To comply with a flurry of Executive Orders issued in January, many colleges throughout the country have been renaming, restructuring, or altogether eliminating Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programming. These DEI initiatives have been divisive for years. Their proponents see them as essential to ensuring fair treatment for minority students and rooting out prejudice in the academy. Their detractors see them as stifling free speech and academic debate. Emma Green, journalist at the New Yorker, and Eboo Patel, founder of Interfaith America, discuss the genesis of DEI, where it went wrong, and what might replace it in our search to create a flourishing multicultural society.
Links:
What Comes After D.E.I.? by Emma Green
Harvard, Public Trust, and a Warning for the Nonprofit Sector by Eboo Patel