What is DEI, and why is it dividing America?

[nec209]

What is DEI, and why is it dividing America?

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have come under attack in American boardrooms, state legislatures and college campuses – and now broadly across the federal government.

President Donald Trump hours after swearing in this week began making good on promises to wage a war against such policies, inking an executive order banning efforts such as “environmental justice programs,” “equity initiatives” and DEI considerations in federal hiring.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/us/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-explained

 

 

[Phi for All]

1 hour ago, nec209 said:

What is DEI,

An attempt to allow all people to be in on discussions to make a better world.

1 hour ago, nec209 said:

and why is it dividing America?

Much of America thinks white Christians have more rights than anyone else.

 

[CharonY]

One probably should add "male" in there somewhere (despite the fact that by executive order they don't exist anymore, either).

[swansont]

1 hour ago, nec209 said:

What is DEI, and why is it dividing America?

Are you asking what it actually is, or how it’s treated by the GOP?

[CharonY]

A very short answer is this: DEI split the American community because it challenged a system that heavily favoured white men.

[exchemist]

14 hours ago, nec209 said:

What is DEI, and why is it dividing America?

Diversity, equity and inclusion programs have come under attack in American boardrooms, state legislatures and college campuses – and now broadly across the federal government.

President Donald Trump hours after swearing in this week began making good on promises to wage a war against such policies, inking an executive order banning efforts such as “environmental justice programs,” “equity initiatives” and DEI considerations in federal hiring.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/01/22/us/dei-diversity-equity-inclusion-explained

 

 

You are now on my Ignore list.

[nec209]

What does this mean. It seems Trump is after FAA for DEI. What DEI in the FAA?

[swansont]

I will ask again: Are you asking what it actually is, or how it’s treated by the GOP?

[nec209]

Just now, swansont said:

I will ask again: Are you asking what it actually is, or how it’s treated by the GOP?

Why the GOP is after it and want to attack it?

[swansont]

3 minutes ago, nec209 said:

Why the GOP is after it and want to attack it?

Because they are bigots, and it’s both a dog whistle and convenient scapegoat for their own failings. They rarely take responsibility for their actions and failings, and somebody has to be blamed.

It’s the same playbook as when Hitler blaming everything bad on the Jews et al. 90 years ago.

[dedo]

4 minutes ago, nec209 said:

Why the GOP is after it and want to attack it?

I think the motivation behind DEI was originally good, meaning people sensed "something is wrong" & tried to fix it.  However, the solution of DEI & how it was implemented likely accomplished little & may have made things worse because it was not well researched.  DEI would be like someone seeing "something is wrong" with a relative with angina, so the person stays at the Holiday Inn & prescribes supplements, instead of sending his relative to a cardiologist.

Republicans like to claim DEI was just used to advance liberal ideology and cronyism.  Look at the people in charge of the LA govt. & the salaries they gave each other & see an example of what Rep complain about.  Of course Rep could have an even worse tribalism that DEI helped bring to power.  Historically, when one party has a toxic tribal agenda, the public can choose an even worse tribe as a result.  So the Weimar was replaced with the Nazis.  

[nec209]

Just now, swansont said:

Because they are bigots, and it’s both a dog whistle and convenient scapegoat for their own failings. They rarely take responsibility for their actions and failings, and somebody has to be blamed.

It’s the same playbook as when Hitler blaming everything bad on the Jews et al. 90 years ago.

Trump is after FAA but how many Mexicans and Asian’s are working for the FAA or black people that Trump think DEI Is the problem of the FAA.

2 minutes ago, dedo said:

I think the motivation behind DEI was originally good, meaning people sensed "something is wrong" & tried to fix it.  However, the solution of DEI & how it was implemented likely accomplished little & may have made things worse because it was not well researched.  DEI would be like someone seeing "something is wrong" with a relative with angina, so the person stays at the Holiday Inn & prescribes supplements, instead of sending his relative to a cardiologist.

Republicans like to claim DEI was just used to advance liberal ideology and cronyism.  Look at the people in charge of the LA govt. & the salaries they gave each other & see an example of what Rep complain about.  Of course Rep could have an even worse tribalism that DEI helped bring to power.  Historically, when one party has a toxic tribal agenda, the public can choose an even worse tribe as a result.  So the Weimar was replaced with the Nazis.  

So you saying at the start DEI was good at giving jobs to everyone but now DEI accomplished little and just steal jobs?

