Idiots, Ideologues & DEI

Question: what is the worst thing you can accuse someone of in America – thievery, sexual harassment, murder, rape, serial killings, child molestation?  Well, I’ve never seen a poll but it strikes me that the worst thing you can call someone today is a racist because even the slightest hint of the  “R” word and the individual’s employment, social status, and reputation will be in immediate jeopardy, and is the reason there is so little pushback against Joe Biden’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies.

But let’s be crystal clear, DEI isn’t about equality of opportunity, rather it’s about equality of outcome.  And the methods DEI has used to squelch its opposition are not dissimilar from the Red Scare and McCarthyism of decades past.  And if a brave individual dares to challenge DEI, you can rest assured that “justice” will be swift, and the individual may find themselves unemployed, shunned by colleagues, cancelled, while placing both his or her career and social acceptance at risk.

Meanwhile, the DEI movement has also taken control of speech.  Certain speech is no longer permitted.  So-called “microaggressions” are treated like hate speech. “Trigger warnings” are required to protect students.  “Safe spaces” are necessary to protect students from the trauma inflicted by words that challenge the student’s world view.

~ Equality or Equity ~

Equality in a social or political sense means each individual or group of people have the same opportunities under the law, whereas equity acknowledges that each person has different circumstances, therefore, to reach equal outcomes, an allocation of resources & opportunities is needed.   But who does the allocating?  I’ll answer by first asking a couple of questions.  What does it mean for a society to be equal?  Does it mean everyone starts from the same point, or it that we all finishing at the same point?  Is it enough to give everyone a fair shot and may the best person win, or should we make sure everyone gets a ribbon just for participating?

Some argue that equality of opportunity has been de-railed by ‘social justice warriors’ in favor of equal outcomes, which they believe is fundamentally unfair.  Meanwhile those who argue for equality of outcome believe that systemic inequality prevents genuine equality of opportunity, and the only way to achieve equality of opportunity is through a more even distribution of wealth, diversity quotas or universal income.

The goal of ‘equality of outcome’ is to ensure people who are disadvantaged are making gains while the goal of those who favor ‘equal opportunity’ is to ensure that everyone has the same opportunities to make those gains.  In essence, equality of opportunity focuses on a level playing field, whereas equality of outcome is about overseeing results – and this is where DEI is at odds with what the Founders had in mind for this country.  The Founders never envisioned a government that redistributed wealth & status, which is why they gave us a Constitution and a Bill of Rights.

~ Where Does Diversity Fit In? ~

Recently a friend shared an excellent post on the subject of Biden’s DEI policies.  In it the author commented that the word diversity in its broadest sense means, diversity of viewpoints, politics, ethnicity, race, age, religion, experience, socioeconomic background, sexual identity, gender, and one’s upbringing.  However, the DEI policies of the left are not about ‘that diversity.’   Rather, today’s DEI movement is a political advocacy on behalf of certain groups that are deemed oppressed using DEI’s interpretation, which focuses on particular voting blocs where one’s degree of oppression is predicated upon where one resides on the so-called “intersectional pyramid of oppression,” where white males are deemed the oppressors and people of color, LGBTQ people, and women are deemed to be oppressed.

DEI ideology dictates that any policy, program, educational system, economic system, grading system, admission policy, (and even climate due to geographical differences) that leads to unequal outcomes among people of different skin colors is deemed racist.  Consequently, capitalism is racist, advanced placement exams are racist, IQ tests are racist, and corporate hierarchy is racist.  In other words, any merit-based program, system, or organization which has or generates outcomes for different races that are at variance with the proportion these races represent in the population at large is by definition racist.  As an aside, doesn’t anyone find it interesting that the NFL and the NBA where the vast majority of players are of one skin color have never been taken to task for being racist?

Meritocracy is an anathema to the DEI movement, which ironically, only proves that DEI is an inherently racist policy in its implementation, even as it purports to work on behalf of the so-called oppressed.  There is a reason Kamala Harris,  Ketanji Brown Jackson, and Claudine Gay are in the positions they are – each has an inflated resume without much actual accomplishment, but each checked the two most meaningful left-wing boxes, all three are black and female.

DEI is an ideology that portrays a bicameral world of oppressors and the oppressed based on race and sexual identity.  And the fact that DEI is leading to more racism not less is ignored in Washington because…well, because it wouldn’t set well with certain voting blocs.  Common sense dictates that a system where one obtains an advantage by virtue of his or her skin color or gender is a racist system, and a system that will slowly erode this country’s greatness in a manner not dissimilar to a virulent cancer.

Quote of the day: “I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.” — Thomas Jefferson