The organization Defending Education released a report showing hundreds of active diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) offices and programs at universities and colleges across the country.
The programs endure despite a presidential executive order, “Ending Illegal Discrimination And Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity,” saying DEI programs violated the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
A “Dear Colleague” letter from the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights followed the executive order, warning states and schools that they must eliminate discriminatory DEI trainings and curriculums and end racial preferences in hiring and admissions – or lose federal education funds.
Defending Education, “a national grassroots organization working to restore schools at all levels from activists imposing harmful agendas,” looked at 262 schools, from 46 states and Washington, D.C., and found 245 actively engaged in promoting DEI, with some having DEI embedded in multiple departments or colleges.
While a handful of schools have cut DEI programs, some schools are just moving programs and staff to their “‘equal opportunity’ and ‘civil rights’ offices.”
Other schools are simply rebranding offices and programs, using language like “access,” “advocacy,” “belonging,” “community,” “inclusive excellence” and “success.”
The report, University DEI: Status Quo and Rebrands, found:
To date, Defending Education has tracked 245 universities which still have institution-wide DEI offices and/or programming in operation, 180 schools or colleges (such as Colleges of Education, Engineering, or Medicine, etc.), with an overall total of 403 currently active DEI offices and programming.
Both the president’s executive order and the “Dear Colleague” letter point to an important U.S. Supreme Court decision the Institutions of higher education are flouting: Students for Fair Admissions, Inc. v. President and Fellows of Harvard College.
In that 2023 decision, the justices ruled affirmative action, as exercised in the college admission processes at Harvard and the University of North Carolina, unconstitutionally violate the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
The court ruled that using race as a basis for admissions was discriminatory.
DEI is based on radical concepts from critical race theory and radical feminist ideology, which are both rooted in Marxist- and Freudian-based critical legal theory. When used in schools, DEI teaches staff and students:
Our nation is deliberately and systemically racist, oppressing all minority groups.
People have overlapping identities which make them either the “oppressed” or an “oppressor,” creating a hierarchy of oppression and victimization.
“Gender” is one of those identities and is a “social construct,” distinct from biology.
“Anti-racism” (i.e., reverse discrimination), LGBT activism, and radical feminist action must be employed to fight this systemic bigotry.
Groups must strive for equity – equal outcomes – rather than equal opportunity.
The Office of Civil Rights’ letter explained that DEI programs in schools are harmful to students:
Educational institutions have toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon “systemic and structural racism” and advanced discriminatory policies and practices.
Proponents of these discriminatory practices have attempted to further justify them – particularly during the last four years – under the banner of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (“DEI”), smuggling racial stereotypes and explicit race-consciousness into everyday training, programming, and discipline. But under any banner, discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin is, has been, and will continue to be illegal.
What is more, DEI programs don’t work.
Frank Dobbin and Alexandra Kalev, from Harvard and Tel Aviv University respectively, report in Anthropology Now:
Nearly all Fortune 500 companies do training, and two-thirds of colleges and universities have training for faculty according to our 2016 survey of 670 schools. Most also put freshmen through some sort of diversity session as part of orientation.
Yet hundreds of studies dating back to the 1930s suggest that antibias training does not reduce bias, alter behavior or change the workplace.
The authors note, among other problems, that short-term trainings don’t change people, that DEI trainings are based on and activate stereotypes, and “people react negatively to efforts to control them.”
Yet colleges and universities haven’t learned this lesson. They persist in promoting harmful, ineffective programs. DEI has woven its tentacles into hundreds – probably thousands – of universities.
The threat of losing federal funds may change things, but DEI is still deeply embedded in academia and is not going away quietly. Merely changing the name is not the answer.
Parents and students looking for a good education should investigate and find out whether potential schools are promoting this harmful dogma.
You can find a list of universities and colleges with these programs at Defending Education: University DEI: Status Quo and Rebrands
Related Articles and Resources:
Dept of Ed Reduces Size, Scope; Grows Power to Cut DEI, Racism
Department of Education: Schools Embracing DEI Will Lose Funding
Education Department Warns Colorado: Children ‘Do Not Belong to Government’
Harvard Protects Free Speech of Antisemites But Not Those Who Believe the Truth of Male and Female
Harvard Sues Feds Over Multi-Billion Dollar Funding Freeze
Is ‘Critical Race Theory’ Being Taught in Public Schools? CRT Deniers Claim it Isn’t
President Trump Ends Radical DEI Programs, Fires All DEI Personnel
Trump Ends Radical Indoctrination, Promotes Education Freedom U.S. Supreme Court Rules Affirmative Action Unconstitutional
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