DEI is the acronym for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Sometimes you hear DEIB, where the B is for belonging. Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging.
To be clear, offices of DEIB in education and business attempt to educate the community and to create environments that are responsive to the unique needs of historically underrepresented students and employees, this includes age, ethnicity, gender, physical ability, race, religious beliefs, sexuality, and veteran or military status. Not just black folks.
Over the past few years DEI and B have turned into a slur, an attack, particularly for those of us not White, male, or heterosexual. DEI hire, for instance, has replaced the antiquated term affirmative action hire, continuing a biased signal that folks from historically marginalized communities are not actually qualified, capable, or deserving.
For example, Vice President Kamala Harris has been framed as a DEI hire by former president Donald Trump and his surrogates. Most notably, on July 31 at the National Association of Black Journalists, former president Donald Trump questioned whether Vice President Harris is black, claiming that he didn’t know and thought she was Indian American. Pundits say that Mr. Trump is in a panic because he doesn’t know how to engage a strong Black woman. So rather than attack her policies, he attacks her identity.
These realities reinforce the question of why DEIB initiatives are needed. Terms and ideas like biracial, intersecting identities, and cultural competence help explain the reality of identity for millions of Americans that see themselves as both/and. You would think in a pluralistic society, these are values to embrace rather than slurs to weaponize. It is past time to embrace our humanity in all its complexity rather than dismissing it. And DEIB can help in that goal.
I am Joseph Flynn, and that is my perspective.
