DEI Overreactions

Spectator

Most people consider equality to be a good thing; equal opportunities, equal pay, equal consideration. We also like the idea of being included, and diversification is almost always a recommendation for investments and collections of all sorts. That’s why DEI (diversity, equality, inclusion) programs started as a popular idea; difficult to argue against the concepts at least in the abstract.

But, of course, we found ways to take DEI concepts to extremes, and some politicians, always on the lookout for anything they can cynically exploit, decided they had found a new villain. DEI went from a positive idea intended to level several playing fields to a target intended to generate campaign contributions and votes. As a bonus, opponents denigrated anybody or anything that might have benefited from any DEI program.

So we then had very predictable targets identified and attacked. Unisex bathrooms, which had never been mandated anywhere in the U.S., were suddenly the subject of endless fear-mongering, an open invitation to rapists and perverts of all stripes, we were told. And to hear the anguished cries of protest, you’d think women’s college athletics was being overrun by dominating transgender jocks.

Never mind that unisex public bathrooms have been the norm in much of Europe and nearly all of Scandinavia for decades without even a slight uptick in sex crimes in or around those bathrooms. Not much dominance by transgender athletes, either. When Charlie Baker, the president of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), testified before Congress on the subject he indicated there were 500,000 college students participating in sanctioned athletics and 10 of them were transgender. Ten out of half a million—not exactly overtaking women’s athletics, but that exaggeration became a useful political fundraising tool.

The tangential issue of identity politics merged with DEI, providing additional targets. Preferred pronouns and gender became demonized as forced foolishness. The anti-DEI movement convinced people that too many decisions were being made in government and the corporate world based solely on race, gender, or identity. There was scant evidence of it, but the planted seed was well-fertilized until the lie fully flowered.

So, we had to overreact to undo the perceived bias of DEI. The current president ran part of his campaign promising to undo those programs, and he and his minions have tried to be true to that promise—excessively so.

Using what had to be the dumbest artificial intelligence or an even dumber human, the slightest hint of DEI was sufficient for elimination from government museum exhibits, websites, even lobby displays. Words that were gender-specific (mainly for women) were suspect, as were words like “gay” or “first” or “indigenous;” context was completely irrelevant, and comically inappropriate decisions were made.

The story of the plane that carried the first atomic bomb we dropped on Hiroshima that helped speed the end of World War II had to be edited. Why? Because the name of the plane was the “Enola Gay.” Yes, they probably used that plane because it was gay…

They removed references to Jackie Robinson being the first Black major league baseball player, along with references to his decorated military service. The Tuskegee Airmen had to go, too, because they were both a “first” and a “race.”

A web page dedicated to the Underground Railroad removed references to Harriet Tubman and the phrase “enslaved people” leaving a site about a woman rescuing slaves without a reference to that woman or to the slaves she was trying to save.

We also removed references to the 29 Navajo Code Talkers from World War II Museum and websites even though they were instrumental in securing our victory, having developed a coded version of their language that was never broken. They were awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for their efforts.

All of the above foolishness, and more, was ultimately reversed, and proper recognition restored. But that has been the exception, not the rule. The same cannot be said for the removal of the highest ranking women in the military, the commander of Space Force in Greenland, and leaders of both the Coast Guard and Navy, all decorated veterans with impeccable service records.

But the current champion of DEI overreaction has to be the good folks running the West Ada School District based in Meridian, Idaho. A sixth grade teacher in their middle school was recently informed that a poster she had placed in her classroom violated district policies because it included an impermissible personal opinion and had to be removed. Additionally, the district said “political opinions” don’t comply with existing poster guidelines and that “not everyone agrees” with the message on the poster.

The offending message? “Everyone is welcome here.” That’s it, that’s the offending poster. The district’s condescending explanation said relationships are “formed by individuals, not posters on the wall.”

The teacher has returned the poster to her classroom so all students know they are welcome and ignorance is not.

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