Malcolm X once asked a deeply inner-directed question, "Who taught you to hate yourself?" Though originally addressed to Black America, the question echoes with
Dr. Lessie Branch
The rejection of initiatives designed to uplift and unify, mirrors the self-defeating blindness described by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Veil” from The Souls of Black Folk. Once thought to reflect the reality of Black Americans, this metaphor now highlights our society’s resistance to shared humanity and collective liberation.
The opposition is incongruous. White Americans, particularly white women, have been the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action policies, experiencing both significant increases in educational attainment and workforce participation. Yet many white Americans oppose the very programs that have contributed to this socio-economic advancement.
Du Bois described the Veil as a shroud that dulled the vision of white Americans, preventing them from recognizing Black people as fully human, yet, in bitter irony, this new Veil appears to be clouding the objectives of DEI initiatives by obscuring its role in achieving equity. This distortion recasts DEI efforts not as bridges toward collective progress but as existential threats that blind many white Americans to the uncomfortable truth that they have always been beneficiaries of policies they now oppose.
The antagonism to these initiatives originates in a tangled web of false narratives and propagandized fears that promote a racialized view of inclusion efforts, shockingly by those who have benefitted most from their success. This distorted view misrepresents not only the programs, but their contribution to the collective good.
A widely held erroneous belief is that affirmative action has primarily served as a ladder for people of color. A 1995 Department of Labor report revealed that, since the 1960s, these programs have propelled 5 million minorities, and 6 million women, to achieve greater workplace success, but the vast majority of the women were white, and they notably out-achieved all people of color. Consider also IBM, where the number of women in management roles more than tripled within a single decade, while executives of color lagged statistically behind. This data challenges the overly simplistic, and racially biased, narratives we are pushed to believe.
This modern Veil not only obscures the tangible benefits of DEI initiatives, but, worse, the humanity of those seen and framed as primary beneficiaries. Just as the original Veil blinded white Americans to the full personhood of Black Americans, this contemporary shroud prevents the recognition of shared dignity and equal worth of those miscast as adversaries in the struggle for equity.
Malcolm X's question, then, resonates anew in this context, casting light on a subtle yet profound irony. Many white Americans who oppose these initiatives are, in a sense, being conditioned to reject the part of themselves that has reaped the benefits of these very policies. They are, in essence, taught to scorn programs that have, paradoxically, contributed to their own advancement; to cut off their nose to spite their face.
The resistance to DEI is not an isolated phenomenon, it belongs in a broader historical bucket of reactionary moral panic and, “…part of a long through-line in American history of a kind of racial backlash,” a cyclical recoil whenever “…there's the perception of movement for racial progress.”
The fact is that unity and diversity have never been opposing forces, but rather complementary strengths. The story of the Native American Code Talkers during World War II offers a testament to this truth. Their universally distinct languages became a vital thread in the fabric of Allied victory, an example where diversity demonstrated a unique capacity to transform difference into a powerful, united strength.
In Optimism at All Costs, the author contends that “…historically, paradoxes are often not overcome or resolved per se. Rather, they are dissolved, rendered logically possible, and reconciled by newly emergent possibilities.”
As we navigate the intricate challenges before us, it is vital to understand that embracing diversity does not necessitate the abandonment of unity. Instead, it calls us to see our differences not as barriers but as wellsprings of strength, innovation, and progress, possibilities realized only when we come together with shared purpose.
History has, indeed, revealed that such initiatives have, more often than not, benefited white Americans in greater numbers than their non-white counterparts, and by discarding the false narratives that sow division among groups, we can begin to foster a society that views the advancement of DEI not merely as a moral imperative, but a practical (and shared) one. When we embrace these efforts, we start to cultivate a society that shares a vision of unity that is strengthened by the richness of its diversity.
Dr. Lessie Branch, an award-winning author, is a U.S. Navy Veteran, a public and urban policy scholar with a focus on racial socioeconomic and political disparities.
