Anti-Racism School Is In Session™ Podcast
Anti-Racism School Is In Session™, is a global educational training platform, to educate, inform, and illuminate issues around systemic racism, anti-Black racism, and systemic oppression, in America, specifically for the purpose of creating a safer, more beautiful, more equitable world, for all people.
Anti-Racism School Is In Session™ Podcast
EPISODE 2: THE WAR ON DEI, IS DEI A BAD THING? ANTI-RACISM SCHOOL IS IN SESSION SEASON 2, EPISODE 2
THE WAR ON DEI, IS DEI A BAD THING? ANTI-RACISM SCHOOL IS IN SESSION SEASON 2, EPISODE 2
In this episode, we discuss the war on DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion), and some of the lies and misconceptions that have been spread about DEI. I also ask you to answer a very serious question, based on some specific criteria, so that you can be clear where you stand on these issues.
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Have you ever called someone a DEI hire? Do you think that DEI means unqualified black people are getting positions that they do not deserve and haven't earned? We're going to talk about that today and what's even more important than this whole war on DEI is one question that you may have never even heard before. You may have never even asked yourself this question before, but I'm going to ask you this question today, and I want you to really. Think about it deeply and you can't just say yes automatically because there's some criteria that you have to meet in order to say yes as your answer to this question. And that question is, are you a safe person for Black people? Let's find out. Welcome to Anti Racism School is in Session. Anti racism school is in session. What? It's in session. Anti racism is not a diet. It's a lifestyle commitment. 365 days a year. Live a life that's anti racist. I should be teaching you, giving you that truth. With love, straight, with no chaser. Understand graceful and mindful. Open your third eye and take off your blindfold. You ain't gotta agree to understand. But understand you gotta take a stand. Anti racism school is in session. What? It's in, it's in session. Anti racism school is in session. What? It's, it's in session. Ashini Mufuko wants to educate people about racism. She created a family friendly monthly seminar called Anti Racism School Is In Session. And every month, she'll be talking about different ways to be anti racist. Welcome to anti racism school is in session, bringing you an uncommon perspective to common issues related to racism. On today's show, we're going to be talking about the war on DEI, and also getting clear and getting real about whether or not you are a safe person for black people. So let's get into it. We've seen this war on DEI happening for the past couple of years and intensifying with every single day and it has got even more intense with executive orders from our president and this current administration. So we need to kind of take a step back and really get clear about what DEI is all about in the first place. And for those who may not know, DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. And by the way, diversity, equity, and inclusion is not just about black people. Diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives and policies are to ensure that non white cis able bodied heterosexual men are getting access to opportunities that they have earned and are qualified for instead of being looked over and ignored and denied those opportunities and discriminated against because we have. the lie of white supremacy as the foundation for everything that happens in this country. Okay. So that means people who are disabled. have access to opportunities that they would have been denied before without D. E. I. Programs and policies and initiatives. That means veterans have access to opportunities and programs and positions that they would have been denied without D. I. In place. That means that white women have access to opportunities and positions that they would not have had access to without DEI being in place. The list goes on and on and on. It's not about unqualified people getting into positions of power or leadership or access to opportunities that they wouldn't have had before. Diversity, equity, and inclusion actually is the only way to ensure that meritocracy is in place. And guess what? Even with the DEI policies and programs put in place, people still were trying to overlook the qualified black women, the qualified black men, the qualified trans people, the qualified veterans, the qualified disabled people. Why? Because some people out there believe that if it's not a white man, they're not qualified. If it's not a white person, They're not qualified. And this is the lie of DEI and the lie of white supremacy that we have to unlearn. We have to deconstruct it. We have to call it out and we have to stop believing these lies. Get educated, get informed, get into community so that you can start to learn and see, wow, what I've been taught was wrong so that you can know better and do better. Now, let me tell you something. It's some nasty work. It's some nasty work to turn the words diversity, equity, and inclusion into a racist dog whistle into a racial slur to make it about black people and more importantly and more specifically to make it about the lie that unqualified black people are getting jobs and getting into positions that they have not earned. Okay, this is called the lie of white supremacy. And in this case, the lie of DEI, okay, diversity, equity, and inclusion is not the opposite of meritocracy. It's not the opposite of people getting positions and getting opportunities that's based on merit. It's actually. Exactly what meritocracy is supposed to look like, but when you have a country who has been founded on and built on systemic racism and anti black racism and the lie of white supremacy, what you're going to see happening, which is what has been happening now for centuries, well documented throughout history and currently today. Right. You're going to see that number one, white men are disproportionately represented in positions of leadership and executive positions and C suite positions, right? As heads of these large corporations, fortune 500 corporations, et cetera, right? And when you look throughout our society and you see that at the top of all of these organizations and institutions and