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--:-- John Bickley: This episode is brought to you by LifeLock. Between two-factor authentication, strong passwords, and a VPN, you try to be in control of how your info is protected. But many other places also have it, and they might not be as careful. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats. If your identity is stolen, they'll fix it. Guaranteed or your money back. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit LifeLock.com slash podcast for 40% off. Terms apply.
--:-- John Bickley: Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, or DEI, exploded in 2020, sparked by the Black Lives Matter and Me Too movements. The policies and training became mandatory in the workplace, in schools, and on college campuses. Today, you often can't apply for a job or admission to a college or graduate school without making a statement about your commitment to DEI policies. In this edition of Morning Wire, we look at the growing number of universities that are now requiring diversity, equity, and inclusion statements in their applications.
--:-- John Bickley: I'm Daily Wire Editor-in-Chief John Bickley with Georgia Howe. It's February 11th, and this is a Saturday bonus edition of Morning Wire. Do you love Morning Wire? Well, you can shop the collection at dailywire.com slash shop. Start today with your favorite podcast and coffee from your very own Morning Wire mug, or rep the news you need to know with Morning Wire t-shirts, hoodies, and tote bags. That's dailywire.com slash shop.
--:-- John Bickley: Joining us to discuss the prevalence of DEI on college campuses is Jonathan Butcher, Education Fellow at the Heritage Foundation and author of Splintered, which documents the rise of DEI. Welcome, Jonathan.
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: Thanks for having me on.
--:-- John Bickley: So we've seen the rapid increase in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts in U.S. universities. First, tell us about this trend. Is it still expanding?
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: I think it absolutely is. And some of the examples that we see now come in the forms of these requirements for job postings where individuals who interview for faculty positions are asked to write some sort of statement saying how their work in, say, mathematics or the hard sciences somehow contributes to the university's overtly political interests in so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion.
--:-- John Bickley: Diversity, equity, and inclusion these days is intended to create the opposite of what those words actually mean, right?
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: What's happening is that students are feeling afraid to speak their minds on college campuses. They are being asked to identify with groups based on immutable characteristics, based on their skin color or ethnicity as a requirement to be involved in different activities on campus. I mean, it's limiting the ideas that can be discussed both inside the classroom and with invited lecturers.
--:-- John Bickley: It's an effort, ultimately, at the very bottom, to make critical race theory a part of everyday life, especially on college campuses. But we're seeing it as well in businesses, in medical schools, in, you know, all of the important parts and features of our both cultural and political lives.
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: How prevalent is this? Can you give us some examples of DEI statements required by universities?
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: Sure. In a report from the Goldwater Institute, some 80% of the faculty openings at public universities in Arizona require some sort of DEI statement when they apply, right? Explaining how, as a part of their work in molecular biology, that it will further the efforts of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion on campus, when really the focus needs to be preparing students with the skills to equip them for whatever area of future study they want to go into or the job that they want to take later in life.
--:-- John Bickley: And it's not just Arizona. In California, I think there are some 75 of the candidates for different jobs for campus positions could be weeded out because of the DEI statements that were required as a condition of applying for those jobs. So, you know, it's happening at universities around the country. Now, many of these are public school systems that are requiring this. Are there any existing or potential legal challenges on the horizon here?
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: I think that that is surely coming down the pike. I mean, look, the two biggest examples of cases and challenges to the sort of identity politics world are, you know, the Supreme Court's considering them right now, involving Harvard and the University of North Carolina. And that has specifically to do with affirmative action. But really, you know, we're kind of talking about a different side of the same issue here, right? These affirmative action programs also rest on the idea that individuals should be treated differently based on the color of their skin. And again, this is what's at the very core of critical race theory, which drives all of the thinking and ideas behind the so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion.
--:-- John Bickley: What do you think is motivating this DEI push politically and ideologically?
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: Well, it's definitely to change the way that we think about meritocracy and earning our own success, or the idea that there are inherent structures in society, in the job market, in politics that make it impossible for people to improve their station in life. That's a message that traces its way all the way back to Marxism, and it's an easy out – it's an easy way to say, well, life's not fair, and I am oppressed because of things that are out of my control, and so I am going to group myself with others who share a similar identity and we're going to form this movement that says that America is systemically racist and there's nothing we can do about it.
--:-- John Bickley: These are all troubling things, right? Because they get at the core of what it means to be American, right? It gets at the core of the ideas on which our nation is built – that you can, in fact, improve your station in life. You can pursue your own definition of human flourishing.
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: Final question. For those who see DEI as problematic, what are some ways forward on this issue?
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: Well, I think there are a few. I mean, I think that state lawmakers can intervene to say that taxpayer money should not be paying for these ultimately administrative offices, right? Largely these DEI programs, they don't teach classes, right? They're administrative positions. And they should be saying that any of these efforts that compel someone to affirm or believe any idea that, you know, violates the Civil Rights Act or violates their conscience, if someone is forced to believe that, that's inappropriate, right? That compelled speech is not appropriate.
--:-- John Bickley: Thank you for coming on.
--:-- Jonathan Butcher: Thank you.
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--:-- John Bickley: That was Jonathan Butcher, Heritage Education Fellow, and this was a Saturday bonus edition of Morning Wire.
