In part one, I explained the nature of tribal membership and how it emerged as a human survival mechanism in an environment full of threats and challenges. I explained how white evangelical Christian tribes began to feel threatened by an increasingly secular society against which they could no longer compete nor fully retreat. As I mentioned in part one, I left the black Christian church to attend a predominately white evangelical church during my teens in the 1970’s before politics was introduced. As a black person, I felt comfortable in a setting that fully embraced the notion of “colorblindness” and therefore accepted me so long as I complied with the unstated, but crystal clear, normative standards of whiteness while avoiding any public acknowledgment of historic wrongs and ongoing discrimination I faced outside the church.
However, life in a bubble like this can’t possibly last and it didn’t. The outside world creeped in at every turn around issues of pre-marital sex (and abortion), feminism, and LGBTQ rights. These became unavoidable threats to the tribal order as women steadily gained independence and gays slowly emerged from their closets. I recounted how political power was introduced to the white evangelical church, first as a means of self-preservation and then as a vehicle to bend society to its conservative will. Sadly, the Gospel of Jesus Christ was gradually replaced by a growing greed for political power and a desire to force society into submission. White evangelical Christians, along with the few people of color in their ranks who subscribe to a white hegemonic standard, joined hands with white nationalists to form a tribe hell bent on elevating white supremacy and “Christianity” through a campaign to “Make America Great Again” lead by Donald Trump. Standing in their way is democracy itself and a humanistic moral conviction that resonates with millions. It is the ideology of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
I began doing diversity work in 1997 through a community organization loosely affiliated with the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish organization formed to prevent another genocide by building human tolerance for differences. The Anti-Defamation League provided our community group of volunteers with three full days of training in how to facilitate conversations to help build an understanding, tolerance, acceptance, and hopefully an appreciation for diversity in any setting that would have us. Over the years, our initiative grew to encompass inclusion efforts and most recently, a call for equity.
Briefly stated, diversity recognizes that humanity, in all its many ways of being, are all deserving of rights, dignity and respect. Diversity embraces the variety of human languages, skin colors, traditions, religions, sexual orientations, gender identities, and histories that shape tribal membership. Diversity asks us to at least tolerate differences by not killing, shaming, and discriminating against those who are different. At best, it asks us to appreciate the contributions to humanity that come from people of every background. It seeks to replace the idea of one hegemonic standard of “normal” and “good” with multiple perspectives of what is normal and what is good. However, exploitation and harm to others in the name of “culture” or “tradition” was not acceptable.
Inclusion asks for a seat at the decision-making table for individuals and tribal groups that were previously excluded because they were not considered part of the “normal” or “good” ideal which was built into a standard called whiteness. Inclusion seeks to enter spaces and take on roles that the dominate tribe historically excluded them from entering. Inclusion stands at the door of whiteness offering new ideas, creativity, broader perspectives, and energy that could improve the whole of society if embraced.
And finally, equity is basic fairness. It acknowledges that intentional efforts are required to ensure that everyone in the society has the basic tools required to at least survive, if not thrive. Equity seeks to repair the damage of historical wrongs that limited access and opportunities for people and groups outside the previously “normal” and “good”. For most of American history, male whiteness was the access ticket to opportunity, justice, capital investment, and even government welfare. Equity seeks to ensure that future generations have equal access to foundational necessities like health, education, and non-discriminatory practices in the public sector.
I began my work at the university in Multicultural and International Programs, doing diversity workshops for students, faculty, and staff. I was among the first chief diversity officers in the nation in 2008 when I was appointed to that post. Although challenging, I loved having the opportunity to help shape the future by advocating for diversity, inclusion, and equity (DEI) at both the interpersonal and institutional levels until my retirement in 2021.
Over the years, I encountered many people, particularly young professionals and students from underrepresented backgrounds, who thought the DEI efforts were far too slow and others, particularly older professionals, usually white males, who thought the efforts were moving far too fast. It was always satisfying to observe white folks begin to understand the gross disparity in resources and environmental considerations that flowed to communities based on race and economics. They wanted desperately to believe in a meritocracy that did not exist. They despaired over a color-blindness that was only a myth. It was a tough balancing act trying to engender patience in those who demanded immediate change while building enough empathy in those with the actual power to change things. I always knew that a moral imperative alone would never be adequate motivation for those who benefit from privilege and power to willingly relinquish it.
