A real-time database of efforts to scale back diversity, equity and inclusion in private and public sectors
Diversity, in theory, means a combination of our unique difference. Sadly, in reality, it has become equivalent with calls for proportional representation, quotas and thought conformity. Equity supposedly is the idea that everyone gets what they need. The dictionary definition of equity is justice according to natural law. In practice, equity carries many political connotations, all of which derive from a virtue-signaling and counterproductive search for sweeping policy solutions to perceived social and racial injustices. To put it in simpler terms, equity means equal outcomes. Inclusion is another euphemism, the benign meaning of which has been thoroughly corrupted by dogma. Inclusion in practice leads to exclusion of different viewpoints and in certain cases, censorship. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) is both a sociocultural sensation and a lucrative business.
At its height around 2021, virtually every university, every school, every large corporation, every government agency, and every scientific society had a diversity, equity and inclusion program, department or office. Their directives and policies were always imposed from above. DEI missions were never subject to a vote or referendum by all the individuals who will be affected by them or required to implement them. A primary political motive driving the diversity agenda is the strong antipathy of establishment elites for the letter and spirit of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the constitutional principle of equal protection. These do not deliver quick results. So, race, sex and gender preferences are engineered under the disingenuous label of equity. Our most fundamental civil rights laws end up being increasingly violated in all our public institutions and many private ones as well.
In recent years, heterodox intellectuals, advocates, activists and policy reformers have embarked on endeavors to expose, challenge and blunt the moral bankruptcy and legal issues inherent in the DEI orthodoxy. Starting in 2022, many state legislatures have passed bills to prohibit mandatory DEI litmus tests in higher education. More recently, the private sector has joined the course correcting, with a growing number of companies abolishing their various DEI functions. It is still too early to tell if the movement to scale back DEI is going to be sufficient for the bigger goal of reclaiming our founding principles of equality, freedom and merit from the illiberal dogmas represented by DEI. Many DEI practitioners have simply gone in the stealth mode with trickier alternatives. Legislative bans and legal challenges must be sustained by cultural, normative and other institutional changes. But for now, the “Defund DEI” movement answers to the urgent need for course-correcting.
The list below summarizes developments in the “Defund DEI” movement and will be updated regularly.
List updated on 09/12/2024
Contact CFER at info@cferfoundation.org with similar developments/stories.