A Million Ways to DEI: Don't Remove; Re-Language for ALL

Recent executive orders to scrub Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) key terms from websites, promotional materials, and public and internal communications of agencies and organizations that receive federal funding have spawned a flurry of disappearing DEI web pages, resources, and affiliation links over the past several months. An overarching, resigned despondency among environmental and educational organizations reliant on federal funding sources has ensued. The ultimatum has been issued: Kill DEI, or face organizational death.

Pockets of resistance have arisen, responding quietly so as not to attract targeted attention, de-funding, or other overt punishment.

The command to purge DEI has rallied some significant educational leaders and institutions to defy the orders outright. There is also a pervasive response of subtle rearticulation, still referring - hesitantly - to DEI, perhaps using the term "inclusion" in veiled references. Overall, the response has the tone of sad compliance, with an interior promise "to keep doing what we're doing to promote DEI anyway." They value the ethical imperative to implement DEI, but they feel they must operate quietly, under the radar, so they are not targeted for punishment or extermination. Some are trying subtle language shifts (e.g., 'inclusive culture,' or 'culture of belonging,') but many are simply removing any DEI references altogether, unsure how to state boldly what they value about DEI without saying the words, "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion."

Is your organization considering removing DEI terms and value statements altogether? I think this is a critical mistake, i.e., being compliant by removing language entirely that advocates for what is just and ethically grounded in countless religious, spiritual and philosophical perspectives. It is required for the survival and thriving of the common good. From ancient ethical codes of the Mesopotamian (Sumerian) King Ur-Nammu (21st c. B.C.E.) to Hammurabi's Code (18th c. B.C.E.) to the Levitical Mitzvot (6th-4th c. B.C.E.), and embedded in cultural and religious prohibitions and admonitions in modern civil law, to policies and procedures embedded in civil codes, morality is legislated to protect the common good. Articulating what we believe is right, equitable, and good for the whole is critical to thriving, inclusive, just societies.

Why? Ethical foundations are the basis of jurisprudence, the philosophy of law that is the bedrock of ethical society. How we articulate law and enforce policy requires commensurate linguistic skill for ensuring our ethical impetus is codified, practiced, and guarded for the common good. Abolishing language around DEI is insidious for this reason. Language is a most powerful force for good in human evolutionary consciousness. The power of the spoken or written word to articulate meaning and truth, communicate deeply held ethical values, encourage and embolden the weary, heal division, make amends for wrongdoing, and effect change for good is unmatched.

"The pen is mightier than the sword," a quote attributed to Edward Bulwer-Lytton, promotes the notion that the written word is more effective than physical force as a catalyst for meaningful, lasting change. Using our words as a force for good is critical in this context of DEI prohibition and promised punishment.

My counsel to environmental and educational organizations frozen in terror or purging DEI verbiage from your universe: SPEAK. Speak calmly and with the confidence of your convictions. Use your words. Use them wisely. Don't be subtle. Be bold. Proclaim what you value, and what is most important to your organization, and say WHY. Know your subject matter and refuse to be coopted by propaganda designed to reinforce exclusive access over the common good. Do not be silenced by what an executive order describes as "forced illegal and immoral discrimination programs" that are "dangerous" and "demeaning." Be able to explain your values and position well, based on solid ethical foundations, and be creative and bold in your languaging. To do this, first understand DEI principles.

What is DEI? It has everything to do with access for all. It has to do with acknowledging that there are many perspectives, many voices that articulate goodness, wisdom, and truth. It has to do with protecting the common good.

Diversity is welcoming multi-faceted perspectives, experiences, and ways of being human. Diversity values marginalized voices, drowned out by dominant voices that have shaped institutions, systems, and resource control to benefit those in power and exclude others from participation and access.

Equity is about equal opportunities and access for everyone. Its basis is identifying and dismantling systemic, embedded barriers to equal access for those traditionally marginalized.

Inclusion is about providing a context in which everyone feels heard and respected for their diverse perspectives, backgrounds, and ethical values. Inclusive policies and practices seek to welcome and listen to all voices.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives were designed to remove structural and systemic barriers to full access to educational, material, and employment opportunities. If DEI represents values an organization holds dearly, there are myriad ways to express this commitment, so many ways that a catch-all Boolean search for "DEI" to enforce anti-DEI compliance will not be able to identify, silence, or corral our collective dissent. We will form a chorus of resistance so powerful it will be impossible to obliterate its ethical resonance, even with all the money and coercive power in the world trying to drown it out of being.

The more we co-create a million different ways to express our values in words, images, and paradigms that express our commitment to DEI principles, the better we are able to prevail in enacting them. This way, we will not only resist the attempt to coerce, dominate by force, and otherwise molest our liberty to do what is just for ALL, we will become more adept in the process of understanding the underlying ethics of DEI principles themselves. We will become expert at composting our inherited language cues, and making the concepts more accessible to those who seem to think it is part of a "radical" or "wasteful" agenda to empower the marginalized.

Working with representatives and organizations committed to DEI and helping to express their core values has provided an opportunity to share some ideas for saying what we mean. This creative enterprise is meant to be shared and spread, and if you need help crafting some creative language, or to jump-start the process, please reach out. I hope that in board rooms, staff meetings, educational settings, mission integration meetings, policy revision agenda meetings, web site revision strategy meetings, external publications, internal HR policy & procedure updates, company memos, and other educational and organizational forums, we will be considering some creative ways of recommitting to DEI. Here are some starter ideas for DEI verbiage that employ terms besides "Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion," just to help prime the pump:

• Opportunity Oases

• Thriving Thresholds

• Hospitality Havens

• Fences to Gateways

• Boulders to Pebbled Pathways

• Open Access Portals for People & Planet

• Full-On Access for the Common Good

• JEDI Centers - Justice Sanctuaries - Being a Force for the Common Good

• Barrier-Free Access Conduits for Learning & Vocation

• Training Wheels and Water Wings

• Doorways to Discovery & Opportunity

• Enso (Open) Circles

• Venn Centers

• Just Systems Integrity Hubs

• Dimensions of Divestment, Discovery, & Debut

• Levelling Fields for Fair Play

• Ecosystem Wholeness

• Rooted Mycelial Exchange Networks for Ecosystem Health

• Shattering Glass Ceilings & Removing Corrupt Cornerstones

• All Sorts; All Ports

• Signaling Embrace Across Chasms of Exclusion

• Fluid Boundary Waters

• Hospitality Hives

• Web Nests for Learning, Living, and Working

Now, how might we uphold and celebrate DEI in our particular context, home, organization, or institution? Once we've got a few good ideas for our own context, we can share with others, perhaps flooding the gates of exclusion and injustice. We can show how committed we are to opening access to education, resources, and employment for ALL, the wider "We." We can use our words for the common good, co-creating a mosaic of opportunity, inspiration, and hope.