But more difficult than the balancing act or delivering a convincing moral imperative was figuring out how to avoid my own prediction of an inevitable backlash. I never did. In conversations with colleagues, I would often remind them that DEI efforts can easily be perceived as a threat to those who have directly or indirectly benefitted from a system that privileges whiteness as normal and good. Who would willingly relinquish a system that gives them the advantages they need to succeed in society, even if it is at the expense of others? The current system, though unfair, is working for them and we are asking them to change it simply because it is the morally right thing to do. As researchers and educators, we tried to present the growing body of empirical evidence to support the benefits of diversity, inclusion, and equity that accrued to students, institutions, businesses, and society as a whole, but it never gained the momentum needed at the personal level to convince white men nor to overcome youthful impatience.
I observed with trepidation the swiftly emerging problem presented by young professionals and students who were tired of asking for change. They started demanding it. I distinctly recall when the term “wokeness” became a way to distinguish between those who were for DEI (“the woke”) and those who dragged their feet (racist, homophobic, xenophobic, and misogynistic). Young professionals and students exacted a price on those who were not perceived as being “woke” enough. They were publicly shamed, boycotted, or “cancelled”.
Some straight Christian white men on campus, young and old, expressed their dislike of the DEI efforts, characterizing them as outright attacks on them. They were considered the bad guy if they didn’t outright acknowledge and renounce their “white privilege”. They expressed feelings of reverse discrimination. They felt like everyone was blaming them for a system they didn’t create. They felt like their hard work was being discounted. And they feared being “replaced” by losing future opportunities to less qualified women or people of color. Their sense of entitlement and their underlying belief that their whiteness automatically made them more worthy and more “qualified” was difficult to explain to them in a way they could hear because emotions ran way too high, and they felt very threatened. So, I wasn’t too surprised when one of the leaders at that Charlottesville march was a student from our university. I also was surprised that white males began disappearing from college campuses.
I tried to explain to colleagues how many white people intellectually embrace the idea of diversity, inclusion, and equity. It makes perfect sense on an intellectual and moral level, however, emotionally they are experiencing a visceral sense of threat and loss. And it was all coming out. The surprise 2016 election of Donald Trump was a result of white people voting on these emotions. They needed to preserve whiteness and Christianity as the cultural norm with its all its advantages, but they could not openly express it prior to the election. As we have seen, that has changed. Anti-wokeness is loud and clear among conservatives and DEI efforts are under attack, even being dismantled and outlawed in some states.
What we are experiencing today is a backlash to female, non-white, and LGBTQ faces taking up spaces in previously all-white male heterosexual domains. Diversity and inclusion efforts empowered people of different religions, sexual orientations, and gender identities to essentially come out of the closet to openly express themselves in ways previously unacceptable to a white Christian normative society. And those white Christians don’t like it. They feel pushed aside by people who are louder than them, more audacious, and possibly more interesting than the vanilla lifestyle previously in place. And the white Christian evangelical church joined by white nationalists with guns in hand are leading the way toward governmental control. We find MAGA members on the Supreme Court and within the Senate and House of Representatives, with Mich Johnson an unapologetic white Christian nationalist assuming the role as House Speaker.
So, here we are. Tribal warfare wherein one side wants to return to white Christian norms as the standard for good and the ticket to access opportunities and full inclusion in society. You can be included if you are like Justice Clarence Thomas or Senator Tim Scott or Congressman Byron Donalds. It is not lost on me that each of these men are dark-skinned and Christian and that they likely enjoy the comfort of color-blindness while fully embracing white cultural hegemony as they ignore history and minimize their own navigation of discrimination without addressing either. At CPAC, the annual conservative convention, the White Christian Nationalists finally admitted that democracy is no longer working and should be replaced. Democracy gives everyone a voice and they no longer desire to hear certain voices.
The rest of us want to preserve democracy while pushing forward with a diversity that is determined to include everyone in society and within the halls of power in a fair or equitable way. It won’t happen without a fight. This coming election will determine our trajectory as a nation. Will we return to legal discrimination, or will we move forward with democracy? It’s not time to be a spectator, but an active participant while we have the chance.