The rightwing extremist war on DEI intensifies by the week, it appears. And the scope of its prohibitions expands as well. Universities throughout the United States are being bullied through the threat of the loss of Federal funds -- sometimes in the billions -- unless all traces of DEI programs, offices, webpages, and staff are erased. But recall what DEI signifies: it abbreviates the ideas of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. And these ideas are fundamental to the idea of a free community of equals in a multicultural society. An administration and a movement that cares nothing about racial discrimination is now of the opinion that DEI exists primarily as a form of "white exclusion". It does not. Rather, it exists to help ensure that people of all backgrounds and identities are treated fairly, respectfully, and inclusively. And regrettably, the social outcomes across the population of the United States with respect to characteristics that profoundly matter to every human being -- longevity, health status, educational status, income, job mobility, and residential freedom -- demonstrate that the US is still a great distance from welcoming diversity, ensuring fairness and equity, and creating environments that are genuinely inclusive for all groups.
These disparities are especially pronounced with regard to race in America. It is especially timely, therefore, to welcome the publication of Race and Inequality in American Politics by Zoltan Hajnal, Vincent Hutchins, and Taeku Lee (Cambridge University Press, 2025). The book is outstanding. It is factually detailed, it makes sophisticated use of population data and public opinion studies, and it is honest in confronting the shameful realities of persistent patterns of racial discrimination, exclusion, and disadvantage that continue to exist in our country. As they put it in the opening chapter, "Our views on racial inequality and democratic politics -- whether and how they are related -- are not based on doctrinal assertions or theoretical assumptions. Rather, as social scientists, we follow the evidence" (11). As for the current realities, they believe the evidence is clear. "It is also beyond dispute that across most measures of social, economic, and political well-being America remains a nation with a clear racial hierarchy and profoundly uneven outcomes. On almost every core metric, there are sharp differences in average well-being by race with Whites and Asian Americans often falling near the top of the racial spectrum and Backs, Latinos, Native Americans, and others often residing near the bottom of that hierarchy with lower incomes, less wealth, higher rates of poverty and unemployment, more limited educational attainment, and worse health outcomes" (14). Each of these summary judgments is clearly documented in the following pages. (See also the KFF report on racial health disparities from which the graph of maternal mortality outcomes above is drawn. This graph shows that maternal mortality for the black population is about 2.6 times the rate as that for the white population.)
The book considers many aspects of racial difference in the United States today. But a central concern is about race in the politics of the US democracy. How does race affect turnout in elections? How does it affect the actions of state legislatures when redistricting occurs -- creating the possibility or likelihood of gerrymandering? How have changes in voter registration laws had differential effects on white and black voters? And how do differences in voter participation behavior seem to influence the policy preferences and choices of elected officials? In each case the authors document a pattern of disadvantage for black voters.
The war on DEI -- waged against the universities, private companies, and government health agencies like the CDC and the NIH -- is clearly intended to silence research on historical and ongoing patterns of racial discrimination and disadvantage, and to cripple the dissemination of research on these topics. This is unconscionable for multiple reasons -- reasons concerning the freedom to engage in scientific and academic research on any topic; more fundamentally, reasons concerning the truthful telling of history; and most importantly, reasons having to do with the hope that our multicultural democracy can genuinely address and eliminate the institutional and structural features of our society that continually reproduce disparities based on race and ethnicity. It is a symptom of the inclination towards white supremacy and racial antagonism within the rightwing populist movement that this war is being pursued with such fierce and unrelenting determination. Students at every level, and researchers at every level, should have the freedom and encouragement to follow the lead of Race and Inequality in American Politics, and to endeavor to understand and address the climate of racial discrimination in which we all live.
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