What do we really mean by ‘diversity, equity and inclusion’?
The Hill | ROBERT MARANTO, MICHAEL MILLS AND CATHERINE SALMON
Authors Maranto, Mills and Salmon raise alarms around lack of debate or room for dissent around the infiltration of DEI into every major institution. “With rapidity and stealth, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) ideology has come to replace the classical liberal values of merit, fairness and equality (MFE) in the academy, professional organizations, media, government and large technology companies…This is a significant cultural and ideological revolution, one that has been accomplished with almost no debate or operationalization of terminology…”
They write of the “statements of allegiance to DEI” now required in faculty hiring, pointing out that “litmus tests are traditionally associated with totalitarian regimes and, in America, with McCarthyism. We all know how well those turned out…”
“The unexamined acceptance of DEI…is surprising in a free society where critics are encouraged to challenge and debate significant social changes. The time for a national debate over the conflicting values of DEI and MFE is long overdue.”
The authors point to Harvard alum Dorian Abbot’s MFE, or Merit, Fairness and Equality as a viable alternative that deserves consideration through debate. “DEI backers with institutional power show no enthusiasm for defending their ideas in real debates,” however, and “without vigorous open and civil debate, DEI bureaucracies will continue to impose doctrinal training programs, litmus tests, censorship and discrimination. Unless this is challenged, we risk entering a new era of institutionalized McCarthyism.”