[swansont]

4 hours ago, nec209 said:

Trump is after FAA but how many Mexicans and Asian’s are working for the FAA or black people that Trump think DEI Is the problem of the FAA.

Does it matter? He doesn’t necessarily think it’s the actual problem - it’s not like he can track the crash’s fault to an individual - but he needs to blame the problems on somebody. So he blames brown people and women, simply because they have some of the jobs, with the implication that white men are inherently superior.

edit: Trump and others were briefed that air traffic control staffing was deficient at the time of the crash, and yet he blamed “DEI”

https://bsky.app/profile/maxkennerly.bsky.social/post/3lgyc3msfss2i

[swansont]

3 hours ago, dedo said:

However, the solution of DEI & how it was implemented likely accomplished little & may have made things worse because it was not well researched.

Seems to me that such a thought should be able to be backed up with actual facts. DEI was implemented in some cases to ensure that illegal discrimination was not taking place, and to avoid lawsuits. Did that happen? It was also implemented to ensure qualified candidates weren’t being overlooked by systems that might have biases hidden in them. Did that not happen?

 

 

[nec209]

5 hours ago, swansont said:

Does it matter? He doesn’t necessarily think it’s the actual problem - it’s not like he can track the crash’s fault to an individual - but he needs to blame the problems on somebody. So he blames brown people and women, simply because they have some of the jobs, with the implication that white men are inherently superior.

edit: Trump and others were briefed that air traffic control staffing was deficient at the time of the crash, and yet he blamed “DEI”

https://bsky.app/profile/maxkennerly.bsky.social/post/3lgyc3msfss2i

Seems to me they are blaming a lack of staffing than non white person working at the control tower?

But Trump was also blaming DEI has problem I guess he things non whites dumb and not smart has white men.

Edited January 30 by nec209

[swansont]

1 hour ago, nec209 said:

Seems to me they are blaming a lack of staffing than non white person working at the control tower?

But Trump was also blaming DEI has problem I guess he things non whites dumb and not smart has white men.

The internal report notes the deficient staffing. Trump does not.

[CharonY]

9 hours ago, dedo said:

However, the solution of DEI & how it was implemented likely accomplished little & may have made things worse because it was not well researched.  DEI would be like someone seeing "something is wrong" with a relative with angina, so the person stays at the Holiday Inn & prescribes supplements, instead of sending his relative to a cardiologist.

These sentences do not make much sense to me. Can you put out specifics?

[Peterkin]

Has anyone asked: "How good a job are these people doing?"

If someone is incompetent, ineffective, negligent or habitually late, they deserve to be fired. If they're doing their job well, does it matter whether they were hired to correct an imbalance or simply on merit?

The Trump administration does not ask these questions or make these assessments. It just fires people according to some idiotic policy.

He's feeding the trolls who put him in charge. (In this instance white male trolls who got passed over and are still smarting.)

[dedo]

3 hours ago, CharonY said:

These sentences do not make much sense to me. Can you put out specifics?

There is a lot of evidence that "something is wrong", and in some cases, even without evidence, intuition can sense it.  Evidentiary examples include the setting of the Doomsday Clock, nuclear threats pouring out of Russia, conflicts in Ukraine & Gaza with scores of people justifying genocidal actors in these conflicts including those in the general public with no personal affiliation to a side.

Getting into "what is wrong" crosses into another thread in politics meaning "War is a Disease".  There is evidence in the international relations literature, almost ignored, that there is a cumulative process behind group on group conflict called the power law data, or Richardson's Law.  This means the world is infected with a cumulative disease, like coronary disease, and the above examples are like angina, warning of a system approaching explosion.  

Power law systems are often modeled with a sandpile computer model.  Sand pours onto the sandpile until avalanches (wars) occur that are small and frequent, or rare and huge.  This means that the longer the period of relative peace, the worse will be the next global war.  The world is in one of the most peaceful periods in history since the end of WWII, maybe the most peaceful period in history.  This means the next global war will be the worst war in history.  The public can sense it coming, in my opinion.

So the liberals, correctly sensed danger coming, but came up with DEI as the answer.  That would be like a politician trying to solve an extremely complex problem like guiding a catheter through the heart to prevent a heart attack.  A problem this hard, that defied the totality of world scholars for generations, does not get solved by a small group of politicians.  It requires a Manhattan project level of input.

