The Diversity Inclusion and Equity (DIE) movement is in retreat. Or at least it seems so. The University of Texas-Austin has just announced that it is laying off some 60 DIE functionaries while banning mandatory diversity training. Similar legislative efforts in 30 Republican-dominated states are underway, and countless DIE programs have already been defunded. The private sector shows a similar backlash. A recent Forbes article, “Why Are Business Leaders Pulling the Plug on DIE” told of how many corporations were eliminating DIE jobs and programs.
To be sure, recent polls show considerable support for the general idea of diversity, but it has now become permissible to openly oppose these programs. Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis’ opposition to DIE is central in their campaigns. A distinguished Black Harvard professor recently called for his school to drop required diversity statements for those applying for academic positions. The popular Fox News broadcaster Jesse Watters now offers a regular Thursday night segment poking fun at DIE, and he has said on air that it is extremely popular.
Nevertheless, the DIE movement hardly faces extinction. These laws banning DIE and open opposition obscures trends promoting racial tribalism and divisiveness infusing DIE. These trends are part of the “long march” through our institutions that will transform America slowly, and almost invisibly. According to this strategy, today’s legislators may ban DIE, but tomorrow’s brainwashed youngsters will eventually become an electoral majority, and will insist that DIE be expanded, not eliminated. Contemporary victories against DIE are only the first step, and the future belongs to those who control today’s education.
Consider, for example, a job posting for the St. Louis Park, MN schools (4500 students) for an assistant superintendent whose duties will be to “examine the presence and role of ‘Whiteness’ in systems and structures” with an annual salary between $134,141 and $201,212. He or she will “…create and communicate anti-racist structures and systems, works (sic) to interrupt systems of oppression, and serves (sic) as a role model for culturally relevant pedagogy.” Ideological fever is explicit: “They are unwaveringly committed to anti-racist actions… and will have major responsibilities to monitor and shape all teaching and learning, oversee budgets while helping the professional development of staff while, finally, supervising compliance with all relevant laws.” Keep in mind that St. Louis Park is 77% white and only 8% Black and no evidence exists that the city suffers from racial strife and every school in the district is recognized as a blue-ribbon school of excellence by the Department of Education.
A more far-reaching example in this Trojan Horse effort is “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction” directed by the Education Trust-West,” a multi-state organization funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Its “Dismantling Racism in Mathematics Instruction” handbook explains how instructors can proselytize the evils of White racism while teaching math.
Its anti-White message is everywhere: “White supremacy culture is the idea (ideology) that white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions of white people are superior to People of Color and their ideas, thoughts, beliefs, and actions.” Furthermore, “The framework for deconstructing racism in mathematics offers essential characteristics of antiracist math educators and critical approaches to dismantling white supremacy in math classrooms by making visible the toxic characteristics of white supremacy culture.” The “evil whiteness” includes perfectionism, a sense of urgency, quantity above quality, either/or thinking, objectivity and other “White” traits.
<img alt captext="Defense Visual Information Distribution Service” class=”post-image-right” src=”https://conservativenewsbriefing.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/the-battle-against-die-has-just-begun.jpg” width=”450″>Then, without any data, the book claims that toxic Whiteness “perpetuate(s) educational harm on Black, Latinx, and multilingual students, denying them full access to the world of mathematics.” Educational gobbledygook abounds — “Procedural fluency is preferred over conceptual knowledge” together with slogans such as the need to “Identify and challenge the ways that math is used to uphold capitalist, imperialist, and racist views.”
This is a math book without math. Suggested classroom exercises include “Use transit systems to teach concepts like positive and negative numbers, or the coordinate plane” or “Give each student a number and have them group with other students and explain how they grouped themselves. Then, have the entire class regroup in a different way to highlight a new set of characteristics.”
No mention is made about how denouncing White supremacy helps poor youngsters advance up the economic ladder or why absorbing anti-White propaganda will promote mastering long division or algebra.
Opponents of DIE will be exasperated by this protolyzing. There is nothing explicit illegal in the St. Louis Park job search and it is entirely public. “A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction” is obviously ideology mongering and will likely undermine the math skills of poor children, but it will surely be defended by teachers unions, civil rights activists, and even some liberal parents. Nor will dismal math test scores eliminate political propaganda. Cities like Baltimore and Detroit have had dismal scores for decades, and few complain.
Ending the pernicious DIE agenda cannot be done quickly by passing a few laws in red states or ridiculing it on Fox. The sheer number of K-12 schools — nearly 129, 000 — offers ample opportunities for racial radicals to exert influence. Recall how the anti-White 1609 project quickly spread to public schools despite all the glaring historical inaccuracies. The task will be far more difficult in blue states, especially in large cities like New York and Chicago. Moreover, DIE adherents are skilled at gaining control of school boards given low voting turnout and public indifference to debates over pedagogy. Why would the largely White St. Louis Park with its stellar schools hire anybody to expunge “Whiteness”? The triumph of gay activists in infiltrating hundreds of schools illustrates what a determined minority can accomplish, no matter how foolish their agenda.
American schools, no doubt due to declining academic proficiency, have also grown crackpot friendly. “Magical” cures to boost test scores, especially for poor Blacks and Hispanics, are everywhere. Remember Ebonics? Or hiring teachers who look like their students? Given this desperation, it will be hard to resist when the Education Trust-West offers to “fix” the math curriculum. That Bill Gates funds it probably seals the deal. Even if making math all about race fails to move the needles, thousands of students will have been indoctrinated.
Most troubling is that DIE activists have the passion and energy of religious fanatics. They are undeterred by terrible educational outcomes and aim to transform American into some fantasy racial Utopia. For these zealots, the harm caused by their anti-Whiteness nostrums is tolerable collateral damage. Argument about the opportunity costs of the all the mindless babbling just fall on deaf ears. The battle against DIE has begun with some notable successes, but current victories are only the first step against a determined enemy.
