TROJAN HORSE: “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is Critical Race Theory in Disguise

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UPDATE 4.13.23: In an interesting post in City Journal, Scott Yenor asks where the Diversity Equity and Inclusion departments are at America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs). He writes:

It’s a curious feature of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) that they rarely have any diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) administrators or policies on their campuses, beyond what federal law requires.

Howard University, for instance, the alma mater of Vice President Kamala Harris, has no central administrator dedicated to DEI, and its student affairs programming aims to help the disabled and LGBTQ students. Neither Jackson State nor Grambling State, two famous HBCUs, have DEI plans or central administrators. North Carolina’s four public HBCUs also have very little DEI presence on campus. Much the same is true of Texas’s HBCUs, none of which has DEI deans at the college level and almost none of which has DEI in its college strategic plans. Tennessee State has less DEI than any four-year university in the Volunteer State. One could go on.

The lack of DEI at HBCUs may seem surprising in light of what we are commonly told about the values of diversity, equity, and inclusion. Diversity, we are told, means “the presence of differences in a different setting.” Differences of race, gender, religion, and so on “enrich our workplace” and make for a great national strength—in fact, our greatest strength, per President Biden. Equity, we are informed, is about providing all people with opportunities to grow, as is demonstrated when an institution “looks like America” by mirroring its demographics. Inclusion, it is said, involves “welcoming all people regardless of race, ethnicity, sex” and so on, by showing that “everyone is valued, respected and able to reach their full potential.”

Of course, HBCUs hardly “look like America.” At least 75 percent of students at these schools are black (at some HBCUs, the numbers exceed 90 percent), though only 13 percent of Americans are. Only 8 percent of students at HBCUs are white, 2 percent are Latino, and 1 percent are Asian—figures well out of proportion to their percentage in the population at large. Much the same is true of faculty. Nationwide, HBCU faculty is 56 percent black, but only 2.5 percent Hispanic, 0.7 percent indigenous, and 24 percent white—again, well out of proportion with their presence in the population at large. Furthermore, HBCUs are more female-dominated than campuses across the country. More than two-thirds of all degrees at HBCUs are conferred on female students.

Given the importance of diversity to excellence (as we are told), it would seem like HBCUs are suffering badly from a critical lack of it. But HBCUs do not act like they lack diversity, equity, or inclusion, or that they need to act rapidly to make their campuses “look like America.” Quite the contrary.

Yet these institutions are not hypocritical. Their lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion demonstrates that advocates of DEI mean something other than their publicly stated goals.

UPDATE 05.4.22: Despite denials by teachers’ unions and school boards saying that “children aren’t being taught critical race theory in schools,” a whistleblower has explained the truth. Fox News reports:

Critical race theory originated in the family of critical studies and seeks to promote what its adherents believe is a pervasive and inescapable racist legacy in the U.S. legal system. The theory has been packaged to children in K-12 schools and teaches them that America is a fundamentally racist country.

An Illinois high school history teacher, Frank McCormick, told “Fox & Friends” that he decided to blow the whistle on what was being taught at his school because parents are being “gaslit into this lie that CRT does not exist in [K-12] education.”

Proponents and opponents to teaching Critical Race Theory attend Placentia Yorba Linda School Board meeting in Orange County, California. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

“It’s not explicitly taught,” he said, “but it’s used as a lens through which curriculum and lessons are filtered … based on …presuppositions that racism is … systemic [in America].”

Critics say that when the theory’s concepts are applied to curriculum for K-12 schools, it is an utter disaster.

Erec Smith, an associate professor of rhetoric at York College of Pennsylvania, said in an op-ed, that while “third-graders aren’t reading legal theory from the 80s written by people in their 80s, …  their teachers have likely read the literature, and when trying to put this theory into practice, things go horribly wrong.”

Smith argued that there should be a bipartisan push against CRT because it is “adamantly opposed” the foundation of liberty – “free speech, equality, individuality, and the concept of merit.”

UPDATE 10.7.21: To silence criticism of Critical Race Theory or “diversity” education in schools, Joe Biden has turned the Department of Justice on America’s concerned parents. State Attorneys General, and parents are speaking out against Biden’s move, which views activist parents similarly to domestic terrorists. Fox News reports:

“The Biden Administration continues to politicize the DOJ, ignore the rule of law, and undermine state sovereignty,” Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich told Fox News.

“This is the latest shameful attempt to force Critical Race Theory upon our impressionable children, against the will of their parents. We will not tolerate this gross federal overreach and intimidation of Arizona families.”

Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge also weighed in, telling Fox News in a statement that DOJ’s directive is a “political stunt at taxpayer expense,” and a better use of federal funds would be to protect the southern border.

“President Biden’s use of the Justice Department to investigate is grossly inappropriate and nothing more than a political stunt at taxpayer expense,” said Rutledge.

Originally posted on June 25, 2021.

How could anyone argue with “inclusion,” right? A movement called “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion,” is sweeping schools in America. The words sound innocuous, and even optimistic, but at the Spectator, Amber Athey explains that they’re just code for Critical Race Theory. She writes:

Who are you going to believe, me, or your lying eyes?’ Poway Unified School District in San Diego, California all but told concerned parents who say the school is injecting critical race theory into two new elective courses on offer to students.

The two courses, ‘Ethnic Literature’ and ‘Ethnic Studies’, were made available to high school students ‘in response to our racial equity plan and community conversations held with students, staff and families’, according to the school district’s Facebook page. Ethnic Literature, a course guide says, seeks to promote ’empathy’ by examining how ‘systems of power in the United States’ have affected various minority groups. Students will also dive deep into their own ‘implicit biases’ and ‘privilege’ and be asked to create an action plan to be ‘agents of change’ in their communities. Ethnic Studies will similarly encourage students to explore how their immutable characteristics, like race, gender, and ethnicity, influence their ‘identity’. It will also teach them how to ‘advocate for social justice’.

Poway Unified School District ‘Ethnic Literature’ Course Goals (Parents Defending Education)

Critical race theory charges that racism and inequality are inherent to American society and that even white people who are not outwardly racist still enjoy ‘privilege’ due to the systemic oppression of minority groups. The Poway courses promise that students will ‘deeply examine their own individual identity’ and ‘explore the presence of their power in society to help address discrimination and serve as an ally’, which smacks of CRT fundamentals.

District chief of communications, Christine Paik, nonetheless, insisted earlier this month that the school is not teaching CRT:

‘We want to make it clear that Poway Unified School District is not teaching critical race theory. What we are doing is working very closely with students, staff, and community to make sure all of our students in our classroom feel valued for who they are.’

Will white, male, straight, or all of the above students be made to feel ‘valued’ when they are taught that they are contributing to and benefiting from a racist system?

It is a common trick for various school districts to avoid actually using the phrase ‘critical race theory’ when implementing these lesson plans so that they have plausible deniability when facing angry parents. Fairfax County and Loudoun County Public Schools in Virginia used a similar tactic when implementing their so-called ‘equity’ programs. But no amount of language manipulation can hide what these school districts are doing.

Read more here.