No more diversity in 2024

I have decided to make it a resolution for 2024 to avoid talking about diversity as an important issue. The United States has always been a place of diverse people and that diversity will continue regardless of efforts to stop it. The most recent data available from the United States Census bureau indicates that only 1.6 percent of individuals identify as American Indian and Alaska Native alone or

Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone. The Rest of us are here as immigrants or dependents of enslaved people.

I have come to this resolution after listening to the many arguments against diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) efforts. Attacking DEI has morphed into attacking diversity as a general principle. In areas where the Republican Party can control funding of public benefit, DEI has been portrayed as an evil to be purged from publicly supported institutions. Where I live, the University of Wisconsin system was held hostage until the Governor agreed to remove DEI programs. Across the nation, programs designed to support equity and inclusion are under attack as being discriminatory to “white” people. In reporting on these attacks, reporters commonly use the term diversity in reference to these programs. In a nation where 75 percent of people identify as white alone, I can only have so much sympathy for a group feeling threatened over outnumbering all other identities by a ratio of 3:1.

My resolution to let go of diversity in 2024 allows me a greater focus on equity and inclusion. The data demonstrating a lack of equity and inclusion among diverse people is compelling. Data supporting fears of diversity, not so much.