This is exactly what is happening at my school -- the positions are renamed but no DEI-peddlers were fired. The dean of DEI has become the dean of Academic Culture and Well-being. The DEI team was renamed into Culture Team while keeping their job descriptions and their pronouns. The university updated our "shared values" by removing the explicit mention of DEI, but keeping the sentiment the same. A memo explaining the change has clarified "that our values remain unchanged, we just found more precise language to express them." If you want more examples -- check out Hx@USC susbtack, which continues to document this shell-game: https://heterodoxatusc.substack.com/p/whats-in-a-name-not-dei-anymore
Even more frustrating is that our university has instituted austerity measures (in response to anticipated federal funding crunch) -- and while these measures include hiring freezes of faculty, staff, and graduate students, no DEI loons were fired.
Document theses activities of, say, the top 10 most egregious. Then cut ALL federal funding to each of those schools. Then document the next 10, and so on.
My college is like all the rest - they change the names but not the (harmful) attitudes and actions. I take heart in seeing more and more undergrads rejecting this ideology. Here are some of the comments I have heard from students (paraphrased):
* diversity is only skin deep - they are inclusive to everyone who thinks and acts the same as they do, no matter outward appearance.
* I am offended that faculty offer automatic extensions of deadlines to people of my ethnicity because that means they think we are inferior... but unlike overt racists, they expect gratitude.
* everyone (of my ethnicity) who is given a higher grade devalues the high grades that I earned.
* My family did not come to America to have it bent to our old culture, we came here in pursuit of the American culture.
Maybe we need to spread the word that not all targeted ethnicities appreciate being targeted by DEI?
The problem is they don't care. There's a huge amount of what I call class privilege baked into DEI (which if I recall they originally called Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity until someone noticed the acronym). They know what's best for you. Period. Only they can see the supposed discrimination (and expect others to give something up while remaining snug in their privileged positions). At a prior workplace we had some buffoon with an advanced degree "presenting" on history (he wouldn't know history if it ran over him in a steam locomotive, but that's another story), and he couldn't help bragging about all the "disadvantaged minorities" he had working in his project. He sounded so condescending and patronizing it was insane, but he had zero clue. "Look at me! I'm so special because I hire all these minorities!"
At the core is they know what's best for you, and the fact you can't recognize their superior knowledge indicates you've been somehow discriminated against. And they don't discriminate: they enlighten and elevate those who they think can't do it themselves. And then when they gather at Starbucks they can brag about how many people of X identity they elevated today. It's pathetic.
They do not care. That is why we need their target communities to see what they are doing to their children. When underserved communities start demanding quality education instead of DEI then these guys won't have a leg to stand on. They justify their ideology in the name of the underserved... a community they are not serving well.
Note: DEI educators will not give up easily because this ideology allows them to be lazy, cowardly and sanctimonious.
If the goal is to provide an equitable education instead of a quality education they need not actually teach - which is hard - they only need to give out all A's and B's - which is easy.
If the ideology builds in exceptions and exemptions for cultures (real and imaginary) then educators can avoid uncomfortable conversations involving constructive criticism. Instead of being ashamed of lowering standards by caving to student requests, the DEI crowd can brag about 'honoring student cultures.'
Also, a lot of educators are really, really bad - they can't do nor can they teach - but they can DEI like crazy and be proud of it. In fact, they do. How many faculty boast endlessly about how much work they put into making classes equitable for students? They omit any mention of how well their classes teach and prepare students to succeed.
We need to get the word out: equitable but bad is still bad.
The challenge here is what you saw with the Asian-American community...DEI people will simply declare them "white-adjacent" (whatever that's supposed to mean) and "part of the problem." Standards, after all, are a tool of white supremacy and colonialism. I agree 100% with you that it shouldn't be this way, yet it is.
Just looking at the outcomes of (to name one example) the Chicago public school system should be a ringing indictment of the failure of both DEI and teachers' unions that abandon their membership in the name of self-aggrandizement. Sadly, it's never really mentioned.
The challenge is also part of the solution. Certainly the DEI-ists are too invested in their ideology to be open to change - like all religious zealots - but their victims, I mean target communities, have not drunk the Kool-Aid and will eventually see DEI for what it is. As more and more communities realize that DEI is nonsense and even harmful to their kids, they will start to demand schools do their job and actually teach kids.
The trick is to reveal to these communities that DEI-ists are harming the next generation (Note: children of privilege have resources to mitigate the harm through tutors, private school, etc - so DEI may be perpetuating inequality in America!). We cannot wait for the Media-Academia syndicate to cover this honestly. We must help spread the word of folks who have addressed this - folks like Glenn Loury, John McWorter, Thomas Sowell, etc.
