Not a Hire — an Advocate
There is no idea so inane, so ridiculous, that some people will not fail to defend it. We encounter such ideas and the people who espouse them all the time, giving neither much space nor time in our consciousness.
But what if the “idea” is not just empty of substance – devoid of character? What if the idea can be harmful? And what if the people behind it – aware of its potential for harm or not – seek its implementation in society? Such is the circumstance that confronts America today. And the idea is often couched in the acronym: DEI – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion.
This essay illustrates why the effects of this idea must be mitigated. And this is particularly acute today with the announcement by President Joe Biden that he will not seek a second term as president. I suppose the president could have made a worse choice in his endorsement of someone to replace him (mediocrity is not difficult to find), honestly, several people come to mind. (But that’s another essay.)
His choice (and that of the Democratic Party) was the current Vice President, Kamala Harris. Here’s the problem with this picture – Kamala Harris is not only an advocate of DEI – she is on record as vice president extolling the virtues of embracing its vision for America.
In April on a visit to Atlanta, Harris made these comments, “In spite of those who in certain parts of our country want to attack DEI, we understand that you can’t truly invest in the strength of our nation if you don’t pay attention to diversity, equity, and inclusion.”
Here’s the question before us America:
Is this the person we want sitting in the White House with authority over currently – $79.1 billion – of funding for the US Department of Education?
After reading this essay, you tell me the answer to that question. DEI has already earned a well-deserved reputation in our society as a perceived threat. And this is especially true in our classrooms, in fact, our entire educational system.
Most Americans (especially parents) are painfully aware that children are under-performing in school. It’s in the numbers. The National Assessment of Educational Progress reports declines in math and reading scores since Covid which continues a decade long slide. With students posting the largest score declines ever recorded in math. But what is going on in the schools is merely a symptom of something more insidious. And it has the potential to get much worse for America and our children.
This decline in student performance may very well originate from a more deep-seated current within America in general and our educational system in particular. It is about the very idea of truth, itself. And it stems from an infusion of postmodern thought and Marxist ideology – the theatrics of which are being played out in the DEI controversy plaguing America today.
Postmodernism accepts the idea that people can interpret truth and reality in innumerable ways. Hence, there is no correct, orthodox manner of interpretation. I once asked philosophy students of mine what postmodernism was. One replied, “It’s when you put quotation marks around everything.” As you will see, it was not a bad answer.
Objective claims are dismissed as naïve realism, emphasizing the conditional nature of knowledge. There is no one truth about anything – including the very nature of what constitutes truth or reality, itself. Deconstruction, one of several variations to postmodernist thought, holds this view:
One must deconstruct everything – there is no truth to any perceived reality.
Marxism expands on postmodernism’s rejection of objective truth by politicizing it. It views society’s construct of reality as a restrictive framework imposed by the ruling class on marginalized people. And it seeks a class struggle to eliminate the economic and political systems that justify the status quo.
It is this combination of postmodernist thought (no objective truth) and Marxism (class struggle) which emerges from the “unholy trinity” of DEI which has infected America’s businesses, institutions and schools. Diversity holds no one’s interpretation of reality as correct. Equity means “equality of outcome” as opposed to the idea of “equality of opportunity.” The latter is what America strives for. The former is contrary to America’s founding documents and our way of life. Inclusion demands the recognition of perspectives opposite our own, as they allegedly have an equal claim to what is and is not truth.
When Kamala Harris talks about “equity,” she means “equality of outcome.” In February 2021 she offered these remarks:
“We have always fought for equality…we want everyone to get an equal amount – that sounds right – but not everyone starts out from the same place…it has to be about a goal of saying everybody should end up in the same place. And since we didn’t start in the same place, some folks might need more equitable distribution.”
Marxism and DEI in the classroom
Marxism and DEI have become intertwined in the context of education. Its initiatives have been implemented in schools, often under the guise of promoting social justice and equality. Rooted in Marxist ideology, they seek to reshape society and education to achieve a specific political agenda – aimed at creating an administered economy to effect equal outcomes.
Devastating to Traditional Education
Once truth is accepted as having multiple equally viable interpretations, with no exclusive claim from any one system, the project of education ends. Any attempt to seek truth – fundamental to education – is doomed to fail because the “truth” postmodernism seeks is purely subjective – a matter of perspective.
This idea is devastating to a traditional educational structure. If education is supposed to guide students towards truth, denying the boundaries between truth and falsehood precludes any meaningful purpose to learning. Such a disruption in the American tradition of education undermines the very foundation from which it emerged – Declaration of Independence, Natural Law, Inalienable Rights.
The American tradition of classical liberalism (derived from the ancient Greeks and those of the Age of Reason) holds that a divine providence ‘endowed’ humanity with rights that were therefore natural and not a function of human intervention or interpretation. To the classical liberal in America, human freedom is justified through an appeal to that truth which is the basis for why there is something rather than nothing–why the universe is rather than is not.
Yet, the idea of a single, absolute truth – a transcendent perspective – contradicts DEI. Diversity requires validating another’s interpretation of truth, rather than upholding one’s own as absolute.The “trinity” of DEI undermines Western culture’s traditional quest for truth through classicaleducation – to get at the essence of a thing. The latter speaks to the fundamental nature or being of an entity. The essence of a thing is intrinsic, definitive, real. This fundamental precept upholds traditional conceptions of truth, including today in the context of the new physics of quantum theory. There is always a fundamental something that is.
But, alas there can be no truth in DEI parlance. To assert an objective essence would be to marginalize those who reject its reality. Thus, with DEI the enterprise of education, the seeking of truth, is impossible – and so is the education of America’s youth.
And this brings us back to the current problem for America – the Democratic nominee for President – Kamala Harris. The education of America’s youth and thus the future of America should not be based on any notion derived from Marxist ideology (class struggle) or postmodernism (denial of objective truth). And it certainly should not be in the hands of or at the whim of those who advocate for such an ideology – and certainly not someone with such awesome power – like the President of the United States.
