Most Americans are all for diversity, equity and inclusion. But Diversity, Equity and Inclusion programs have proved to be about nothing but rank racism.
So Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was pretty on-point last week, in the run-up to announcing his presidential bid, when he defunded DEI programs at public colleges and universities across the Sunshine State, joining Republican legislatures and govs from Ohio to Texas.
Just look at how corrosively toxic DEI efforts prove in practice:
- Faculty at the University of California/San Francisco’s medical school recently produced a journal article endorsing racial segregation in education as “part of a broader antiracism and anti-oppression curriculum.”
- In its official glossary, the University of Central Florida designates “male, white, heterosexual, financially stable, young-middle adult, able-bodied, Christian” as oppressors.
- A student house near Berkeley forbid white people from common spaces to allegedly provide a “safe environment for people who identify as People of Color.”
- In Arizona, DEI statements — in which applicants swear fealty to the movement’s principles — are required for between 28% and 81% of job openings at public universities.
- The State University of New York has instituted a requirement that all students (no matter their majors) pass a racial-equity course on “power, privilege, oppression and opportunity.”
- A survey by the nonprofit Speech First found a shocking 91% of schools push far left ideas on “microaggressions, anti-racism, trigger warnings, bias, racial equity” in their freshman orientation material. No wonder more than 80% of college kids, per speech-rights outfit FIRE, “report self-censoring their viewpoints at their colleges at least some of the time.”
- And the movement eats its own: De Anza Community College fired a high-ranking DEI official for insufficient zeal, with colleagues absurdly calling the black woman a white supremacist.
Our nation is premised on the idea that all people are created equal.
And, given the dazzling array of races, creeds and religions it plays home to, a culture that emphasizes what we have in common over what divides us is a pragmatic necessity (as well as a moral good).
That’s precisely what DEI attacks, by creating a hyperconsciousness of race founded in exaggerated grievances. It identifies whites as the enemy of everyone non-white, disparages meritocracy, and blames gaps in achievement exclusively on racist “systemic” forces.
The name DEI, of course, is pure Orwell: These ideas foster only homogeneity of thought, inequity and exclusion — alienating Americans from each other and poisoning our politics.
That DEI is a $9 billion industry only makes the whole movement all the uglier.
Though it does explain the endless howls of outrage about the public-money cutoff: The gravy train is leaving the station.
In short, DEI is a cynical grift that’s minted a new batch of millionaires while hurting the nation and deepening racial divisions.
What DeSantis & Co are doing is the only sensible way forward — on ending the scam and healing the country.
This story originally appeared on NYPost