I concur with other comments of yours and will add:
The notion that standards are a tool of white supremacy works in academia but not in the blue collar world. People in the trades have more appreciation for quality & standards than the ivory tower does. After all, it is easier to ignore a terribly written journal article than a collapsed bridge. (Spurning the value of standards & quality tells us much about academia ... maybe too much).
Evidence won't sway DEI True Believers anymore than it would sway a religious zealot. DEI-ists claim evidence-based reasoning is a tool of White Supremacy, too. They have constructed an ideology that is impervious to reason and evidence. We have to wait until everyone else in the country can see them for what they are: fools with a White Knight Syndrome.
We cannot sway the DEI-ists but once the fad passes DEI will wind up an historical curiosity like Erhard Seminars Training... and people will look back on it and ask "What were we _thinking_?"
Banning DEI at the federal level was a necessary first step, but it will be just as necessary to sue the offending parties for the practice of DEI relabeled as some other effort. Moreover, litigants have to sue before a Democrat president gets elected and reverses the orders. To paraphrase Ibram Kendi, it's not enough not to do DEI, you have to be actively anti-DEI.
That's an excellent way to put it! Anti-DEI efforts must be thoroughly cemented into law and culture such that DEI becomes toxic to anyone who dares to touch it.
Same at the art museum where I work. Director of DEI just changed her title and is full steam ahead with ideology. Unsurprising, but disheartening nonetheless.
I am the kind of person who has traditionally donated to universities and art museums. I have halted all of that for the foreseeable future. I will also not patronize museums where legitimate exhibits have been replaced by woke nonsense. I will not take my kids to them or get memberships. They of course will likely not notice the lack of my funds or involvement, but if there are, say, 100,000 of my type out there they may start to see the pattern.
I now donate my money to groups like FAIR instead.
Totally understand and think that is a good decision to withhold donations though it pains me to hear it because art museums are being ceded to DEI proponents. The beautiful and rich experiences people can have standing in front of unique works of art created throughout time and around the world is being stunted by those who insist we see and interpret art through the DEI lens all the time everywhere. It is a narrow and limiting perspective and the bullying nature of current culture chases away many people who now miss experiencing the art altogether. Museums are losing visitors and are scrambling to increase it. If enough visitors told them to stop telling them what to think in front of a work of art, that would be meaningful. Please don't stop taking your children to our great museums; but maybe tell them not to bother reading the didactic labels and leave a comment card on your way out to let them know how you feel.
Great essay Ryan. 2024-25 has been one of the worst years of my career in preK-12 education because administrators who are true believers in Critical Social Justice activism still have their jobs and are still forcing their ideology on everyone; if you won’t comply, they simply fire you.
Some of DEI's biggest cheerleaders are some of the biggest hypocrites when it comes to DEI. Take HR they love to wax on about the importance of DEI but the moment someone points out to HR their lack of DEI HR gets awfully quiet and wants to change the subject.
Thank you so much for publishing this, FAIR! I love working with you and I can't wait to contribute more articles in the future. For those reading this, keep up the fight, keep up the pressure. The battle for our institutions has only just begun.
there need to be laws registering DEI (wokeness, etc., under whatever name) as a religion. Even against its will. Because then, all the existing laws that prevent religion from being a factor in schools, hiring, etc. (except in special protected carve-outs) will apply, without the need for far more complicated jurisprudence.
Despite widespread claims of the demise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, many institutions are simply rebranding rather than eliminating them. Universities like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have cut DEI positions but reassigned staff and redirected funds toward programs labeled “Student Success” or “Professional Development,” which continue to promote the same cultural competence training and discussions on microaggressions. Similarly, the University of Oklahoma renamed its DEI office the “Division of Access and Opportunity,” and the University of Louisville rebranded its DEI office as the “Office of Institutional Equity,” preserving the underlying agenda under new names. Corporations such as Eli Lilly have removed explicit “racial justice” language from public documents but still tie executive pay to diversity goals and maintain internal DEI commitments, while companies like Pfizer, Microsoft, Apple, and Starbucks continue robust DEI programming despite legal and political pressures. Even professional organizations like SHRM have shifted conference titles from “DEI” to “Inclusion” without altering their focus. This pattern of linguistic and structural adaptation shows that DEI is not disappearing but evolving to remain, obfusticating language and new acronyms while continuing to embed the same race-divisive policies and trainings.
I can assure you as a blue state liberal prof, its doubling down...nothing has changed.
Still censored, still run by radical ideologues. People aren't stupid. We need oversight. Fair, but really. Otherwise its more waste and hatred.
