D.E.I. Has Backfired---Miserably

After a decade and a quarter of a billion dollars later, students and faculty are expressing more frustration than ever: The New York Times Magazine is asking what went wrong with diversity, equity, and inclusion (D.E.I).

When even the ultra-left propagandist New York Times (NYT) is reporting the destructive failures of a leftist ideology, it says something.

This week, the Times acknowledged that the left’s beloved Diversity, Equity, Inclusion (DEI) movement is having the exact opposite effect of its Leftist, Marxist goals.

Secular "progressivism" is based on nothing more than changing, evolving truths.

Jesus called it "building your house on the sand."

Here's how millions of lives have been negatively changed while millions more have been misled.

Be informed, not misled.

In its piece, “The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong?” The Times examines “the largest D.E.I. bureaucracy of any big public university,” exposing the utter failures of the school’s DEI programs.

The Times notes that instead of fostering a campus where students from all cultural backgrounds gather to hold hands and interact respectfully, the university’s program—now in its second iteration (dubbed D.E.I. 2.0)—has produced self-defeating consequences.

Media Research Council has identified the ways in which the New York Times identifies the ways the University of Michigan's DEI program has failed:

• Inclusivity has declined: “[S]tudents were less likely to interact with people of a different race or religion or with different politics.”
• Minority students have become “less likely to report ‘feelings of being valued, belonging, personal growth and thriving.'”
• Students’ assessment of the mood on campus has deteriorated.
• [E]veryday campus complaints and academic disagreements…now cast as crises of inclusion and harm, each demanding some further administrative intervention or expansion.”
• Complaints of perceived offenses from years earlier, such as a student quoting a Supreme Court decision, are being dredged up and investigated.
• Faculty probing each student’s specific “attractionality,” a practice threatening violation of students’ privacy.

You would think that one of America's most prestigious universities would have the class to admit something isn't working, say so, and adapt to a new direction. As Kamala Harris likes to say, "Turn the page."

Oh, no. As The Times reports, the university has remained undaunted, choosing to double down on its DEI crusade instead of correcting course to better serve its students.

Ideology is more important than students, much like the political ideology of the Left is more important than "we the people."

In June, USA Today said, "DEI is unraveling at our universities. Good riddance to a failed and divisive bureaucracy."

"Compelling future faculty or students to profess adherence to a set of controversial beliefs goes against the very nature of higher education."

USA Today said, "It’s worth questioning what is motivating so many young people to embrace such blatant antisemitism – earning them the praise of actual terrorists."

Good question. The answer is simple. We'll get to it in a minute.

USA Today said, "One of the common denominators seems to be the ideology of 'diversity, equity and inclusion' (DEI) that has become increasingly entrenched in higher education." 

They said, "These ugly protests have shed light on what is going on at our U.S. campuses – and what college students have been learning."

"Luckily, state legislatures and governors are pushing back against DEI. And some universities are even revisiting DEI policies on their own accord."

Last year, Jonathan Butcher wrote an article that appeared in both The Washington Times and the Heritage Foundation publication, calling for education to abandon DEI.

These are the key takeaways from the article:

• DEI offices accomplish little more than producing bureaucratic sound and fury on the taxpayers’ dime.

The racial problems in schools remain “astronomical,” according to federal officials. So why do they think we need more of the same DEI?

They should opt for something different—lessons on the shared American values of equality under the law, freedom, and opportunity.

• School districts across the country have established diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices to reduce discrimination, and the Department of Education regularly touts the value of DEI programs to quell bias.

Yet nationwide, school officials reported a “record number” of discrimination complaints last year.

How can this be?

In truth, studies show that DEI offices accomplish little more than producing a lot of bureaucratic sound and fury on the taxpayers' dime.

Some of the complaints came from parents of children with special needs who reported that schools neglected their children during the pandemic. But that didn’t keep The New York Times from blaming conservative lawmakers who, the newspaper’s report asserted, “rolled back civil rights protections” by rejecting the bias and discrimination inherent in DEI programs inspired by critical race theory.

The number of complaints logged in 2022 (approximately 19,000) is some 19% higher than the record number reported in 2016—the year before former President Donald Trump took office. Yet DEI efforts were already well underway then.

Butcher says, "Yet despite the reports and new money, the racial problems in schools remain “astronomical,” according to federal officials. So why do they think we need more of the same DEI?"

“Anti-racist” literature and equity projects want us to see racism in everything, making it harder to decide what actions are biased and deserve a response. If we accept the 'astronomical' numbers are authentic, then—given the prevalence of DEI programs for many years—we have to question these programs’ value."

He says, "Research has already shown that (1) diversity training programs have failed to improve attitudes and behaviors for years, and (2) attempts to reduce bias through measuring just how much each of us has stored away in the recesses of our mind have been a spectacular bust. Anthropology Now reports that “hundreds of studies dating back to the 1930s suggest that anti-bias training doesn’t reduce bias.”

More recent studies reviewing hundreds of surveys of bias-training participants finds “weak immediate effects on unconscious bias and weaker effects on implicit bias.” Consultants Rik Kirkland and Iris Bohnet at McKinsey & Co. wrote that, after reviewing diversity research from all over the world, they “did not find a single study that found that diversity training in fact leads to more diversity.”

Butcher writes, "Evidence on DEI programs’ effectiveness is not missing. The research demonstrates failure. Teachers, parents and students do not need lawmakers to reinforce these efforts, Rather, they should opt for something different—say, lessons on the shared American values of equality under the law, freedom and opportunity."

Equality or Equity? 

A couple of months ago Christopher Rufo wrote in City Journal, "The idea of public universities in the United States originally rested on a compact between the citizen and the republic. The agreement was that the citizen would provide funding for the university in order to train young people to advance the public interest and the common good. In recent years, however, this compact has shattered, and considerable efforts will be needed to rebuild it."

He said, "The clearest expression of what has gone wrong is DEI. At first glance, a commitment to “diversity, equity, and inclusion” might seem laudable. But DEI employs a propagandistic language to conceal its real intentions. It is, in fact, the opposite of what it appears to be."

He continued: Equity. The immediate association is with the principle of equality. But equity is actually a radically opposed idea. Equality is the principle that every man or woman should be judged as an individual, neither punished nor rewarded based on ancestry. Equity demands the opposite: categorizing individuals into group identities and assigning disparate treatment to members of those groups, seeking to 'equalize' what would otherwise be considered unjust outcomes."

In practice, this means that members of certain groups are favored, and others are disfavored: in short, inequality is justified under the ideology of “equity.”

Takeaway

Equality means equal opportunity.

Equity means equal outcome.

Christianity is the light in the darkness of secular progressivism.

Every person on this planet, regardless of color, race, education, prosperous or poor, has the opportunity of equal access to the God who created us through Jesus Christ.

All have equal access to accepting Jesus Christ as their personal Savior, to receiving forgiveness for sin, and to the promise of eternal life. None are denied.

Please consider the opportunity.

Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.