corporations, and even in our government, there are so many white men, it begs the question. Are they white privilege hires? Are they white supremacy hires? Because for centuries and decades you mean to tell me that there have been no black men, no people of color, no women, no black women who have been qualified to work in all of these executive positions and all these leadership positions? I don't think so. Cause the well documented data tells us otherwise, right? So one thing I want you to recognize is that when you hear that this black person, this black woman is the first X, Y, and Z to be in this leadership position or to have this job, or to be the first vice president of the United States or the first president of this university, et cetera, I want you to understand that it's not because there was never any black women or never any black people who are qualified to hold that position. It was the racism. that prevented them from getting into that position prior to this time. Okay. And so when you think of diversity, equity, inclusion, I want you to think of the only pathway to meritocracy because prior to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs and initiatives being put in place, white men were just hiring other white men. They weren't even really hiring white women in positions of leadership, right? Think of nepotism, think of legacy students in universities, right? Certain white kids are getting into these universities simply because their white parents attended the universities, right? Or their white parents are on the board, or their donors, etc., right? There has been a systematic and intentional keeping out. of black people discriminating against black people, keeping our institutions, keeping our C suites, keeping our leadership positions and organizations, predominantly white and predominantly male because of racism. That's it. I know you want it to be something super fancy and super complicated like well Maybe there just weren't any black people in that industry and maybe they're just weren't any black women that were able to get to that No, it's the racism. It's the racism. I'm sorry. It's at every level of our society. It's the fabric of our society It's embedded in the fabric and the foundation of our society so when you hear the words diversity equity and inclusion and automatically you think unqualified unqualified black person Unqualified woman, unqualified veteran, unqualified disabled person. You have to ask yourself, why, why do I think like this? Why do I hear DEI and immediately have a negative reaction? Why do I hear DEI and immediately think that there's a black person stealing a job from a white person who taught you that? So these are some of the questions that you have to start asking yourself. Who taught you that DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion was a bad thing? Who taught you to have a negative response, a negative visceral reaction, when you hear the term DEI? Where did you learn that from? And what is it based on? Because why would diversity be bad? If you don't want diversity, what are you saying? You just want it to be all white people? All white men in positions of leadership? No one else can have that opportunity? Because that's not meritocracy. That's actually the exact opposite of meritocracy. All white men at the top is the exact opposite of meritocracy. Because I promise you, they didn't earn it. Which is another way to describe that acronym, DEI. Didn't earn it. All the white men? Look at our government right now. Just look at our current administration. Tons of unqualified white people being put in positions of leadership and power where they have the ability to impact millions of people with no cultural competency, no level of cultural competency, no training or education in anti racism. Right. No understanding of what diversity, equity and inclusion even is, but yet they've been put in these positions of leadership and power over the qualified black people, black women, people of color that actually have the education, have the expertise, have the knowledge to be in those positions. And you're also seeing now that black people who got into these positions based on merit, based on their education and their expertise and their experience. They got into these positions of leadership and now they're being removed by this administration and being replaced with unqualified white people. So the goal is to get you to think that anytime you see a black person in a position of leadership, they didn't earn it. Automatically. They didn't earn it. It's DEI. They're DEI er. Does that sound like something to you that starts with the word R? Racist. Why would you automatically assume that a black person in the position of leadership didn't earn it, but the white man that's in the position of leadership definitely earned it. What's that based on? Okay. So this is why I tell you that you have to ask yourself and get honest with yourself about whether or not you are a safe person for black people. Okay. If you believe that diversity, equity, and inclusion is a bad thing and represents black people getting into positions that they are not qualified for, you are not a safe person for black people. Okay, because that's a racist ideology. If you are operating every day and thinking in ways that are based on a racist ideology, guess what? You're causing harm. You're causing harm to us. You're not safe for us because you don't view us as equally human. And what I always say is there is no hierarchy in humanity. There is no hierarchy in humanity. Your life doesn't have more value than my life and my life doesn't have more value than your life. Our lives are equally valuable, which means that we should all have access to the same rates, privileges, benefits, access, and opportunities. Why not? Why should one group of people have opportunities that another group of people are being denied? It's not right, it's not fair, and it's certainly not meritocracy. So, let me give you some questions that you can ask yourself, and I'll even give you some statements to reflect on to find out whether or not you truly are a safe person for black people. Let's get into it. So number one, if you hear the term DEI and you automatically assume that it's referring to a black person, that it's referring to an unqualified black person getting into a job, getting into a position, getting into