Time for W&L to Abandon DEI
24 January 2025
Introduction
Most of us were taught to avoid certain topics in polite company. Like money, religion, and politics.
We might add DEI to that list.
No one likes to talk about it, particularly around MLK’s birthday and Black History Month. We all cheer for the downtrodden, the underdog, and those less fortunate than we are. Anyone with a shred of compassion earnestly prays for the betterment of the human condition.
Charity and benevolence are one thing. But DEI is an altogether different beast. And we can no longer avoid talking about this beast, which has become the elephant in the room.
In recent months, particularly after the 2024 elections, universities, corporations, and even state and federal agencies are terminating DEI programs. Not because they don’t care about the less fortunate, but because DEI has proved to be an unmitigated disaster.
The following article makes the case for why W&L should follow suit and reverse course on its DEI policies.
The Time Has Come For W&L To Abandon DEI
Most alumni who graduated years ago probably assume today’s college campus is much the same as when they were in school.
The reality, though, is that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has been the most divisive, toxic, and racist movement ever to hit America’s campuses. DEI is discriminatory and—to paraphrase Ibram X. Kendi—it replaces past discrimination with current discrimination, particularly against whites and Asians.
Campus DEI policies permeate every corner of academia, from admissions and public relations to students, student groups, and dorms. Everyone has been force-fed woke DEI training. Faculty and staff walk on eggshells knowing that their annual performance ratings, promotions, and pay raises will be based significantly on their DEI compliance. Survival on campus requires constant self-censorship. No one dares to speak out against the prevailing mind-set. Meanwhile, students give professors politically correct answers in the hope of getting a better grade.
Universities welcome a host of DEI speakers while denying speakers with other world views who “might cause trouble.” Educational institutions have failed to promote freedom of expression as outlined in the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. Rather than preparing students from all walks of life, chosen on merit, to excel and contribute to the success of America, universities have lowered standards, endangering our future global competitiveness.
Philosophically, DEI aligns more with planned economies, which historically underperform free market systems where competition and meritocracy invariably produce higher standards of living. DEI is nothing more than a different form of discrimination, applied in retaliation against alleged “oppressors” in favor of perceived victims. Two wrongs never make a right.
Universities rejected open-mindedness and merit while surrendering to mob-fueled wokeness. They stifled critical thought and freedom of speech in a flawed attempt to fight racism with more racism.
The core fault of DEI is its assertion that there is no redemption for being white. This errant ideology has now backfired and failed. Unconscious bias training—designed to produce antiracist allies—simply angered people who were lectured about their supposed hidden prejudices.
Hiring employees or admitting students based solely on identity produces negative outcomes. The nation coined the term “DEI hires”—disparaging those hires as inferior and unworthy of respect—which unfairly penalizes the minorities who really are the best. Little to no evidence exists that DEI generates good results. Its primary outcome is distrust and dissent.
Stanley Goldfarb, chairman of the anti-discrimination organization Do No Harm, links DEI to anti-Semitism. Hitler regularly accused Jews of discriminating against ethnic Germans and conspiring to enrich themselves from German labor, much as DEI theories accuse white people of doing today. DEI is based on critical race theory, a Marxist ideology that claims all differences in outcomes between ethnic groups stem from racial discrimination, that American society systemically discriminates against minorities, and that all white people share in unearned privilege. “No white person is innocent,” state Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic in their book, “Critical Race Theory.” So, CRT/DEI activists urged the federal government, schools, and private employers to discriminate in favor of racial minorities to overturn their alleged “systemic racism.”
DEI simply swapped old racism for new racism. It dumbed down academic excellence in favor of mediocrity masquerading as “equity.” Would you really want a DEI surgeon for your open-heart surgery?
DEI staffing is also exorbitantly expensive. Two out of three major college campuses require students to take courses in DEI, according to the Goldwater Institute.
Worse yet, DEI leads to violence. The transgender student who killed six people at Covenant School in Nashville last March, for example, wrote in her journal that she was “white nothingness,” and she referred to her victims as “white privileges.”
Off campus, DEI and CRT have created chaos and made our cities unsafe as “social justice” prosecutors refused to prosecute criminals. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) 2022-2026 Strategic Plan ranks as its number one goal to “instill equity as a foundation to emergency management.” Hurricane victims in Florida and Western North Carolina can tell you how this played out.
America has never been more polarized.
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability passed the Dismantle DEI Act that will end all federal training that requires employees to agree “that a particular race, color, ethnicity, religion, biological sex, or national origin is inherently or systemically superior or inferior, oppressive or oppressed, or privileged or unprivileged.” DEI programs disguised as fairness foster division, inefficiency, and discrimination in our institutions.
Time has come for a return to common sense. To academic excellence and freedom of speech.
W&L must face America’s new political and cultural realities. The new administration will no longer link student aid programs to institutional policies on DEI. Congress will scrutinize the composition of faculty for any political imbalance.
Last month Dartmouth College adopted the principle of institutional neutrality. W&L should do likewise. On the congressional docket is H.R. 3724, the End Woke Higher Education Act. This bill will prohibit U.S. accreditors from requiring schools to follow DEI or any political litmus test. The proposed legislation will stop colleges from circumventing the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling which struck down affirmative action.
W&L should make it clear that job candidates will not be screened based on political orientation. Additionally, the university should issue statements protecting faculty members’ freedom to teach and conduct research without illegitimate pressure from academic officials and students.
The broader context of America’s rejection of DEI is that W&L should reverse the senseless cancel culture that effectively erased Robert E. Lee from campus. We should treat our Founders as assets rather than liabilities.
The end of DEI presents W&L with a great opportunity to assist need-based applicants, like Robert E. Lee himself, who cannot afford the high cost of college. W&L could redirect its DEI budget to programs like free summer sessions to bring future applicants up to speed academically. DEI funds could also provide more financial assistance for meritorious students in need of financial aid. Imagine the positive impact those dollars could have.
It is the dawn of a new era in America, and W&L needs to change with the times.
Written by a friend of The Generals Redoubt
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For the unedited review of DEI click on the following link.
Thank you for your kind support! Only together can we convince the university to ditch the wasteful mantra of DEI once and for all!