Charles Milliken: The real reason for diversity, equity and inclusion
Over years of teaching, I note the term “fair” is much beloved by the young and naive. It seems ingrained in us to prefer “fair” to “unfair” — the fun begins when attempting to define what is “fair.” For the better part of a century in this nation, the naive belief in “fair” has spread far beyond those of tender years into the society at large, (indeed most of our current obsession with “fairness" had its origins in faculties of higher education, who never outgrew their youthful naivete.) Somehow it just seems “unfair” that some have more than others — that some succeed while others fail. This “unfairness” must be addressed.
The first area of “unfairness” to be assaulted was the practice of outright racial discrimination. This was relatively easy, although long delayed, since all but a few died in the wool racists thought it was unfair to discriminate against Black people or other “people of color.” Civil rights, then “affirmative action” sought to address such blatant unfairness, then quickly morphed into reverse discrimination to atone for past sins.
Why stop there? Although specific quotas are legally forbidden, there are always workarounds. Marxists from Karl Marx on have thought unequal incomes are unfair. Then there is the inherent human desire to feel valued and included in any social structure. Presto! “Diversity” as a code for quotas, “Equity” as a code for leveling outcomes — meaning take from the successful and give to the unsuccessful — and “Inclusion” as a decidedly murky attempt to make everyone feel valued. (When I was a faculty member, students were made part of virtually every committee. They were politely ignored, but very politely included.)
By a happy coincidence with DEI, colleges shifted away from the “hard” subjects of two or three generations ago, and went for “soft” subjects, such as “studies.” Anything called a “study” lacks anything like the academic rigor expected when I was in college. In parallel with this, other areas of academia got dumbed down, grade inflation got ramped up, and counselors, hired by the thousands, helped steer students through the rigors of reading an academic handbook, all designed to increase enrollments, and thus create more income for colleges.
By an unhappy coincidence, this has meant hundreds of thousands of college graduates, unfit for any job much beyond the menial, and emotionally unable to consider hard manual work, which pays well but gets your hands dirty.
DEI and similar programs have come riding to the rescue. Your average studies major may not know much more than how to read slowly and write poorly, but by golly they have graduated imbued with the burning zeal to make society a more just place! So jobs by the tens of thousands have opened up, requiring little more than elementary and advanced paper shuffling. These jobs pay well, and are perfectly suited to hiring by category, rather than skill, because skill is little involved. Maybe I shouldn’t be too harsh on DEI, since immense numbers of bureaucratic positions fit the same bill, and have been around a lot longer.
Another characteristic of DEI positions is that nowhere are any of these terms defined with any precision. If you graduate from college with an engineering degree what you need to do is spelled out quite clearly, and success or failure is relatively easy to measure. But what exactly does “diversity” mean, except do not under any circumstances hire a male, especially if he is white or Asian. You mustn't codify that, but the emphasis is clear. “Equity,” that is, equal outcomes, means to pay those at the top less, and those at the bottom more. How hard is that? No one has a clue as to what “inclusion” means, but it is a fruitful area for endless memos translating to “be nice to everyone.”
Blowback is arriving, however. Florida just passed a law banning DEI in their state universities, and the University of Florida eliminated a couple dozen DEI slots, and cut $5 million from its budget. If you are aspiring to one of those DEI jobs, better look elsewhere. Being a barista isn’t so bad.
— Charles Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.
This article originally appeared on The Holland Sentinel: Charles Milliken: The real reason for diversity, equity and inclusion
