What DEI is. And what it isn’t.

It is: a reminder that this world is not monolithic. It is diverse, and our workplaces and museums and schools should reflect that.

It isn’t: a club to bludgeon. It isn’t taking your job or your space on the wall.

The Merriam-Webster definition is:

1: a set of values and related policies and practices focused on establishing a group culture of equitable and inclusive treatment and on attracting and retaining a diverse group of participants, including people who have historically been excluded or discriminated against [1]

Everyone should feel and be welcomed.

Again, from Merriam-Webster Dictionary:

Diversity: 1: the condition of having or being composed of differing elements : variety

especially : the inclusion of people of different races (see race entry 1 sense 1a), cultures, etc. in a group or organization

Equity: 1:fairness or justice in the way people are treated

Inclusion: 1: the act of including : the state of being included

               4: the act or practice of including and accommodating people who have historically been excluded (as because of their race, gender, sexuality, or ability) [2]

These are not negative terms.

These are not discriminatory terms.

In fact, these are non-discriminatory. They benefit everyone.

When your staff and clients are diverse you are open to new ideas. You move forward.

It’s possible that when Sally Ride became an astronaut, there was a diversity initiative at play, but her being the first woman in space is not DEI.

Acknowledging her achievement is not DEI.

Recognizing her as the first woman in the field is not DEI any more than saying and recognizing that George Washington was our first president.

Accomplishments are not DEI.

DEI does not lower standards. It enhances experiences for everyone.

Navajo Codebreakers were not chosen because they were indigenous. Their indigeneity contributed to their expertise in the field. They were chosen because they were experts. Their Native American roots were an extra bonus.

The women who put the men on the moon were not DEI. They were practically human computers and no one else could do the job.

Where would we even be without diversity and inclusion?

I see so much discord in church circles about women’s ordination. Putting aside the actual history of women preaching throughout the entirety of Christianity, where would the church be today without the women doing the work? Where would the church be without African-American spirituals? Or Jewish history that contributes to the beginnings, the births of both Christianity and Islam?

Is the Holocaust DEI?

Will closing the JFK Presidential Library stop DEI initiatives?

What about the African-American Museum? Are there both sides to being enslaved?

And Native-American history and historic sites?

What about the Irish Heritage Museum? Wouldn’t that be DEI by these standards?

DEI is not ant-white but destroying legacies based on women’s accomplishments, Black, Native, Trans accomplishments – what exactly does that do? What are we telling our children?

Erasing history doesn’t change that it happened.

• Can you really have a Stonewall Historical Building without trans people?
• Can you talk about the Capitol without talking about the enslaved who built it?
• Can you eliminate Powhatan from the Thanksgiving story?
• Without DEI, the folks on the Mayflower just die.

Please tell me what you’re afraid of.

What scares you about diversity?

About equity?

Inclusion?

Our ancestors struggled to be included. We prided ourselves as Americans on our “melting pot.” I loved that phrase when I was a kid. I still love it. Our country is a blend of so many different cultures with traditions and foods, holidays and clothes. In a melting pot, different things blend together, but you can still taste the individual flavors, see the textures, the colors. When did that end? When did we forget who we are as Americans?

Covering up pictures of women throughout history erases knowledge, like they did at the cryptology museum of the CIA. It doesn’t change what happened in the past. And it doesn’t take away their accomplishments. It says that you’re scared of sharing others’ accomplishments with the world. Do you think you can’t live up to their successes, so you feel the need to erase them; hide them?

Where would we be without Bessie Coleman?

• Jonas Salk?
• Chester Nez?
• Harriet Tubman?
• Ben Franklin?
• Nikola Tesla?
• Colin Powell, John Lewis, Jimmy Carter, Betty Ford, Mae Jemison, the Enola Gay for goodness sakes!
• Tuskegee Airmen.
• Jackie Robinson.

We need to remember our history; the good and the bad. The things we are proud of and the things that we should be ashamed of and know how and now (hopefully) to do better.

Ignoring this issue for the newest info dump distraction cannot become the norm.

This will sound like a tourism advertisement, but it’s the one of the best ways I can think of to illustrate how important our diversity is.

On one of our vacations north, we stopped in Niagara Falls, New York. Our family is white, middle class, and where did we go for one of our vacation days? The Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center. In nearby Lewiston, we visited the Tuscarora Heroes Monument. The Lewiston Museum highlights a composite of New York history, including Native American history, European exploration, the War of 1812, sites of the Underground Railroad. This just shows that in a small upstate New York town, history includes all of us and that’s not called DEI, but it is exactly what it is. Discovering ALL the people who made this country what it is and what it could be when we work together and respect our differences and then adopt some of those into our own lives.

I don’t know what I’d do if I couldn’t have matzo ball soup and sweet potato pie on the same night we have roast carving and fried rice.

Simply put, we are better together.