Make America Great Again

I read through the recent legislation repealing DEI initiatives, and these are my thoughts, including quoted text from the Federal order. It has taken me a while to post, but I hope they are still meaningful and relevant in some way.

“…in case after tragic case, the American people have witnessed first-hand the disastrous consequences of illegal, pernicious discrimination that has prioritized how people were born instead of what they were capable of doing. [We saw it in the moments that housing was denied to people of color; we saw it in the moments that unequal wages were given based on gender despite the equality of the work.] The Federal Government is charged with enforcing our civil-rights laws[, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity]. The purpose of this order is to ensure that it does so by ending illegal preferences and discrimination… the employment, procurement, and contracting practices of Federal contractors and subcontractors shall not consider race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin in ways that violate the Nation’s civil rights laws. [Any discrimination in hiring based on race, color, sex, sexual preference, religion, or national origin denotes an illegal preference and discrimination, and is in direct violation to the Nation’s civil rights laws.]”

“This order does not prohibit persons teaching at a Federally funded institution of higher education as part of a larger course of academic instruction from advocating for, endorsing, or promoting the unlawful employment or contracting practices prohibited by this order.”

We are already doing the work. Let us make America great again by allowing our name to be synonymous with Diversity, free from the need to mandate a council to ensure equity and inclusion in the workplace, driven from a merit-based perspective. Let us look at a whole human being as we assign qualifications for what a person is capable of. Creating functional systems through neurodivergence is a merit. Thriving through poverty is a merit. Facing adversity is a merit. Having the courage to stand bold-faced in your personal identity is a merit. We are already doing the work– it is in California as they create a merit-based labor system that recognizes personal experience. It is in the schools, like Harvard and Stanford and Cornell, who provide free courses to anyone who can access the internet. And we will see it in all of our public schools when they are empowered with equalized funding standards and the freedom to be taught the True truth of our Nation. We are already doing the work. Our four fathers saw the greatness of this work when they came on their ships and saw the power of the indigenous Nations. Let us be free from the distraction of names and performative demonstrations as we consolidate our power to truly make America great again.