The Death of DEI at the University of Michigan is a Symbolic Victory

The Death of DEI at the University of Michigan is a Symbolic Victory

The left knows this is true. That’s why there have even been protests over these cuts.

Charles Lipson writes at the Telegraph:

This is the death rattle of DEI. Even the Leftist University of Michigan can hear it

The Democrats may have lost because of a bad economy and bad candidate, but they compounded their troubles with unpopular stances on key social issues. One of the most prominent was “DEI”, compulsory programmes for hiring, admission, and training in many universities and corporations. The acronym stands for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”. Its opponents say it really means: “Didn’t Earn It”.

DEI is an ambitious scheme for Leftist changes in politics, economics, and social life. The public tolerated it for years but has finally had enough. So have the courts, which now consider it illegal discrimination. The result is that these programmes are being rolled back or even eliminated at major corporations and universities.

The most consequential of those rulings came in 2023 when the Supreme Court struck down racial preferences in admissions at Harvard and the University of North Carolina. That decision referred only to universities, but the implications are rippling through all American institutions, public and private. They can see similar decisions coming down the pike, directly affecting them.

The most recent changes have come at Walmart, which has rolled back many of its DEI policies, and the University of Michigan, which has now dropped “diversity” hiring rules. The changes at Walmart appear to be a response to their customers, those at Michigan to the Supreme Court’s 2023 ruling.
The changes at Michigan are noteworthy for several reasons. It’s one of the country’s top universities; its faculty is very progressive; it’s located in the Deep Blue city of Ann Arbor, where Kamala Harris received 87 per cent of the vote; and it is the flagship university in a state with a Democratic governor and two Democratic senators. If the University of Michigan has finally seen the light, it’s only because the beams are from an oncoming train.

That oncoming train is illuminating several fundamental problems with DEI. The very words are designed to wrap discriminatory programmes in happy talk. The acronym may refer to “diversity”, but it only really counts one type: race, and then only some races. The whole purpose is to give preferred treatment to African-Americans and, to a lesser extent, Hispanics.

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