Jan Resseger reflects on the Trump administration’s determination to eliminate not only to eliminate programs based on “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” but the words themselves. Those three words must be expunged from our vocabularity. We must not recognize that there is diversity of people, even within the same religion or race. We must not strive for equity, which means that everyone has an equal chance to thrive. When they don’t thrive, we ask why. But we mustn’t care anymore.
Inclusion is the third “dirty” word that must be extirpated, inclusion means “all.” Remember when you recited the Pledge of Allegiance in school? I do. We said, “with liberty and justice for all.” I suppose it will be changed now to “with liberty and justice for some.”
Read Jan’s post. As always, it is thoughtful, incisive and well researched.
Have faith. This madness and meanness will come to an end.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
When the current Trump cabal attempts to end any reference to diversity, equity, and inclusion, it is important that educators, pre-kindergarten through graduate school, stand up and say we will continue to acknowledge and explore the multicultural heritage that has provided so much to our country. Our diverse society, our drive for equitable opportunity, and our inclusive communities are good things. Any attempts to bully us into submission through “Executive Order” should be met with a shrug and then ignored. Funding may be important, but it is not the reason our educational institutions exist. An open mind and a welcoming heart must not be overcome by a dark soul.
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pabonner: I looked up Russell Vought’s bio on Wikipedia. I won’t post from it here, but I took from that reading that, first, and besides evidence of “scrubbing,” Vought is a self-described “Christian National,” but also that there is nothing Christian about his view. It seems to me that it’s just another warped psychological drawer who missed the lessons from history and fictionalized politics about the evils of totalitarianism. It seems to me like so many others from that camp, he cannot stand the ideas of freedom or of secularity that live in the First Amendment of the Constitution. He is a main source of the cancer we are presently trying to fight. CBK
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This site below refers several times to Vought’s shaping his politics around his personal views (it says he is highly educated) but apparently he missed the ideas about mediating/moderating his views with the idea that there is and should be a difference between one’s personal views and a nation’s formal political order that governs others with other views. (That’s the harder and more intellectually demanding thing to do–he’s no Jefferson.)
I think he forgets the idea of freedom and that other people’s politics are shaped by other experiences and religious and other backgrounds (including Muslim) and that he reflects the SAME totalitarian ideas that (I think) he is so afraid of in others . . . it’s an indication of a small mind and a hard heart, probably not an ecumenical bone in his body. CBK
https://facts.net/history/people/30-facts-about-russ-vought/
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Vought, like Trump and most of his sycophants, is locked into retribution because they have a sense of victimization brought on by a world they can’t seem to get. Like Jon Stewart said, multiculturalism is here to stay and the grifters in the White House seem to think otherwise.
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pabonner: Leave it to Jon Stewart to say it so clearly . . . CBK
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VOught was the organizer of Project 2025.
A hateful man.
Jesus would denounce his hateful actions.
No mercy or kindness in him
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Diane, Paul, Retired, and Threatened, and anyone interested–I just watched the live Book Festival panel discussions from the Tucson Arizona Book Festival (20+ year old now) and there were three books that you might want to be aware of, extremely timely, but also because all three writers displayed a serious understanding of the problem associated with the takedown of public education in this country–the distinctions they all made were extremely helpful in understanding what the hell is going on . . . scarily shows how organized they have become. The books are:
World Eaters: The Venture Capitalist Cannibalizing of the Economy, by Catherine Bracy
Money, Lies and God: Inside the Movement to Destroy American Democracy, by Katherine Stewart
American Reckoning: Inside Trump’s Trial–(and Mine) by Jonathan Alter
They are replaying the festival entirely tonight on C-SPAN (it’s earlier here in CA right now: 5:30 ish. But C-SPAN usually puts the panels up on their webpage soon after live showings.
All three of these authors were exceptionally informed of history, were articulate, and in our time, courageous. CBK
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Thank you. I knew Katherine Stewart’s work well. She is one of our leading authorities on Christian nationalism. I know Jon Alter, but not as well. He is a very enthusiastic supporter of charter schools, esp KIPP.
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Hello Diane: I didn’t catch from Alter’s part of the discussion that he was a supporter of charter schools (boo, hiss). But he was on board with the other two and their work against the oligarchy/fascism. I recorded it and will have another look–I missed the very first part of the discussion anyway. Thanks, CBK
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The attack on DEI is a smokescreen for right wing extremists to justify what they believe is their right to discriminate against others. It is a backdoor scheme to roll back decades of gains made in civil rights, and it is also a plan to eliminate any funding that advances these programs. Let’s “make America more unfair again” should be the motto.
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in Utah, DEI is so banned that we’re not even really supposed to use the words in schools.
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For some reason, many of these so-called Christian Nationalists have confused “Christian” with “white.” If so, it reveals big-time a severe ignorance of history. But why does that not surprise me. CBK
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