My DEI Statement Now that DEI Statements Are Falling Out of Favor
I've got boilerplate ready to go
One day, I may be asked to write a DEI statement as part of a job application. If that ever happens, I plan to submit the letter below.
Dear Prospective Employer,
I have to admit: I’m somewhat surprised that you asked me to write a diversity, equity, and inclusion statement. These statements are falling out of favor: MIT has scrapped them, academics seem to be turning against them, and The Washington Post editorial board calls them a recipe for “performative dishonesty”. DEI statements feel antiquated; it’s like you’re asking me to make a Vine that highlights my strengths, or to “list five ways that you, if hired, intend to get jiggy with it.”
Nonetheless, I welcome this opportunity. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are values that I hold dear. If hired, I intend to make them an integral part of my work. And I plan to start by denouncing the shit-for-brains logic that has caused some people to imagine that DEI statements reduce racism.
The “racial reckoning” of 2020 purported be a “centering” of the opinions of non white Americans, especially Black people. But it was not that: It was a moment when liberals who felt terrible about George Floyd’s death and racism lost the will to denounce unfathomably stupid ideas being pushed by the far left. The apotheosis of this insanity came when some people found it in themselves to pretend that “abolish the police” wasn’t the Apex Dumbfuck Idea in the dumbfuck idea ecosystem. It was a litmus test that many liberals failed, and it told every leftist that the time had come to vocalize every idiotic notion that ever oozed out of the damp heap of spaghetti that stands in for their brain.