Something’s always worrying right-wing media. Remember the panic over critical race theory. That’s the framework some college courses apply to the study of social, political and economic institutions. As the right framed it, critical race theory threatened to poison the minds of the nation’s third graders.

The problem, of course, is that hardly anyone actually applies critical race theory in the real world.

Not so DEI. Diversity, equity and inclusion — DEI — is everywhere. And that makes it a much better target for right-wing angst. 

I’m David Hunt. To hear my conservative friends tell it, DEI isn’t leveling the playing field for everyone, it’s hurting people like me: white middle-class professionals — whose jobs, promotions and raises are going to others. People they characterize as diversity hires.

Don’t worry, I’m doing fine. And I’m not alone. In fact, in the first quarter of 2024, the unemployment rate for white workers was just 3.1 percent. For blacks, it was almost double that: 6 percent. 

If DEI has done anything, it’s helped companies become more adaptable in a changing world. That’s according to a 2023 study by Bain & Company. Adaptability, in turn, results in better revenue growth, shareholder return and EBIT margins, according to Bain. EBIT stands for earnings before interest and taxes and is used to measure a company’s profitability. The bottom line: Companies that are more diverse and welcoming adapt better to change and are more profitable. DEI is a good thing.

But the perception among conservatives is much different, thanks to the constant barrage of anti-diversity messages on the right.

Only 30 percent of Republican workers say DEI is a good thing, according to Pew Research. And only 7 percent value working with LGBTQ colleagues.

And so, DEI is quickly losing support among leaders in business, industry and notably higher education. For example, in the University of North Carolina System, where I worked for more than a decade, the conservative board of governors has mandated that DEI efforts refrain from what it calls “administrative activism” on behalf of social and political causes.

Antiracism is out. Neutrality is in.

What does neutrality look like in higher education? It’s not pretty. But it’s not new. In 2015, when I was a senior editor at North Carolina State University, I wrote an article for the school’s research magazine about the discovery of a 1962 recording of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. It was the first time King had used the words “I have a dream” to describe his vision of a just society. In the first draft of my article, I wrote, “Rocky Mount, like cities throughout the South, enforced the shameful segregation laws of the Jim Crow era.” 

A research administrator deleted the word shameful.

The backlash against DEI is playing out at colleges and universities across the U.S. The Chronicle of Higher Education began tracking what it calls the dismantling of DEI in July. Within a few weeks, the publication had tracked policy changes at 185 college campuses in 25 states. 

Schools in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas — to name a few —have closed down diversity programs and offices. 

Other states, including Georgia and Tennessee, have ended mandatory diversity training. 

Penn State closed its multicultural resource center. The University of Wisconsin at Madison ended a program to recruit diverse faculty. 

You get the idea.

To find a silver lining in this trend, I reached out to Renee Wells, assistant vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina.

I met Wells when she served as director of the LGBTQ Pride Center at NC State. It turns out she hasn’t given up on higher education, despite the challenges. She explains:

I love, love, love working in a field higher ed, um, that refuses to give up on the future. We prepare people to go into the world and, and not just to work, but to be part of communities and to think about the problems that we face collectively and how we move forward and addressing them together in ways that, that make the world a better place, make our communities a better place.

How do you describe the work you do in DEI?

What's interesting is that I don't see DEI as separate work. I see it as language we've developed that kind of encapsulates often really specific, you know, initiatives and outcomes. But fundamentally, at the root, what we're really trying to do is to foster a space. And that space, you know, is, is robust in a, in a college and university setting, because it's both the classroom, it's the residence hall, it's the dining hall, it's all the student organization spaces, it's athletics teams, you know, um, it's all of these environments that we're inviting students into that we're sharing with them as faculty and staff. You know, we want those spaces to be spaces where students can grow in, can learn in.

Because a lot of students come into higher ed and they're nervous. They're nervous about, you know, coming from a small town anywhere and, you know, encountering people they've never met before. And sometimes they're nervous about like what to say and what to do and what to ask and what to talk about. And it's, it's developmental and it's just also, it's new and, and exciting, but also a little intimidating. And college is a space that tries to, to carve out environments to help make that easier for folks. 

You’re listening to This Way, the international LGBTQ radio magazine. I’m David Hunt, continuing my conversation with Renee Wells on the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in higher education and beyond.

