Despite Vice President Kamala Harris’ education, her years as a prosecutor, her having served as California attorney general and a U.S. senator, Republicans such as Reps. Harriet Hageman, of Wyoming, and Tim Burchett, of Tennessee, are among many who have referred to her as a “DEI hire.”
Hageman said: “I think she’s one of the weakest candidates I’ve ever seen in the history of our country. I mean intellectually, just really kind of the bottom of the barrel. … I think that she was a DEI hire.” Burchett referred to her as “our DEI vice president.”
Attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion are attempts to maintain the status quo.
They could have attacked Harris’ record without referring to DEI, but instead they chose to say “DEI hire” and “DEI vice president” to perpetuate a narrative that people of color and women can only be in positions of power or authority because of quotas, preferential treatment and unfair advantage given to them based on their social identities. That is: not because of their education, qualifications, training or experience. These false racist and sexist attacks seek to reinforce beliefs that the best, and potentially only, people qualified to lead America are white men. Attacks on diversity, equity and inclusion are attempts to maintain the status quo.
Attacking the credibility of people of color, women, people with disabilities and others from historically marginalized groups is nothing new in America. The only thing new is the collective misrepresentation of the term diversity, equity, and inclusion to do it. The acronym DEI has been weaponized by people who feel threatened by the racial diversification of America and its leadership; the success of women in corporate and public sector jobs; the mere presence of people with disabilities in the workplace and in society; as well as the increased visibility of LGBTQ+ people and their families. They perceive that reality as an existential crisis.
In addition to elected officials, there have been numerous recent examples of highly visible powerbrokers and pundits denigrating people of color, specifically Black people, claiming they are unqualified for the positions they hold, and that they were hired based on their race, not merit.
In January, not long after a panel blew off an Alaska Airlines plane in flight, Elon Musk took to his social media platform X to criticize efforts by United Airlines and Boeing to diversify their pilots and factory workers. “It will take an airplane crashing and killing hundreds of people for them to change this crazy policy of DIE,” he wrote, misspelling the acronym.
He was responding to an X user who speculated about the IQs of pilots who attended historically Black colleges and universities, or HBCUs. The next day, Musk said, “Do you want to fly in an airplane where they prioritized DEI hiring over your safety? That is actually happening.” His lie that the airline’s DEI policies had endangered the public was shared with millions of X users.
Again, this is not new. First, powerful opponents of progress sought to discredit and gut affirmative action policies. Now they have their sights set on anything they choose to label DEI. This strategy to characterize Black people as unqualified, framed within the context of “DEI hires,” is a targeted effort to attack policies and practices that have created pathways to leadership and power for people of color, women, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+ people, and others. Because while “DEI hire” has been most frequently used to discredit women and people of color, it is also used to devalue the contributions of people with disabilities and other marginalized and oppressed identities.
The weaponization of the term DEI cuts across sectors and disciplines, including in health care and medicine, where I have had health care executives tell me that DEI efforts in hospitals or medical schools lower standards and thereby jeopardize the quality of care provided to patients. One health care executive went so far as to say that “a diverse hire,” another way to say DEI hire, would underperform because they trained at an HBCU. Although factually inaccurate, these beliefs about DEI have taken hold in our national narrative.
So, what is DEI really? Diversity, equity and inclusion supports full participation of all people; promotes fair treatment through the intentional use of power, policies and practices; and values individuals within the context of their identities, not in spite of them. It is a response to glaring inequities throughout society, particularly those in education and employment. Recent reversals of public and institutional policies that advance DEI are most often the result of orchestrated resistance by people who believe that DEI will disenfranchise and disempower white people, especially white men. Frankly, the data does not support those claims. After decades of policies and practices to support DEI, inequities in opportunities and pay continue to plague women and people of color. ‘Among STEM majors, to get the same rating as a white male with a 3.75 GPA, a minority or female candidate needed a 4.0.’ A 2021 study by Judd Kessler and Corinne Low found that “firms hiring in STEM fields rated minority and female candidates significantly lower than white males. Among STEM majors, to get the same rating as a white male with a 3.75 GPA, a minority or female candidate needed a 4.0.” Even with DEI policies in place, Black women make 66 cents on the dollar compared with their white male counterparts, when doing the same jobs with comparable qualifications. These statistics and examples indicate the necessity of DEI. They also point to how dangerous the misappropriation and weaponization of DEI is to decades of slow and fragile social progress and policy change. The truth about DEI is that it promotes American values that are necessary for a healthy, functional and thriving democracy. It is consistent with ideals such as liberty and justice for all people. That is not a zero-sum game where one group’s gain is another’s loss. Instead, it is America making good on its promise to create a society where everyone can flourish and contribute their talents and skills to the collective good while having a fair chance to succeed. These ideals are woven into the complex fabric of who we are as a nation, and we cannot afford to regress to darker times.
Natalie S. Burke
A nationally-known speaker, strategist, and public health leader, Natalie S. Burke is President and CEO of CommonHealth ACTION–whose mission is to develop people and organizations to produce health through equitable policies, programs, and practices. In addition to serving as the primary architect of CommonHealth ACTION’s Foundations of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Health Equity online courses and certifications — Natalie served as co-director for the Robert Wood Johnson-funded Culture of Health Leaders Program for eight years. She believes that to alter our collective health destiny, we must change our language; challenge deeply held beliefs about equity and identity in our society; create systems that work for all people; and accept the role we each play in the production of the public’s health. 