This is exactly what is happening at my school -- the positions are renamed but no DEI-peddlers were fired. The dean of DEI has become the dean of Academic Culture and Well-being. The DEI team was renamed into Culture Team while keeping their job descriptions and their pronouns. The university updated our "shared values" by removing the explicit mention of DEI, but keeping the sentiment the same. A memo explaining the change has clarified "that our values remain unchanged, we just found more precise language to express them." If you want more examples -- check out Hx@USC susbtack, which continues to document this shell-game: https://heterodoxatusc.substack.com/p/whats-in-a-name-not-dei-anymore
Even more frustrating is that our university has instituted austerity measures (in response to anticipated federal funding crunch) -- and while these measures include hiring freezes of faculty, staff, and graduate students, no DEI loons were fired.
Document theses activities of, say, the top 10 most egregious. Then cut ALL federal funding to each of those schools. Then document the next 10, and so on.
My college is like all the rest - they change the names but not the (harmful) attitudes and actions. I take heart in seeing more and more undergrads rejecting this ideology. Here are some of the comments I have heard from students (paraphrased):
* diversity is only skin deep - they are inclusive to everyone who thinks and acts the same as they do, no matter outward appearance.
* I am offended that faculty offer automatic extensions of deadlines to people of my ethnicity because that means they think we are inferior... but unlike overt racists, they expect gratitude.
* everyone (of my ethnicity) who is given a higher grade devalues the high grades that I earned.
* My family did not come to America to have it bent to our old culture, we came here in pursuit of the American culture.
Maybe we need to spread the word that not all targeted ethnicities appreciate being targeted by DEI?
The problem is they don't care. There's a huge amount of what I call class privilege baked into DEI (which if I recall they originally called Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity until someone noticed the acronym). They know what's best for you. Period. Only they can see the supposed discrimination (and expect others to give something up while remaining snug in their privileged positions). At a prior workplace we had some buffoon with an advanced degree "presenting" on history (he wouldn't know history if it ran over him in a steam locomotive, but that's another story), and he couldn't help bragging about all the "disadvantaged minorities" he had working in his project. He sounded so condescending and patronizing it was insane, but he had zero clue. "Look at me! I'm so special because I hire all these minorities!"
At the core is they know what's best for you, and the fact you can't recognize their superior knowledge indicates you've been somehow discriminated against. And they don't discriminate: they enlighten and elevate those who they think can't do it themselves. And then when they gather at Starbucks they can brag about how many people of X identity they elevated today. It's pathetic.
Yes!!
They do not care. That is why we need their target communities to see what they are doing to their children. When underserved communities start demanding quality education instead of DEI then these guys won't have a leg to stand on. They justify their ideology in the name of the underserved... a community they are not serving well.
Note: DEI educators will not give up easily because this ideology allows them to be lazy, cowardly and sanctimonious.
If the goal is to provide an equitable education instead of a quality education they need not actually teach - which is hard - they only need to give out all A's and B's - which is easy.
If the ideology builds in exceptions and exemptions for cultures (real and imaginary) then educators can avoid uncomfortable conversations involving constructive criticism. Instead of being ashamed of lowering standards by caving to student requests, the DEI crowd can brag about 'honoring student cultures.'
Also, a lot of educators are really, really bad - they can't do nor can they teach - but they can DEI like crazy and be proud of it. In fact, they do. How many faculty boast endlessly about how much work they put into making classes equitable for students? They omit any mention of how well their classes teach and prepare students to succeed.
We need to get the word out: equitable but bad is still bad.
The challenge here is what you saw with the Asian-American community...DEI people will simply declare them "white-adjacent" (whatever that's supposed to mean) and "part of the problem." Standards, after all, are a tool of white supremacy and colonialism. I agree 100% with you that it shouldn't be this way, yet it is.
Just looking at the outcomes of (to name one example) the Chicago public school system should be a ringing indictment of the failure of both DEI and teachers' unions that abandon their membership in the name of self-aggrandizement. Sadly, it's never really mentioned.
The challenge is also part of the solution. Certainly the DEI-ists are too invested in their ideology to be open to change - like all religious zealots - but their victims, I mean target communities, have not drunk the Kool-Aid and will eventually see DEI for what it is. As more and more communities realize that DEI is nonsense and even harmful to their kids, they will start to demand schools do their job and actually teach kids.
The trick is to reveal to these communities that DEI-ists are harming the next generation (Note: children of privilege have resources to mitigate the harm through tutors, private school, etc - so DEI may be perpetuating inequality in America!). We cannot wait for the Media-Academia syndicate to cover this honestly. We must help spread the word of folks who have addressed this - folks like Glenn Loury, John McWorter, Thomas Sowell, etc.
I concur with other comments of yours and will add:
The notion that standards are a tool of white supremacy works in academia but not in the blue collar world. People in the trades have more appreciation for quality & standards than the ivory tower does. After all, it is easier to ignore a terribly written journal article than a collapsed bridge. (Spurning the value of standards & quality tells us much about academia ... maybe too much).
