Ending DEI

 Is DEI what’s really undermining our National Unity?

“Hard-working Americans who deserve a shot at the American dream should not be stigmatized, demeaned, or shut out of opportunities because of their race or sex” (page 2)

Well, maybe not ALL hardworking Americans… I bring up President Trump's recent ban on transgender people serving in the military because, in my opinion, this ban contradicts his Executive Order to end “illegal discrimination”. The executive order does very little to uphold civil rights and create equal opportunity among American citizens who are actually experiencing discrimination. Members of the LGBTQ+ community commonly experience discrimination like this, whether it be from local governments legislating their daily lives, like what bathrooms they can use, or religious institutions/individuals legally denying them service.

The fact that President Trump is supposedly fighting to end illegal discrimination with this EO (executive order) while also banning transgender military members and firing existing trans members is wild to me. To quote his EO “Americans should not be stigmatized, demeaned or shut out of opportunities,” but here is a quote from Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth in the article linked here

“No More Trans @ DoD,” Hegseth wrote in a post on X. Earlier in the day, before the court acted, Hegseth said that his department is leaving wokeness and weakness behind.

“No more pronouns,” he told a special operations forces conference in Tampa. “No more dudes in dresses. We’re done with that s—.”

Referring to trans people as “dudes and dresses” sounds pretty demeaning and stigmatizing to me. In my opinion, this EO plays into the fear of white Americans that they are being hurt by DEI or Affirmative action, by either getting passed up on job opportunities or that jobs are going to unworthy applicants because of their race. Maybe this is a real issue, maybe it isn’t. I don’t know if we have the evidence to prove either way. What I do know is that the true goal of this EO is to attack the progressive ideology around DEI and not to create equality. 

“Excise references to DEI and DEIA principles, under whatever name they may appear,

from federal acquisition, contracting, grants, and financial assistance procedures, to

streamline those procedures, improve speed, and efficiency, lower cost, and comply

with civil rights laws“ (c ii page3)

From my understanding here the aim is to erase all “DEI principles” from anywhere in the federal government.

To me this seems like putting the blinders on or sticking our heads in the sand when it comes to equity. If we are

no longer providing grants to research equity and diversity, and we just stop looking into it, how will we know

if there is any progress? There are many parallels you could draw to this and the Colorblindness reading from

Armstrong and Wildman, which states, “The failure to acknowledge racial reality in the United States reinforces

and solidifies existing racial inequality and white privilege.”

Additionally, I found it interesting in Section 4 how explicit the plan was to target the private sector and non-profits

if they didn’t comply by getting rid of their DEI principles or programs. One of my friends works for Walmart in

data, and I remember that after the election, he was concerned when the company notified them it was canceling

all of its DEI practices. It seems that many companies anticipated this crackdown and abandoned their DEI

programs to avoid potential consequences.

We know so far in higher ed, the Trump administration is trying to go after universities like Harvard, and who

knows how successful they will be in getting colleges and universities to change their DEI programs, practices,

and even curriculum. Affirmative Action has already been struck down for almost two years now, so it seems

like they must be reaching to eliminate it in all forms from campuses (war on an ideology). It is uncertain how

this will affect K-12 public education. Who knows if Title 1 spending for underserved populations, urban or rural,

will be deemed illegal or wasteful? Time will tell