They go by a number of names, such as people operations, talent management, partner resources, and others. No matter what they’re called, for federal government human resources (HR) offices across the United States (U.S.) today is the start of your ending in regard to practiced bigotry.
Diversity, equity, inclusivity, and accessibility (DEIA, and derivatives thereunto, such as DEI) have apparently suffered a fatal blow from President of the U.S. Donald Trump. For context, one source states:
President Donald Trump signed executive orders Monday rolling back protections for transgender people and terminating diversity, equity and inclusion programs within the federal government in what he described in his inauguration speech as a move to end efforts to “socially engineer race and gender into every aspect of public and private life.”
Imagine supporting DEIA measures which promote identity-based sexism and racism. Imagine it! For clarity, sexism is defined as prejudice or discrimination based on sex—of which there are only two: male or female. For example, it’s sexist to maintain that women are inherently better than men.
Racism is defined as 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. For instance, it’s racist to maintain that black people are essentially better than white people.
Now, imagine federal statutes which support both sexism and racism within the federal workforce. Can you imagine it? If you’ve lived within the U.S. during the administration of Joe Biden, you don’t have to use your imagination. This was the position of Biden and his acolytes.
In the interest of justice, I’ve been quite vocal within my blog about this matter. In fact, I have an entire blog category regarding the prejudice and discrimination of DEIA. To provide a sample of my position, consider what I recently stated in an entry entitled Death Rattle of DEIA:
[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.
I don’t advocate oppression, though federal HR offices across the country ostensibly do. Today is the start of your ending in this regard. Contemplating this matter, I’m reminded of a song from the historic hip hop duo Mobb Deep, consisting of members Prodigy (deceased) and Havoc.
During my senior year of high school, Mobb Deep released their second studio album The Infamous (1995). The anthology began with the track “The Start of Your Ending (41st Side)” in which the outro could serve as an advisement to DEIA, though not to any specific race or ethnicity:
And it’s the start of your endin’
(Word up, yo, it’s the start of niggas endin’, you know I’m sayin’)
And it’s the start of your motherfuckin’ endin’
(All y’all weak-ass crews that got drama with mines, you know what I’m sayin’
It’s the start of your endin’, word up)
And it’s the motherfuckin’ start of the endin’
(We know the fuck you is)
(Yeah, yeah, nigga)
(You know what will happen)
(Recognize and realize)
Unlike the self-disturbing effect of a belief-consequence connection demonstrated by the ABC model of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT), regarding irrational beliefs, I derive great joy and pleasure from my rational beliefs about the death of DEIA.
Of course, I realize the challenges that lie ahead and how bigotry tends to dig in like mold and can be quite difficult to fully eradicate. For instance, verbiage of the Trump administration’s executive order states:
The previous administration has embedded deeply unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices within every agency and office of the Federal Government. The injection of “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) into our institutions has corrupted them by replacing hard work, merit, and equality with a divisive and dangerous preferential hierarchy.
However, HR offices and others with foresight enough to predict that Trump would target prejudicial and discriminatory action within the government began altering their practices months ago. For instance, consider what I stated in a post entitled BRIDGE is Falling Down:
I’d rather focus on how DEIA has essentially been erected into another type of BRIDGE. According to one source:
BRIDGE stands for Benchmarking Race, Inclusion, and Diversity in Global Engagement. BRIDGE is an institutional survey that explores diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) metrics, structures, and practices at the organizational level across US [United States]-registered organizations in the international development and humanitarian sector.
BRIDGE has become a social movement of organizations dedicated to using evidence to advance DEI goals within their organizations and at the sectoral level. The data from BRIDGE serves as a tool for our community to ground truth organizational practices with evidence and serves as a call to action to advance equity and inclusion in the sector.
Sifting through the activistic word salad with which I became all too familiar when attending graduate school for social work, one proposal stands out to me. The source claims to “ground truth organizational practices with evidence.”
This proposal gives the source semblance of a scientific or objective model for implementing DEIA. However, the descriptive versus prescriptive distinction regarding science (description) and the science (prescription) is obvious to me.
You know what other bigoted practice was masked in the science? Eugenics. I think I’ll pass over such prejudicial and discriminatory action, much as those who are uninformed may believe they’ve taken a BRIDGE over troubled waters of DEIA.
Nevertheless, I’m pleased to see action taken to counter bigotry. Therefore, the start of your ending – agents of DEIA – begins today. May justice prevail!
If you’re looking for a provider who tries to work to help you understand how thinking impacts physical, mental, emotional, and behavioral elements of your life, I invite you to reach out today by using the contact widget on my website.
As the world’s foremost hip hop-influenced REBT psychotherapist, I’m pleased to try to help people with an assortment of issues from anger (hostility, rage, and aggression) to relational issues, adjustment matters, trauma experience, justice involvement, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety and depression, and other mood or personality-related matters.
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
References:
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