Scrubbing DEI as if it were stained underwear

Watching the Anti-Regulation folks create … Regulations!

Are we going to be more efficient when DEIA is scrubbed?

A friend of mine works with a mid-sized educational museum … one of those places constantly striving to stay afloat financially by creating a rich offering of online educational programs. These days, instead of diversifying their programs to respond to customer needs, they’re focused on the red state mandate to scrub their website and materials for any inclusion of DEIA (diversity, equity, inclusion and access).

My friend explained that they didn’t think the state’s demand was quite fair for their shoe string operation to have to spend their precious time trying to meet the deadline set for this make-work project.

However, there were harsh penalties for non-compliance (people were threatened with being fired) so they were trying. Although, the deeper they got into articles written by experts, videos, programs and guide books developed over the years, the more complicated it became until it seemed impossible and they considered just shutting their website down.

Except that would have a severe impact on their revenue, possibly even putting them out of business. (Story in progress.)

Will NASA really be more effective after taking a word bath?

404Media reports receiving a copy of the following directive sent on January 22:

“Per NASA HQ direction, we are required to scrub mentions of the following terms from our public sites by 5pm ET today. This is a drop everything and reprioritize your day request. Note that the list below is the list that exists this morning, but it may grow as the day goes on.

• DEIA

• Diversity (in context of DEIA) (see image below)

• Equity (“ “)

• Inclusion (“ “)

• Accessibility (“ “)

• MSI

• Minority Serving Institution

• Indigenous People

• EEJ

• EJ

• Environmental Justice

• Underrepresented groups/people

• Anything specifically targeting women (women in leadership, etc.)”

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So here’s a ridiculous thought experiment.

Let’s say you’re a parent in a big, rambunctious family that has outgrown its house and has to eat dinner in shifts. (It’s a really big family.)

Regardless of how much you cook, the food always runs out before everyone gets a chance to eat. Some of the little kids are getting bony.

So you decide to set some rules.

First, you try having the little kids eat first and that helps, but now some of the big kids are getting hangry and yelling at everyone.

Next, you have them take a number and line up. Still, the first kids in line pig out while some of the rest of them go to bed hungry and some are starting to look pale. You’ve tried cooking more food, but it never lasts as long as the line.

So you just throw your hands up in the air, declare it an unsolvable problem and give it over to the survival of the fittest. Sure, you’ll lose a few kids, but life is hard.

Moral of the Story: It is nigh onto impossible to make everyone happy when trying to create guidelines for dealing with instances where demand is greater than supply. So, you can keep striving for “fair” or you can give up knowing that the weakest kids will perish.

The MAGA Republicans yelling loudest for an end to the DEIA guidelines are against them because they are confident that they are the biggest and fastest (read whitest and wealthiest) and so what if we lose a few kids?

What’s truly craven about all of this is that they (MAGA) are trying to tell us that removing all of these words will make “things” better or more efficient.

They know this will do little besides making their greedy selves richer and keep them first in line.

AND, they are too cowardly to stand up to the king to protect the smaller kids.

They are DEIA … the Decrepit Embarrassing Inbred Aggravations …that should be scrubbed.

Or … disgusting, egotistical, ingrateful authoritarians …

Or … (your suggestions, please.)