 

Edited January 31 by dedo

[swansont]

8 hours ago, dedo said:

There is a lot of evidence that "something is wrong", and in some cases, even without evidence, intuition can sense it.  Evidentiary examples include the setting of the Doomsday Clock, nuclear threats pouring out of Russia, conflicts in Ukraine & Gaza with scores of people justifying genocidal actors in these conflicts including those in the general public with no personal affiliation to a side.

How is any of that tied to DEI programs in the US?

8 hours ago, dedo said:

So the liberals, correctly sensed danger coming, but came up with DEI as the answer.

Bollocks. Show actual evidence that this is the case, rather than parroting GOP talking points.

Also show that casting a wider net to hire better people is a bad idea in coming up with solutions.

[CharonY]

8 hours ago, dedo said:

There is a lot of evidence that "something is wrong", and in some cases, even without evidence, intuition can sense it.  Evidentiary examples include the setting of the Doomsday Clock, nuclear threats pouring out of Russia, conflicts in Ukraine & Gaza with scores of people justifying genocidal actors in these conflicts including those in the general public with no personal affiliation to a side.

I requested specifics related to the DEI comment. This is another random assortment of unformed thoughts on completely other matters.

 

9 hours ago, dedo said:

So the liberals, correctly sensed danger coming, but came up with DEI as the answer.  That would be like a politician trying to solve an extremely complex problem like guiding a catheter through the heart to prevent a heart attack.  A problem this hard, that defied the totality of world scholars for generations, does not get solved by a small group of politicians.  It requires a Manhattan project level of input.

Again, specifics are needed.

A discussion needs to be understandable and engage with the reader. It shouldn't be like a caterpillar on an exhaust pipe that draws upon the ignorance of the fading liquid that evaporates into mist.

[dedo]

2 hours ago, CharonY said:

I requested specifics related to the DEI comment. This is another random assortment of unformed thoughts on completely other matters.

 

Again, specifics are needed.

A discussion needs to be understandable and engage with the reader. It shouldn't be like a caterpillar on an exhaust pipe that draws upon the ignorance of the fading liquid that evaporates into mist.

Then be clearer on what "specifics" you want.  Answer:  Review initial post about LA govt. hiring related to recent fires, salaries paid etc.  Rep allegations all over the place for the same, including pro-crime prosecutors, but personally don't have time to track down all of them.  

Cannot help you if you cannot grasp my hypothesis of why DEI was done, because the Democrats correctly sensed a problem, and incorrectly attributed it to racism to be solved by DEI.  Most genocides are the same race.  Thus, analysis of the problem by Dems, and the solution was utterly lacking in scholarship, and driven by a political agenda.

Since you sound like a Dem supporter, then the greatest harm is if this admin. / Maga, turns out to be as bad as you believe, because DEI got it elected causing Dems to force policies on US that millions considered to be abhorrent.  

And so just as the Weimar was replace by Nazis, Dems replaced by Maga.  

We can only hope this is not a repeat of history.

[CharonY]

23 minutes ago, dedo said:

Cannot help you if you cannot grasp my hypothesis of why DEI was done, because the Democrats correctly sensed a problem, and incorrectly attributed it to racism to be solved by DEI

What is the problem you spoke of. Why do you think that the issue is unrelated to racism. What do genocides have to do with DEI? You are making wide speculations on various unrelated topics and you keep failing to tie anything to DEI. Potentially these things are tied together in your head somehow, but so far you have not really explained it in a way that someone other than yourself could understand what you mean.

Perhaps to lay some groundwork, could you explain precisely what you think DEI is and what it tries to address? Without any excursions to dooms day, genocide, wars etc. please. Just the basic definitions first.

[iNow]

4 hours ago, CharonY said:

another random assortment of unformed thoughts on completely other matters

Not quite a Gish Gallop, but maybe a Gish Canter or Trot?

[swansont]

1 hour ago, dedo said:

Then be clearer on what "specifics" you want.  Answer:  Review initial post about LA govt. hiring related to recent fires, salaries paid etc.  Rep allegations all over the place for the same, including pro-crime prosecutors, but personally don't have time to track down all of them.  

If you’re going to advance that idea it’s up to you to provide evidence for it. If you don’t have time, don’t make the claim.

 

1 hour ago, dedo said:

Cannot help you if you cannot grasp my hypothesis of why DEI was done, because the Democrats correctly sensed a problem, and incorrectly attributed it to racism to be solved by DEI.  Most genocides are the same race.  Thus, analysis of the problem by Dems, and the solution was utterly lacking in scholarship, and driven by a political agenda

Hypotheses need evidence to support them. Otherwise it’s just mudslinging.