Diversity Is Good, Actually

If you’re tired of hearing about DEI and its associated problems, believe me, I’m even more tired of discussing it.

Since 2020, I have publicly tackled this issue from a number of angles. I have recounted my own experiences with DEI training and highlighted the ways they backfire. I have addressed how many tenets and beliefs commonly associated with DEI—such as  superficial approaches to representation, race essentialism, and the idea that merit is racist—are counterproductive and intellectually bankrupt. I’ve examined the ways DEI programs in higher education compromise free speech, free inquiry, and academic freedom. I also joined and currently serve as board president for FAIR, an organization founded in part to counteract the divisive, exclusionary, and intolerant ideas that DEI programs too often promote.

Of course, I’m not alone in this endeavor. Where I differ from many others, however, is the reason for my opposition. I have criticized DEI initiatives and programs because they drastically set back efforts to address very real problems of bias, exclusion, and intolerance in our culture and institutions. In most cases, DEI exacerbates those problems wherever they exist and manifests them where they do not.