Does Any Living Person Know What "DEI" Means?
As always: What the hell are we talking about?
***Hey there! I’ll probably do another installment of I Might Be Wrong Komedy Klass next week. I still have a lot of great stuff that people sent in for the first installment, but I’m refreshing the call for people to send their comedy anything — a written piece, a standup clip, whatever — to KomedyKlass@imightbewrong.org. I’ll pick one piece to be the focal point of our discussion. And it’s fine to send a second thing if you already sent something — you won’t be violating some etiquette that will increase your already-pretty-intense social isolation.
Trump uses the term “DEI” in the dumbest, most assholish way possible. He and his supporters call any non-straight-white-male they don’t like a “DEI hire”, such as the four-star general that Trump fired and replaced with a retired three-star. DOGE says that they’re ending “radical DEI programs", but what does that mean? That they’re axing training seminars? That they’re cancelling contracts that gave an advantage to minority-owned businesses? To MAGA land, “DEI” means “a thing I don’t like that has something to do with race or gender.”
But Democrats have also left the term extremely vague. Some liberal/progressives are currently mounting a full-throated defense of DEI while leaving the definition at “ya know, inclusivity, or whatever.” In the clip below, Pete Buttigeig brings some thoughtful insights to the conversation about DEI, but — in my opinion — not much clarity.
Buttigeig is not one of the people I’m accusing of not doing enough to articulate what DEI means; on the contrary, Mayor Pete talk real purdy, as you can see in the conversation from which that clip is taken. Buttigeig also seems to understand that Democrats need a new approach to these issues, as demonstrated by his recent comments decrying trainings that look like “something out of Portlandia”. But in the clip above, he’s talking about the conceptual goals of diversity, equity, and inclusion more than the policies that the left has put in place to try to achieve those goals. And the policies — not the concepts — are the problem. In my opinion, those policies are one of the main answers to the question that’s been rattling around in Democrats’ heads for months: “How the fuck did we lose to Trump?” I think it would help to pin down what “DEI” means, and if I can do that while also making some dirty jokes, well: That’s how I put food on my table.