even governments that embrace anti-racism? Racist.
Playground equipment? Racist. (Note – As I’ve pointed out before, if when you hear the word “monkey” you instantly think “Black” then you are the racist.)
Clothes? Racist.
Food? Racist.
To emphasize how absurd and vicious and evil and destructive and profitable for those involved DEI can be, here’s a chat about eating habits:
The host is a queer, Black, Muslim TikTok influencer while the “black nutritionist” works for the one of the world’s largest snack food companies, Mondelez.
There will be a fight, DEI will not go quietly and its proponents will play race card after race card to the point it becomes 52 pick-up, but it is clear the tide has turned and that the societal apparatus will no longer exist to support them.
And we will all be able to breathe again…unless air is racist.
Oh, wait.