Social Justice Activists Meet to Plot Reaction to Multiple DEI Office Closures
The field of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion appears to be on life support. Governors across the nation are instituting requirements to limit their influence on state-funded institutions.
Many university administrators are reading the tea leaves and flat-out dissolving their DEI offices. Although, for anybody who thinks the DEI establishment intends to go down quietly without a fight, think again.
The DEI warriors are doing what they do best: commiserating at a conference to craft their countermeasures. Unsurprisingly, an ideology built on victim-placing would cloak their intentions with rhetoric to match.
How can we carry on?
Earlier this month, the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) held its annual conference in Seattle, Washington. The conference brought together a record number of DEI professionals, with 1,150 individuals in attendance.
The title of this year’s conference was How We Persist, an homage to the recent actions taken by state governors. On the premise of the conference, NADOHE president Paulette Russell said the question needing to be asked by the DEI community is:
“How do we approach what we do strategically because some of us are exhausted and we are running to catch up.”
When providing tips to conference attendees on managing their exhaustion in what appears to be a dying career field, much of the advice unsurprisingly focused on mental health. However, some of the advice focused more on circumventing policies than on functioning within them.
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Smile for the camera
Thanks to citizen journalism, many of the ideologies that gained traction after George Floyd’s death have started to lose support. This includes the DEI apparatus.
One nugget of advice to DEI professionals this month was:
“Don’t assume that people who claim to support you are really your allies.”
This helpful tip was largely inspired by recent undercover videos of university DEI administrators admitting to skirting state laws. One such DEI administrator was suspended after disclosing to an undercover reporter that she is continuing to push banned policies.
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DEI administrator of Texas UT Tyler, Tarecka Payne, told the reporter that even with the recently signed law banning most DEI practices, it is still being done. Ms. Payne explained in no uncertain terms:
“No, you can still do it. You just have to be creative.”
She went on to state that she spends a fair amount of time crafting ways to work outside the law:
“I plot and plan.”
Texas is one of about 30 states that have introduced bills aimed at eradicating DEI. Alabama Governor Kay Ivey recently signed a bill banning DEI programs across public schools, universities, and state agencies.
The Kentucky House voted to defund DEI offices at public universities. The University of Florida fired all its DEI-associated positions.