13. DEI, What is it?
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) are being broadly adopted in our communities and educational systems. Across the nation, public educational bureaucracies (K-12), colleges, universities, many communities, and large businesses are embracing DEI. Why?
Although not exhaustive, we should make the effort to look at DEI and answer some of the questions that surround it. A generation of children is being exposed to DEI in public education, and we are paying for it.
Diversity, on its face, seems fair, stating that all human differences should be represented in the workforce. This includes differences such as religion, ethnicity, creed, sex, gender, and more. Should they be represented equally? Is that practical? Affirmative action was implemented to enhance Afro-American representation, primarily in education, government, and the workplace. Historically, jobs and academic slots have been assigned based on merit, not race. How has that worked? Today, the federal government employs 16.6% Afro-Americans, while only 12.6% are in the population, a 32% overrepresentation. Affirmative action may lead to biased selection against merit. It has nothing to do with civil rights. Diversity can result in broadening discrimination against merit.
Equity means acknowledging "structural inequality" that advantages some and disadvantages others, and to compensate for this classroom equality of opportunity, equity requires ill-defined compensation allocated to those whose circumstances are not equal. Once again discriminating against merit. Indeed, we all don't start in life equally; however, rewarding to equalize without performance, a deviation from equal opportunity, another veiled assault on merit? If so, what is lost, and who makes the decisions? Politicians? Teachers? Not the marketplace based on performance. Selection by an anointed group or person to equality rather than offering merit-based compensation on achievement will irreversibly change the present imperfect but efficient system of equal opportunity.
Inclusion strives to develop an inclusive culture so that all voices are heard. This is applied to the LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender) community, which is less than a half percent of the population but growing. By latching onto inclusion, this group states they are underrepresented in the workplace, particularly at more senior levels.
Merit-based selection, in school or on the job, should only discriminate on the basis of merit relating to schoolwork or job work. Is DEI a concealed attack on our merit-based system? If so, why?
In America, the pillars of our Judeo-Christian culture rest on self-responsibility and bearing the consequences of our own decisions. Discrimination based on merit in both jobs and schools fosters an environment of individual selection, individual reward, or penalty. The responsibility for a decision and the consequence is borne by the individual. This dispersion of decision-making has fostered hope and opportunity, resulting in wealth creation and independence.
Is DEI connected to Wokeness or Critical Race Theory? If so, how? How does DEI relate to victimhood and privilege? Both are associated with Critical Theory (CT). Are these elements of a new and upcoming national philosophy? If so, will it change our culture, for better or worse? The heart of our open free enterprise system is merit-based on the freedom to choose. DEI at every step attacks this elemental principle and is consistent with both critical theory and wokeness. Both wokeness and critical theory use determinism, thinking human actions are predetermined and do not believe in freedom of choice or that an individual should accept the consequences of their choices, both good and bad.
By reducing merit-based decisions in school, government, and work, DEI further undermines individual hope and subsequent opportunity, pillars of free choice. DEI allows less able people to assume a position non-competitively based on race, sexual preference, ethnicity, or religious beliefs. Requirements for the job and competition for the job become nondeterminate. The new hire may have nothing to do with the job's work requirements.
American citizens have every reason to be disturbed with school administrators, teachers, politicians, or businesses that profess to adopt DEI. We should demand very specific accountability on how DEI is being implemented: in hiring, grading, down to the books in our schools and public libraries. On the surface, words like diversity, equity, and inclusion seem positive, warm, and fuzzy, words that bring people together.
If that is true, why are the DEI groups on college campuses sponsoring antisemitic acts? Why are 60% of the hate crimes committed against Jews, who are 2% of the population, and many are sponsored by the same people advocating DEI? Why?
If DEI is not an attack on our merit-based system, why have achievement scores in K-12 dropped so dramatically? Why have some Ivy League schools stopped requiring standardized tests for admission? Why have public schools, the most expensive in the world, sunk to 37th ranking in math on the international PISA test?
DEI should not be confused with the righteous civil rights movement when it's against equal rights and for preferential allocation and treatment of material. DEI is destructive to our efforts to reward merit in school, athletics, and business. Unambiguous merit-based reward has given clarity to our hopes and aspirations and defined in a fair and reasonable manner our opportunities. DEI is a well-hidden effort to upend our basic open system of merit-based opportunity. People should be very wary of its false representations! I call it DIE.
Have a blessed week!
Tony Christ