some sort of leadership position where they are not qualified to be there. They're only there because they're black. You are not a safe person for black people. Because that's not how it works and frankly to get into these leadership positions We have to be even more qualified than our white counterparts. We have to be over qualified Okay And what's sad is that even when we're over qualified and get into these positions that we have earned through merit through experience through our education and expertise This is what we get in return. People assuming that we're only there because we're black. So let's find out if you truly are a safe person for black people. I'm gonna just throw out some questions for you to think about and some statements for you to consider to find out if you're truly a safe person for black people. Do you believe in reparations for African Americans? Who are the descendants of enslaved Africans in America? Do you believe in reparations or do you think reparations are a handout? If you think reparations for the descendants of enslaved people in america are a handout You're not a safe person for black people because you don't believe in repairing the damage and the legacy that's ongoing From chattel slavery. You don't believe in repairing it. You don't understand that we're still dealing with The legacy of racial violence, the legacy of racial discrimination and the outcomes of the economic and financial disenfranchisement of black people from chattel slavery. You don't get that you think that oh, well it happened so long ago They need to just move on get over it pull themselves up by their bootstraps and make it work We all have access to the same opportunities today. No, we don't which is why things like DEI had to be put in place Which is why the Civil Rights Act had to be put in place Which is why the Voting Rights Act had to be put in place, right? And what you see happening now with Project 2025 being implemented, you see how they're trying to roll back. They're forcing companies to roll back those diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, programs, and policies. Why? Because they want to take our rights away. They want to go back to the way things were before black people had the right to vote. Go back to before it was illegal to discriminate against us. Right. They want to go back to the red lining and the segregation in schools and educational institutions is what they're trying to do. This is what we're seeing happening right now, right in front of our eyes. Okay. So if you don't believe in reparations for African Americans, you're not a safe person for black people. If you think talking about racism just creates more racism, you're not a safe person for black people. Number one, that doesn't even make any sense. Like it literally doesn't make sense. That's like saying talking about cancer creates more cancer. That's, that's not how, that's not how anything works in life. Talking about the problem is not the problem. The problem is the problem. And as we talk about these issues, as we talk about these problems, number one, we can get to solutions through talking about the problems. Right? We create awareness. We help people to learn new things and find out about things that they didn't know. If you've been living in a predominantly white community and you're from a white family, then you probably may not know about what's happening with black people. And the impacts of racism, and some of the lies of white supremacist ideology that you've been taught through our society, through the media, through the education system, through your religious beliefs, through your family, through everything that you see around you, that teaches you that black people are less than, that black people didn't earn it, we get into certain positions, we didn't earn it, we just got it because of affirmative action, or because we're black, or because of DEI. Black people are criminals. We are prone to being criminals and that we need to be controlled and tamed and treated like animals by law enforcement, right? These are things that you don't even realize that you've been taught to believe because you've only been around people who look like you. And you've also been taught not to believe us. And when we do tell you This is what our experience has been. This is what has been happening throughout history, how it's still impacting us today. You don't give us the benefit of the doubt. You don't even believe us. You say, oh, you're just You're just complaining. You're just living in the past. Get over the past. The past is over. That was so long ago. But then we look around at what's happening today, and we see it still happen. So it's not over. So if you think talking about racism just creates more racism, you're not a safe person for black people. You need to unlearn that it's dangerous, it's harmful, and it's time for you to do better. If you believe that programs and initiatives like diversity, equity, and inclusion that seek to repair the damage of centuries of discrimination, centuries of disenfranchisement and marginalization, centuries of segregation. Centuries of unfair laws and racist policies and practices that have oppressed black people held us back, prevented us from making the progress that we should make, which is why there's a racial wealth gap. That's why the black maternal mortality rate is so high. It has nothing to do with our health or our bodies. It has everything to do with racism. Dr. Uche Blackstock talks about that in her book, okay? So you have to get educated and get informed and understand that when policies and programs and initiatives are put in place to repair the damage of racism, to repair the damage of racist laws and policies and systems and practices, that's not reverse racism and that's not unfair to white people. That's not taking opportunities away from white people. That's not how it works, and that's not what it is. But if you believe that, when you hear DEI, when you hear affirmative action, when you hear this is for black businesses, this is for black owned businesses, this fund is for black women owned businesses, this particular scholarship is for black kids who are wanting to go to college, this is for HBCUs, and all you hear in your mind is, it's reverse racism, it's reverse racism, it's against white people. You're not a safe person for us because you haven't