If you’ve been paying attention to American politics recently, you’ll know of the infamous “war” on wokeness. Yes, America’s biggest problem is currently how woke warriors have infiltrated the consciousness of the American people. Inflation? A cruel job market? Climate change? Nope, those are irrelevant because now, we have bigger fish to fry.
In all seriousness, I want to talk about a bigger issue that stems from all this hostility towards diversity: how the term, DEI, has become increasingly antagonized. DEI, or diversity, equity, and inclusion, was first introduced in the 1960s, springing from the monumental Civil Rights Movement. The term has been used in reference to affirmative action laws in the workplace and continued to augment through the 1980s and 1990s.
Fast forward to 2023 and 2024, and DEI has detoured with critiques of a false appearance of companies caring about their minority employees. However, most critics seem to discard this in favor of a heftier accusation: discrimination against White Americans. That’s right, DEI is discriminatory and, according to Cyber Truck Connoisseur Elon Musk, is just “another word for racism.”
You’ll also hear loaded phrases like “DEI hire” being relentlessly tossed. According to Forbes, a DEI hire is a “disparaging term that refers to quotas or targets for hiring racial and ethnic minorities, women, and/or people with disabilities for positions of authority …” It’s a buzz term for people hired for their “diverse” traits rather than their skills. Well, you may think that people should be hired for their skills; besides, there are laws in place against discrimination when hiring, such as Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. Yet, what many people fail to recognize is that implicit bias still exists. Employers can choose not to hire a person of color because of their name, for instance, as a malicious loophole.
The “DEI hire” title has infamously been attached to current Vice President and presidential candidate Kamala Harris. Opponents seem to latch onto her diversity “points” and the fact that she was the only vice president to serve some DEI quota. But, on a smaller scale, “DEI hire” hurts individuals like Dr. Cynthia A. Bond Hopson, a higher education executive, who felt tokenized as a Black woman and has emphasized the importance of DEI in a nation that is a “chef’s salad” of so many walks of life.
I spoke with Vice President and Dean of Equity and Inclusion, Dr. Chris Hunt, regarding DEI and how the role of diversity has changed in schools. When asked about how he felt about DEI being targeted and having the acronym be increasingly negative, he discussed how the previous presidential administration initiated shifts such as no longer permitting DEI training. Even under Biden’s administration, state houses passed anti-DEI legislation and placed restrictions. “I think that there are people in our society that believe the increase in people that something is being taken away from them,” he stated.
I asked Hunt about the concept of a “DEI hire” being tossed around; in response, he talked about creating fairness regarding applicants and their qualifications. He also noted how there have been studies on candidates with ethnic-sounding names (such as Jamal and Keisha as his examples) being less likely to receive callbacks for jobs, highlighting the need for DEI training and orientation programs in the first place.
Finally, we talked about how the role of diversity has changed in schools now, specifically for Moravian. Looking at steady progression, Hunt delineated how the Lehigh Valley has become an increasingly diverse region and how Moravian recruits a more local base of students. Additionally, Moravian has accepted more than 100 Latino students in the freshman class alone.
Even when many DEI facilities in the country have been closing, he noted how the Center of Inclusive Excellence (previously known as the Center of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) has had a “bigger footprint” on campus and will continue to expand once the new HUB is finished.
