As Ed pointed out this morning, the incoming Trump administration has hit the ground running when it comes to rollbacks of federal DEI efforts and affirmative action. Today, CNN decided an explainer was in order and published a story titled “What is DEI, and why is it dividing America?” Here’s CNN’s explanation:
Among seven DEI experts and industry leaders CNN has interviewed, most had a shared vision for what constitutes the concept:
- Diversity is embracing the differences everyone brings to the table, whether those are someone’s race, age, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability or other aspects of social identity.
- Equity is treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities.
- Inclusion is respecting everyone’s voice and creating a culture in which people from all backgrounds feel encouraged to express their ideas and perspectives.
DEI was created because marginalized communities have not always had equal opportunities for jobs or felt a sense of belonging in majority-White corporate settings, said Daniel Oppong, founder of The Courage Collective, a consultancy that advises companies on DEI.
So in order to find out what DEI is they simply asked people who make a living off DEI seminars. Hence you get these anodyne answers like “Equity is treating everyone fairly and providing equal opportunities.”
But that is not at all how equity is defined. At best it’s a slick way to avoid discussing the underlying issue. Here’s an alternative definition picked at random from many similar ones available online. There is a difference between equality and equity:
Equality aims to give all team members the same access to resources and opportunity. To oversimplify, equality means that all employees should be treated the same.
Equity acknowledges differences and obstacles that certain groups or individuals face, and attempts to level the playing field. Achieving an equitable outcome may required prioritizing some groups over others.
Looking back at what CNN described, they offered a definition for equality, not for equity. The definition of equity necessarily implies that some people have a racial disadvantage which has to be remedied by giving them more than other groups. In other words, some kind of affirmative action is a necessary part of equity to resolve preexisting inequity. It’s not about equal opportunities but about equal outcomes. Ibram Kendi has been very blunt about this. In his view, any demographic disadvantage is proof of racism by those holding an advantage. All of this is wrapped up in the concept of equity.
Eventually, CNN does give DEI critics a few paragraphs to offer objections.
“These are not neutral programs to increase demographic diversity; they are political programs that use taxpayer resources to advance a specific partisan orthodoxy,” outspoken DEI critic Christopher Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, wrote in a 2023 New York Times op-ed.
Indeed, the ideology behind DEI is “fundamentally anti-American,” said Ryan P. Williams, president of The Claremont Institute, a conservative think tank.
“The words that the acronym ‘DEI’ represent sound nice, but it is nothing more than affirmative action and racial preferences by a different name, a system that features racial headcounts and arbitrarily assigned roles of ‘oppressor’ and ‘oppressed’ groups in America,” Williams said in an emailed statement. “If we continue to do democracy this way, it will only end in acrimony, strife, resentment, and American collapse.”
But you can’t help but notice the framing. A story titled “What is DEI?” presents the bland and intentionally misleading claims of DEI professionals as an answer to that question and only near the end of the story notes that not everyone agrees.
Here I have to give some credit to Vox which published their own explainer about Trump’s DEI moves. And while I’m sure everyone who works there fully supports DEI, the story they published comes a lot closer to a fair presentation of both sides of the argument.
DEI is, broadly, efforts at companies, universities, and other institutions to manage their internal cultures on identity-related matters, from hiring to workplace policies. Its supporters say DEI is necessary to combat bias and ensure employees of underrepresented backgrounds feel comfortable and supported. Its critics argue say it often crosses the line into speech policing and advances a progressive political agenda that conservatives don’t share.
Trump’s legal justification for all this is his claim that DEI programs or race- and sex-based preferences can violate civil rights laws — he claims that they often amount to illegal discrimination (the implication being: discrimination against whites, Asian Americans, and men when they do not receive such preferences). The order argues that “individual merit, aptitude, hard work, and determination” — not race or sex — should matter.
CNN ought to be able to put together an article that does more than repeat the talking points of DEI trainers as truth. There is plenty of evidence that DEI is much more than just a shorthand for fairness and that DEI training doesn’t work and may actually be counterproductive. But of course you’re not going to get any of that if all you do is ask the cultists for their take on the dogma.
