This Week's Opening Thought: April 1, 2024

This week's opening thought for people of pallor: The levels of obliviousness, hatred, and ignorance you have to have in your unmelanated bodies to weaponize the acronym DEI and try to re-position it as "Didn't Earn It" when people of pallor have been getting by on being just people of pallor for centuries is hilarious.

Real talk? I've got my issues with DEI initiatives. I don't think they go far enough - but I understand why. I think DEI is a series of deep and necessary conversations and reflections on who we are as individuals and a collective that the dominant culture has neutered. I think DEI has been diluted by white supremacist ideology in many circles to cater to people of pallor who can't find it in them to acknowledge that history, generational trauma, and epigenetics play a part in the oppressive states we exist in to the point where we can do and be better as a society. I also think DEI should never be under Human Resources's banner in a workplace because that's where progress goes to die. But damn.

"Didn't Earn It?"

Really, people of pallor?

"Didn't Earn It?"

Most of y'all's "heroes" and "luminaries" are nepo and trust fund babies. Most of them have used people like you as stepping stones to achieving more wealth than any of our families will see in seven lifetimes.

"Didn't Earn It?"

Most of y'all have built careers and businesses on being unmelanated, generic, and mediocre with an inflated sense of ego and entitlement. Most of y'all think you're the most competent person in the room, even around topics you know nothing about. Meanwhile, Black and Brown folx, Indigenous folx, and melanated communities, in general, have spent decades of their lives grappling with possibly being the smartest person in a room full of fragile people of pallor but having to be quiet so you aren't singled out and harmed. So many communities of color have had to code-switch or assimilate to survive and keep a roof over their heads.

"Didn't Earn It?"

I've watched as people of pallor come into workplaces, contribute less than a minimum effort, barely come to work, do long-term irreparable harm to everyone around them unless they bow to their will, and get praise for being a good hand and countless promotions and raises. Meanwhile, I've watched as Black and Brown folx, Indigenous folx, and people of color get written up for calling out isms and phobias in meetings, standing up for themselves, or publicly chided for the one time we're 10 minutes late.

"Didn't Earn It?"

Some of y'all are aiming your self-loathing and feelings of inadequacy in the wrong direction.

P.S.: The unmitigated gall it takes to weaponize an acronym for life work dedicated to making our world a more equitable and inclusive place for everyone as a racial slur, then to use it to do further harm to the people and families impacted by the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse and the Black mayor of Baltimore shows how vile and fragile some of y'all are.

On White Shock, White Awe, and the Dismantling of DEI Work in Organizations

White “professionals”: If you’re shocked by the news that many companies have recently been dropping “DEI” departments and initiatives to “save money,” then I feel for you and the ridiculous state of blissful ignorance you’ve been likely embracing most of your adult life but especially since the murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor led to protests across the United States.

Come on. You aren’t shocked, are you? C’MON. Stop that. Of course, these initiatives are on the chopping block. Most of these departments and initiatives were running on fumes anyway. Your company leadership ensured that by placing the burden on a handful of melanated folx led by clueless “good” white “DEI experts” and making melanated folx the scapegoats when your company didn’t have life-changing, culture-shifting results in six months to a year. And real talk?

Most of y’all have been going through the motions for damn-near three years.

Your workplaces were doing the same thing.

White capitalism-driven systems like workplaces are designed for optimum performative allyship to keep all the “good” white folx feeling good about themselves. And real talk?

Y’all stopped feeling good about being an “ally” by the autumn of 2020.

When it stopped being the “cool thing to do?” Most of y’all went back to your regularly scheduled programming.

We [the melanated masses plus everyone you work with who isn’t white, straight, cishet, and able-bodied] could see it in your body language and how you talked about the topics of equity, inclusion, anti-racism, anti-Blackness, antisemitism, and anti-Asian hate by Black Friday.

We watched as the places we worked, enthusiastic about ensuring we all knew work was a “safe place,” followed suit.

Y’all were out of energy and zeal for Black lives - any non-white lives - by January 2021.

Stop being shocked and start being honest with yourselves.

I wonder how many of y’all are standing up and speaking up as your companies cut diversity, equity, and inclusion out of your workplace like an appendix: something they had no use for and disposed of when their bodies rejected it.

Where y’all at, “allies”?

Image Description: a tweet from Twitter with the following words in black text: "Hon, is everything ok? You’ve barely touched your 2020 DEI initiative."

"Hon, is everything ok? You’ve barely touched your 2020 DEI initiative."

It's because they thought they wanted a DEI initiative for dinner, but they really wanted Dinosaur-shaped chicken nuggets and a pudding cup.

[Image Description: a tweet from Twitter with the following words in black text: "Hon, is everything ok? You’ve barely touched your 2020 DEI initiative."]