Caitlin and Trent join Associate Professor Victor Ray to talk about DEI. What is meant by DEI depends on who is using it and what they’re trying to get done. Victor explains the history of DEI as a set of legal standards that insulated companies from accusations of discrimination, designed from the start to avoid upsetting the exact people who are now trying to purge the upper levels of every institution of anybody who isn’t white, straight, cisgender, conservative, male, middle class. They chat about some of the themes of anti-DEI opinion pieces and legislation, and they discuss how antipathy toward DEI exposes a sense of entitlement not to have to consider the perspectives and experiences of other people.

Resources:

Victor’s article: https://theemancipator.org/2025/01/28/topics/u-s-politics/eliminating-dei-isnt-just-racist-its-segregationist/

Victor’s book: https://penguinrandomhouse.com/books/708739/on-critical-race-theory-by-victor-ray/

Mary Bucholtz: The Public Life of White Affects: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/josl.12392

Jennifer Mueller’s work on white ignorance: https://academic.oup.com/socpro/article-abstract/64/2/219/3058571?redirectedFrom=fulltext

Why DEI Has No Place at Stanford: https://stanforddaily.com/2025/04/15/from-the-community-why-dei-has-no-place-at-stanford/

What DEI Threatens isn’t Merit, It’s Monopoly: https://stanforddaily.com/2025/04/22/what-dei-threatens-isnt-merit-its-monopoly/

Policies to assist financially were racially unequal https://wwnorton.com/books/When-Affirmative-Action-Was-White/

Trump EOs: https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/ending-illegal-discrimination-and-restoring-merit-based-opportunity/, https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/restoring-equality-of-opportunity-and-meritocracy/, https://whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reforming-accreditation-to-strengthen-higher-education/

DEI laudable but goes too far: https://nytimes.com/2025/01/28/opinion/dei-military-social-justice.html

NY Times on Trump’s First 100 Days: https://nytimes.com/2025/05/01/opinion/trump-100-days-opposition.html

Steven Pinker on Hallucinating Bigotry: https://x.com/sapinker/status/1861284167289577930

Steven Pinker on DEI as Unaccountable Bureaucracy: https://reason.com/podcast/2024/03/27/steven-pinker-what-went-wrong-at-harvard/

Company Towns: https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/organizations/labor/company-towns-1890s-to-1935/

Presidio Park Freedom City: https://city-journal.org/article/building-freedom-cities

Jamelle Bouie: DEI repeals in practice are purges https://nytimes.com/2025/02/12/opinion/trump-dei-meritocracy-civil-right.html