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When I hear that someone identifies as anti-DEI, I am curious if it is the diversity, the equity or the inclusion part that they disagree with most. Perhaps they aren’t sure what it means. Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) ensures that everyone has equal opportunities. It establishes an environment where everyone can participate to the best of their ability. It ensures equal access to education, housing and employment based on your merit and your inherent human rights. Everyone who is not a younger, healthy, able-bodied, straight, Christian, cisgender, white, natural-born male is protected by DEI. Everyone benefits when all of our population can live safely, be gainfully employed, pay taxes and treat each other fairly. The cognitive dissonance of people supporting anti-DEI mandates boggles my mind. They forget that they directly benefit from equal opportunities and that they are in immediate danger of losing those protections as the anti-DEI mandates destroy the programs and rights their families depend on.

Conservative politicians pretend that DEI quotas exist to hire people based on their differences. Anti-DEI propaganda is spreading misinformation that DEI policies grant undeserved privileges to minorities. They falsely claim that white men are the new minority and must be protected.

Title VII prohibits employment discrimination. The 2004 Emily and Greg study, by Bertrand and Mullainathan, and many subsequent studies have found that people with white-sounding names (like Emily and Greg) received 50 percent more callbacks than those with Black-sounding names (like Lakisha and Jamal). A white male with identical qualifications to a “DEI candidate” has been proven to be more likely to be interviewed, hired, promoted and out-earn their non-white, non-male peers.

Affirmative action has been rescinded by the executive order inaptly titled, “Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity.”

The Fair Housing Act says you can’t be denied housing based on race, color, religion, national origin, gender, familial status or disability. According to Shelterforce, these anti-DEI executive orders and DOGE are threatening housing programs and withholding Fair Housing grants because “it no longer effectuates the agency priorities.”

They are deleting the historic achievements of women and minorities in our museums and Veterans Affairs, scrubbing references from government websites that mention gender or race.

Women’s rights are established by legislation but not codified in the Constitution. The 19th Amendment guarantees women’s right to vote. Our other rights are “unenumerated,” according to current Supreme Court guidance. The 14th Amendment lays the groundwork for the laws, but we are one wrong Supreme Court decision away from women’s equality being found unconstitutional.

The Legislative Branch creates laws and the budget. The Executive Branch administers the law. The Judiciary interprets laws according to the Constitution. The checks and balances system cannot function when entire government branches abdicate their power and kiss the ring. This administration has weaponized this Supreme Court to starve laws that are not codified in the Constitution. Congress still refuses to reclaim its power over the purse. Step by step, the president is working his way through the Project 2025 handbook.

Bethany Greiner
Albert Lea