Evidence won't sway DEI True Believers anymore than it would sway a religious zealot. DEI-ists claim evidence-based reasoning is a tool of White Supremacy, too. They have constructed an ideology that is impervious to reason and evidence. We have to wait until everyone else in the country can see them for what they are: fools with a White Knight Syndrome.
We cannot sway the DEI-ists but once the fad passes DEI will wind up an historical curiosity like Erhard Seminars Training... and people will look back on it and ask "What were we _thinking_?"
Banning DEI at the federal level was a necessary first step, but it will be just as necessary to sue the offending parties for the practice of DEI relabeled as some other effort. Moreover, litigants have to sue before a Democrat president gets elected and reverses the orders. To paraphrase Ibram Kendi, it's not enough not to do DEI, you have to be actively anti-DEI.
That's an excellent way to put it! Anti-DEI efforts must be thoroughly cemented into law and culture such that DEI becomes toxic to anyone who dares to touch it.
Same at the art museum where I work. Director of DEI just changed her title and is full steam ahead with ideology. Unsurprising, but disheartening nonetheless.
I am the kind of person who has traditionally donated to universities and art museums. I have halted all of that for the foreseeable future. I will also not patronize museums where legitimate exhibits have been replaced by woke nonsense. I will not take my kids to them or get memberships. They of course will likely not notice the lack of my funds or involvement, but if there are, say, 100,000 of my type out there they may start to see the pattern.
I now donate my money to groups like FAIR instead.
Totally understand and think that is a good decision to withhold donations though it pains me to hear it because art museums are being ceded to DEI proponents. The beautiful and rich experiences people can have standing in front of unique works of art created throughout time and around the world is being stunted by those who insist we see and interpret art through the DEI lens all the time everywhere. It is a narrow and limiting perspective and the bullying nature of current culture chases away many people who now miss experiencing the art altogether. Museums are losing visitors and are scrambling to increase it. If enough visitors told them to stop telling them what to think in front of a work of art, that would be meaningful. Please don't stop taking your children to our great museums; but maybe tell them not to bother reading the didactic labels and leave a comment card on your way out to let them know how you feel.
Thank you, FAIR, for following this despicable situation. Congrats to the undergrads who see through this
Great essay Ryan. 2024-25 has been one of the worst years of my career in preK-12 education because administrators who are true believers in Critical Social Justice activism still have their jobs and are still forcing their ideology on everyone; if you won’t comply, they simply fire you.
And don't expect any support from a union if you are in one. Both NEA and AFT are fully on the DEI train, even if it hurts their own members.
Assimilation or Exile -- what a choice they give us!
This needs to stop. It’s insulting. People clearly voted it down.
It is happening all over the place, particularly in universities.
Linguistic shell games. I'm sure Orwell, from the grave, gets tired of all the winning he's still doing
Real systematic change must take place and soon. Parents, students, employees must demand it! Otherwise - let the lawsuits continue to commence.
Some of DEI's biggest cheerleaders are some of the biggest hypocrites when it comes to DEI. Take HR they love to wax on about the importance of DEI but the moment someone points out to HR their lack of DEI HR gets awfully quiet and wants to change the subject.
This is why DEI has failed.
And I will stay completely disinvested from Academe until they overhaul everything. My kids will need to pay for their own college if they want to go.
Thank you so much for publishing this, FAIR! I love working with you and I can't wait to contribute more articles in the future. For those reading this, keep up the fight, keep up the pressure. The battle for our institutions has only just begun.
there need to be laws registering DEI (wokeness, etc., under whatever name) as a religion. Even against its will. Because then, all the existing laws that prevent religion from being a factor in schools, hiring, etc. (except in special protected carve-outs) will apply, without the need for far more complicated jurisprudence.
Despite widespread claims of the demise of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives, many institutions are simply rebranding rather than eliminating them. Universities like the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have cut DEI positions but reassigned staff and redirected funds toward programs labeled “Student Success” or “Professional Development,” which continue to promote the same cultural competence training and discussions on microaggressions. Similarly, the University of Oklahoma renamed its DEI office the “Division of Access and Opportunity,” and the University of Louisville rebranded its DEI office as the “Office of Institutional Equity,” preserving the underlying agenda under new names. Corporations such as Eli Lilly have removed explicit “racial justice” language from public documents but still tie executive pay to diversity goals and maintain internal DEI commitments, while companies like Pfizer, Microsoft, Apple, and Starbucks continue robust DEI programming despite legal and political pressures. Even professional organizations like SHRM have shifted conference titles from “DEI” to “Inclusion” without altering their focus. This pattern of linguistic and structural adaptation shows that DEI is not disappearing but evolving to remain, obfusticating language and new acronyms while continuing to embed the same race-divisive policies and trainings.
https://universitybusiness.com/colleges-find-a-dei-makeover-is-a-useful-sidestep-for-now/