even gotten educated enough to understand why these things were put in place in the first place. So here are three questions I want you to ask yourself. Anytime you hear something that triggers you, something about black people that triggers you, something about systemic racism or anti black racism that triggers you, something about DEI or CRT or affirmative action or being woke that triggers you, I want you to ask yourself these three questions. Why was this put in place in the first place? Why were DEI programs, why was diversity, equity, and inclusion even a thing in the first place? Why did they have to put these policies in place? Why did the Civil Rights Act of 1964 need to be put in place? Why? Why was it necessary? Then I want you to ask, what? What was happening at the time that this was put in place? What was going on socially? What was happening in our society that these programs and these laws and policies needed to be put in place in the first place? And then I want you to ask, who? Who taught you to believe that black people are not qualified to be in positions of leadership? Who taught you to believe that anytime you see a black student at a certain type of university, like a predominantly white institution, also known as a PWI, That they just got there through affirmative action. They didn't earn it. They're not smart enough to get into an Ivy league college. Who taught you to believe that if black people are being shot and killed unarmed by the police, that they deserved it. They must've done something wrong. They must've not been complying. Like who taught you to believe these certain things about black people? That we're not good enough, we are not equal to white people, we are not qualified, you know, we, we only belong in certain types of jobs and positions and in certain neighborhoods. Who taught you to believe that? Who taught you not to believe us when we talk about our lived experiences? Who taught you to believe that racism is just something that we made up and we need to get over it and it's over and we should move on? Who taught you that? And who benefits from you believing that way about us? Who benefits from you believing all of these lies about black people? Think about it and realize that if you believe that there is a hierarchy in humanity, I say that there is no hierarchy in humanity. But if you believe that there is. That based on your race, you may be superior to other people or based on your race that you should deserve access to certain opportunities and benefits and advantages while that same access and those opportunities and advantages and privileges are denied to other groups of people. You think that that's okay? You're not a safe person for black people. And the thing is, this is something that you've been taught and it's something that you can unlearn. Just like you learned it, you can unlearn it. So that's what you need to focus on. Am I a safe person for black people? And you don't get to determine if you are. We do. So you got to get into community with people who don't look like you. You got to get into community with people who can teach you and help you to see things differently from what you've been taught. And one way you can do that is through education. So today I'm going to share a book with you that you should definitely read, get yourself educated, expand your horizons, broaden your mind. Okay. And learn some things that you may have never heard before. This book is called We'll All Be Free. It's by Carolyn J. Sumlin, and it says how a culture of white supremacy devalues us and how we can reclaim our true worth. Get this book today. Get it at a local bookstore. Get it at a Black owned bookstore. Get it wherever you want to get your books from. Read it, open your mind, expand your horizons, and learn about how white supremacy harms you. As a white person, it harms you too. Characteristics of white supremacy, like there's only one right way, like perfectionism, like prioritizing your comfort over the facts, over the realities of other people's experiences. These things are harmful to you. And what you're seeing now with our current administration is how these attempts to preserve the power of white supremacy, preserve these systems built on the lie of white supremacy is harming everybody. In order to keep us down, they also have to keep you down. So it's important to get educated, unlearn these things so that you can know better and do better. And last but not least, we are in a time where we are doing economic resistance. We are doing economic activism. And one of the ways that you can get even deeper into this is getting your money rights. Okay. Not just deciding. What companies you're going to spend money with and what companies you're not going to spend money with who you're going to boycott and who You're not going to boycott but getting your own personal finances in order and tiffany Alicia is the expert to help you do that her book get good with money Will help you to get your entire life together. Okay. She says that it's 10 simple steps to becoming financially Ho, I absolutely love Tiffany. I'm in her mentorship program. She has a Patreon community where she mentors women from all over the world. She has a PBS special that you absolutely need to check out right now. I mean, there are so many ways to learn and get better with your money so that you can be empowered to make better decisions and build a solid financial future for you. And for your family and for our communities then last but not least. I want to feature one black owned business today Which is sbj boutique and that's where I got my beautiful earrings from if you're watching this on youtube This is where I got my beautiful earrings from I absolutely love sbj boutique. Make sure you go to her website. Check it out It's black woman owned beautiful jewelry and accessories that you will absolutely love. And then from last week's show, if you remember, I featured Beautiful Creations. This denim vest that I'm wearing is from Beautiful Creations. So make sure you check her out as well if you haven't from the last show. And remember, it's time to get educated, get informed, get into community and get to work because anti racism is not a diet. It's a lifestyle. I'll see you next time. Anti-racism. School is in session. What is in? It's in session. Anti-racism school. It's in session What? It's in session.
