Why DEI should make Americans uncomfortable

Several years ago, a newspaper publisher in Colorado who had been reading my column for many years asked me a great question.

He wanted to know if, when I was writing, I always knew where I was headed before I started down the road. Truthfully, I rarely know. Often, I'm thinking through topics as I'm writing. So, even as I'm challenging the reader to think in new ways, I'm also challenging myself.

Take this column, for instance. I started out thinking that I'd be writing about DEI.

Who knew that the concepts of diversity, equity and inclusion — a harmless trifecta of positive things — could be so controversial? It doesn't help that no one on the right or the left can offer a good definition of what DEI actually is. Everyone has their own idea.

That's also how it was for affirmative action, the boogeyman before DEI came along. It had a good run lasting from 1961, when President John F. Kennedy signed an executive order requiring that companies doing business with the federal government take “affirmative action” not to discriminate based on race or ethnicity, until 2023, when the Supreme Court struck down as unconstitutional the practice of college and university admissions taking race and ethnicity into account.

In Texas, Florida, Utah, Arizona and other states, GOP lawmakers and Republican governors have declared open season on programs that encourage DEI at state colleges and universities.

So, with DEI, there is plenty to write about. And yet, I soon realized that what this column was really going to be about is very much related to the concept of comfort.

For one thing, as someone who consumes a lot of conservative media, much of what I hear when the hosts, guests and callers complain about DEI revolves around their concern that these initiatives make white people uncomfortable. They think the goal of DEI is to make white people feel guilty and repentant by — for instance — harping on racist chapters of U.S. history. Then, the argument goes, all this guilt and repentance might soften up white people when it is time to demand something big like reparations for slavery or other past injustices.

Right-wing media figures are tired of being made to feel uncomfortable, and they're rejecting the whole thing by trying to dismantle DEI. As they see it, talking about diversity, equity and inclusion only furthers divisions. This conjures up images in my head of Black and Latino students — and one white student — in a classroom at a state college in Texas or Florida or Arizona. They're discussing racial discrimination and all the students of color are angrily pointing their fingers at the white kid.

Is that what's really happening? Who knows? All that matters is that a lot of white Americans who vote believe that it is absolutely happening every day. And they want it to stop. They think DEI is to blame, so they're going after it.

Republicans hear that chorus loud and clear, and they're pandering to it with full force. Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and

Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas were quick to sign legislation outlawing DEI programs at state institutions of higher learning. And onetime aides to former president Donald Trump — such as anti-immigrant zealot Stephen Miller — have suggested that, if Trump is reelected and they get another crack at the White House, they'll use the Justice Department to avenge victims of what they perceive as anti-white racism.

The thing is, as a Mexican American who has spent most of my life aggressively assimilating and trying not to frighten white people, I'm no longer comfortable with the idea of spending my time and energy constantly checking in on white people to see if they're OK.

I have mixed emotions about DEI in higher education. I recognize an inherent value in diversity, equity and inclusion.

Yet, I think the current moment is telling us these things can't be forced. They can occur only when enough people realize that it's a good thing to produce classes of college and university graduates that look like America — a place where white people are on track to become a statistical minority by 2045.

I'll make you a deal. We don't have to look backward so much if doing so makes you feel guilty. But we do need to look forward because not doing so will make you look foolish.

I hope you're comfortable with that.