 Wells is the chief diversity officer at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. Since Queens is a private institution, it doesn’t have to enact policies mandated by the public University of North Carolina System. 

I asked Wells how her colleagues across higher education are dealing with the growing pressure to roll back diversity initiatives.

As a whole, higher ed has largely shifted internally to places that tend to understand the importance of this work, um, as it relates to student success, to employee retention, um, to just fostering a community that thrives. Um, and so doing this work in the context of higher ed is different because now you have folks inside colleges and universities, um, worrying about, about their students and worrying about their colleagues in ways that they understand very clearly now the implications of some of the external pressures, um, in ways that they, they know are going to negatively impact student success, wellbeing, retention, et cetera. Um, so it's a time where there's a lot of just impacts, but also a lot of shared anxiety about what kind of community we're able to be,

How do you respond to the idea that institutions should be viewpoint neutral?

Here's the thing. If you say we can't talk about race or ethnicity or sexuality or documentation status or, or disability or any of these things because we need to be neutral, um, we are in fact not being neutral. What we're saying is that these are things we are choosing to say are things that we cannot and should not, and will not en, you know, engage critically around. And they are all the things that make up every human being <laugh> that lives in our society. So there's a way in which, um, you know, there is absolutely nothing neutral happening. 

There's ways that the, the discomfort with whatever it is whatev whatever the root of discomfort and resistance to DEI is, and we could talk for days about what many of those roots might be, really gets in the way of us developing as like fuller and richer human beings who are able to move through the world in ways that allows us to grow. Um, and it's not just that it causes harm to people who've often like, experienced a lot of spaces that don't feel safe or, or where they don't feel welcome or they don't feel valued. Like all of us are made smaller by, by the fear of like really thoughtful and intentional community engagement. If there's anything I think about on a daily basis, it's like, what a depressing place to come to, you know, a as, as a human species that we are afraid of each other or that we're uncomfortable around each other. And so we retreat in ways that make us have less robust lives and allow a lot of people in our communities to feel unwelcome or unsafe. It's, and it's a really, really, really sad world to raise children into who are then maybe less caring and compassionate and less focused on, you know, trying to work in community with others to make a world where everybody, you know, can thrive.

Do you have advice for people in institutions who are facing a backlash against DEI, for people who want to continue creating welcoming, thriving, healthy communities, schools and workplaces?

I think if we make it about community and about relationships, you know, it makes it much more like grounded in what we do in all the spaces we navigate. Like no one goes into a learning environment without an understanding that there's a classroom full of students and that they're gonna interact with each other. And, you know, rather than putting a bunch of language on top of that, just say, you know, what are the dynamics we wanna have in this room as we learn together? And, and how do we do that? DEI actually should be something that we all want, because ultimately it is about what are the relationships that are healthy and productive in shared spaces? Um, and, and what are the skills that allow us to have those relationships with each other?

And so the thing about communal spaces is that we get so much more out of them when we're really thoughtfully engaging with each other, and we only thoughtfully engage with each other when we're invited to do so. And the, and the space where that happens is actually responsive. And, and, and what we are each contributing is valued, and then it becomes much more nuanced.

And so, you know, you might have institutions right now that are populated with people who maybe don't care or who feel pressured not to care, but, you know, in the background, like a lot of people care. A lot of people are finding ways to make sure that, that those around them feel cared for. And that we're, we're raising generations who know how to care for each other. And so, like, you know, the pendulum is a lot of things, but it's also understanding that as people go out into the world and they become future social workers and future educators and, and future, everything, we are sending people out in the world who care.

On a practical level, institutions — including many colleges and universities — have spent the better part of two decades promoting diversity, equity and inclusion as organizational values. Core values. And the people working in those institutions have largely supported those efforts and embraced those values. Dismantling DEI may end some programs, curtail some opportunities. Or those programs and opportunities may simply be rebranded and continued as ever. 

What’s certain is that institutions bowing to pressure from the right and turning away from values they once extolled are sure to lose the trust of the very people responsible for their success — or failure. And let’s not be afraid to say it. That’s shameful. 

I’d like to thank my guest, Renee Wells, assistant vice president for diversity, equity and inclusion at Queens University of Charlotte in North Carolina. For This Way Out, I’m David Hunt.