State legislators’ major mischief of the year is complete – vouchers to appease public education haters and fatten the bank accounts of private schools with tax money. So they are now free to turn their attention to other battlegrounds in the never-ending culture wars.
Exhibit A: DEI, shorthand for diversity, equity and inclusion efforts. It succeeds affirmative action, critical race theory and wokeness as the latest societal bugaboo demonized by the right.
King Donald has proclaimed DEI to be illegal discrimination against white folks, and blamed it for the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, the Los Angeles wildfires and the midair collision at Reagan National Airport.
Busy stuff, is that DEI.
Two Tennessee House bills dedicated to “dismantling” DEI come from Rep. Aron Maberry, a freshman Republican of Clarksville. The language of the two varies, but the aim as described by one is the same for both: to prohibit “an office or department that promotes or requires discriminatory preferences in an effort to increase diversity, equity or inclusion.”
The reasoning? That’s described in the other bill: “hiring decisions should be based on merit rather than any other metric.” The clear implication is that DEI efforts result in less-qualified employees or officials. Unqualified, even.
You may recall that Kamala Harris, recent vice president and Democratic presidential nominee, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson of the Supreme Court were both described in DEI terms. You may also recall what other traits they share. The right does not deal in subtlety.
The legal and political arguments against DEI were strengthened by the 2023 Supreme Court decision barring race as a factor to be considered in college admissions.
In sharp contradistinction of Maberry’s two bills, as my literary hero P.G. Wodehouse might say, are two resolutions from Democrats praising DEI.
One, from Rep. Larry Miller of Memphis, asserts that “DEI principles and policies promote equal access to opportunities, foster an environment of respect and belonging, and ensure that every individual, regardless of background, can fully participate in all aspects of society.”
The other, from Sen. Charlane Oliver of Nashville, puts DEI aims in relation to broader aspirations: “DEI is committed to widening pathways to the American Dream for every community so that all people can reap the benefits of shared prosperity in our nation.”
So which is it?
As a melanin-challenged, straight male of considerable years, I’m well aware that any push for diversity is a push for fewer people like me. My entire ancestral heritage doesn’t bring a single flavorful dish to the collective human banquet. In a world of spicy goulashes and curiously pickled fish, aromatic curries and Jamaican jerk, piquant stews and pungent cheeses, I am boiled potatoes.
So I am not without appreciation for concerns about DEI overreach. The conservative columnist Bret Stephens, in a recent New York Times piece, cited declining physical standards in the military as a result of the effort to increase the number of women who qualify for combat roles.
DEI, he wrote, “asks the military to become a social justice organization that happens to fight wars.”
The fact is that silliness can and sometimes does result from attempts to see every problem the nation has ever faced through the lens of race and identity. I’m baffled, for example, by the claim of a “toxic” white culture of math classes in schools. According to a critical race theory framework adopted by Seattle Public Schools in 2019, “math has been and continues to be used to oppress and marginalize people and communities of color.”
By the same token, it’s disingenuous to deny that racism has always played a large role in many of our problems, as Republicans would have us do.
As with most issues on which the opposing sides are miles apart, I believe there lies a happy medium somewhere in the vicinity of the middle.
Diversity has undeniable benefits, and inclusion is what brings diversity.
Equity, properly understood, is hard to argue against. What if we just called it fairness?
But as we see demonstrated again and again, there is no middle ground in the Tennessee legislature or the Congress. What we need in the majority of both at this moment is people who know how to fix things.
What we have is people who know how to break things. And enjoy doing it.
Joe Rogers is a former writer for The Tennessean and editor for The New York Times. He is retired and living in Nashville.