Have you ever been present when another person died? If so, perhaps you’re familiar with the death rattle. According to one source:
One of the more recognizable and often misunderstood signs of approaching death is the occurrence of terminal respiratory secretions, commonly referred to as the “death rattle.” This sound happens when mucous and saliva accumulate in the patient’s throat. As patients near the end of life, they may become too weak or lose consciousness, causing them to lose the ability to clear their throat or swallow.
Typically, I wouldn’t relish in the notion of a death rattle. However, when it comes to the perceivable approaching death of diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility (and derivatives thereunto; i.e., DEI), I gleefully watch and with unobstructed ears. Bring on the death rattle!
Formally speaking, DEIA is a set of principles, practices, and actions which aim to ensure that people from a variety of backgrounds are represented in academia, the workforce, within entertainment, and across other sociopolitical landscapes.
Informally, DEIA is a form of bigotry—obstinate or intolerant devotion to one’s own opinions and prejudices, racism—a belief that race is a fundamental determinant of human traits and capacities, and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority or inferiority of a particular race, and sexism—prejudice or discrimination based on sex.
Providing an example, I ask that you forgive me a personal anecdote. When attending graduate school at the University of Texas at Austin’s School of Social Work (now Steve Hicks School of Social Work) between 2012 and 2014, DEIA policies were interwoven into the curriculum.
I was taught that straight, white men ostensibly held power and privilege within the United States (U.S.) and that the manner by which systemic and structural oppression was to be dismantled was by instituting DEIA principles, practices, and actions. Essentially, fight oppression with oppressive action.
However, a fight-fire-with-fire approach—targeting group X on the basis of immutable characteristics, because group Y was historically targeted on the basis of the same criteria—is still oppression at the end of the day. No one is free when others are oppressed in such a manner.
Since having graduated with a master’s degree in social work a decade ago, attempts are now being made to detangle DEIA from the U.S. academy. According to one August 19, 2024 source:
It turns out that getting rid of all the services many DEI offices have been providing isn’t as simple as firing staff or changing a departmental name on an office door. That’s because inclusion programs have been woven into campus functions for decades, and many are needed to meet federal or other external requirements. (Anti-DEI laws generally don’t require schools to violate federal laws.)
It appears as though colleges and universities which have practiced bigoted behavior for years will continue violating the civil rights of students until DEIA inevitably dies – though doing so presumably in the interest of the soft bigotry of low expectations. Providing a workplace example, on June 25, 2021, President Joe Biden issued an executive order that stated:
Agency DEIA Strategic Plans should identify actions to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the workforce and remove any potential barriers to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility in the workforce identified in the assessments described in subsection (a) of this section.
Agency DEIA Strategic Plans should also include quarterly goals and actions to advance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility initiatives in the agency workforce and in the agency’s workplace culture.
Depending upon your moral and ethical principles, you may consider it a good measure for the Biden administration to have artificially suppressed the ability to achieve success for mostly white and straight people (typically men) in favor of representation regarding non-white and non-straight individuals.
Personally, rejection of bigoted, racist, and sexist principles, practices, and actions is preferable. Of course, I’m not the only one to reach this conclusion. According to one June 27, 2024 source:
The House Committee on Oversight and Accountability held a hearing today titled, “Standing Up for the Rule of Law: Ending Illegal Racial Discrimination and Protecting Men and Women in U.S. Employment Practices.”
At the hearing, witnesses testified that U.S. companies are pushing unlawful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has a responsibility to investigate troubling DEI initiatives that are violating employees’ protected civil rights.
Violation of civil liberties in academia and the workforce is a fairly straightforward matter, as the U.S. government often regulates these areas. Still, what happens when DEIA is pushed within the private sector, such as in entertainment? In a blogpost entitled Oki-woke, Pinoke (September 10, 2022), I stated:
To some, DEIA is precisely what matters most in entertainment. This concentration on identity is often termed as “woke,” or as one source defines it, being “alert to racial prejudice and discrimination’ that originated in African-American Vernacular English.”
One criticism of the action to force representation on others relates to the term, “Get work, go broke,” because there seems to be a correlation between companies promoting DEIA initiatives and subsequently losing financial gains.
Throughout my blog, I’ve been critical of DEIA initiatives. Along with other critics of socio-politically-infused entertainment content, I’ve observed Hollywood elites and those who carry water for fallible human beings exercising bigoted behavior while chastising anyone who dares to denounce such principles, practices, and actions.
Apparently, there’s a shift occurring within the entertainment industry – one in a direction away from bigotry, racism, and sexism. For context, imagine my surprise to discover a December 4, 2024 article by The New York Times Magazine (of all places) that stated:
[W]hat was particular to the Hollywood of the 2010s was the way these politics fused with the industry’s insatiable demand for sequels, spinoffs and reboots, giving us a curious and mercenary new invention: the inclusive multimillion-dollar blockbuster. (The BIPOCbuster, if you will.)
It’s the same old thing, but with a bold and visionary new twist: fewer white guys […] At least we no longer have to pretend to like something because it has the right politics, or because the people most vocally against it are Nazis.
Per my reading of the article, the author ostensibly admits that “white guys” were deliberately discriminated against and that individuals who carried water for a bigoted system of oppression essentially pretended to like Hollywood’s content, “because it has the right politics” or those who us who criticized the material were wrongfully labeled “Nazis.”
Because I regularly practice Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), I’m not self-disturbed about DEIA principles, practices, and actions in association with academia, the workforce, within entertainment, and across other sociopolitical landscapes.
Rather, I practice unconditional acceptance of others and life in order to keep from upsetting myself with irrational beliefs about the behavior of others. This is why I’m not unhappy to learn about how DEIA seems to be lying on its deathbed.
In fact, I gleefully watch as bigotry slowly dies. With unobstructed ears, I pay close attention to the accumulation of mucous and saliva in the throat of civil liberty-violating DEIA. Bring on the death rattle!
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At Hollings Therapy, LLC, serving all of Texas, I aim to treat clients with dignity and respect while offering a multi-lensed approach to the practice of psychotherapy and life coaching. My mission includes: Prioritizing the cognitive and emotive needs of clients, an overall reduction in client suffering, and supporting sustainable growth for the clients I serve. Rather than simply trying to help you to feel better, I want to try to help you get better!
Deric Hollings, LPC, LCSW
Photo credit (edited), fair use
References:
Alexander, A. (2024, August 19). Colleges comply with anti-DEI mandates with firings…and finesse. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/asiaalexander/2024/08/19/colleges-comply-with-anti-dei-mandates-with-firingsand-finesse/
Chibber, K. (2024, December 4). Is the awkward ‘diversity era’ of Hollywood behind us? The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/2024/12/04/magazine/diversity-era-movies.html
Committee On Oversight and Accountability. (2024, June 27). Hearing wrap up: The Biden administration’s EEOC is failing to hold companies accountable for pushing unlawful DEI initiatives. Retrieved from https://oversight.house.gov/release/hearing-wrap-up-the-biden-administrations-eeoc-is-failing-to-hold-companies-accountable-for-pushing-unlawful-dei-initiatives/
Concha, J. (2021, April 27). Get woke, go broke: Pious, political Oscars crashes, loses tens of millions of viewers. The Hill. Retrieved from https://thehill.com/opinion/civil-rights/550435-get-woke-go-broke-pious-political-oscars-crashes-loses-tens-of-millions/
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