Editor’s note: Christopher Jolivette, a sophomore at Mississippi State University and Birmingham native, offers his perspective on the national controversy surrounding DEI. Jolivette is active in college life and among other activities and accomplishments is a presidential scholar and drum major for the Famous Maroon Band.
Why is our country afraid of race? If that is an unfair question, I have to only wonder why? The answer should be an emphatic “no, we embrace it” but the past few weeks have proven the opposite true.
For the past few months, a group of peers and I have been organizing a Black History Month event celebrating 65 years of integration at our university and our journey from a racial division to inclusivity. Last week, just before we were set to put on our event, the U.S. Department of Education released one of the most charged statements on race in recent memory. In it, they acknowledge the obvious: that discrimination on the basis of race, color or origin is reprehensible. Yet, they go on to fervently condemn schools for having the audacity to educate their students on structural racism, i.e., slavery, segregation and civil rights. How dare educators, the DoEd asks, teach students about our racialized past, the struggle for freedom and our nation’s inability to live up to its tenet of justice for all?
At the same time the DoEd released this letter claiming that DEI “smuggl[es] racial stereotypes” into the classroom, millions of Americans continue to be afflicted by the very issue that DEI initiatives aimed to fix: the nation’s growing opportunity gap. In spite of politicized cries of discrimination against low-income white families, the fact remains that 21% of Black Americans compared to just 8% of white Americans live below the poverty line according to the Department of Commerce. Only 25.7% of Black Americans make up high-earning jobs compared to 50.4% of white Americans, and 45% of Black students receive no formal education beyond high school and only 15% obtain a bachelor’s degree. Clearly, there is a gap in the options and opportunities being given to Black Americans.
The notion that equal opportunity regardless of race exists in America is patently false. Even when marginalized groups are able to attain advanced degrees, at every level of educational attainment, Black and Hispanic Americans are less likely to receive the same paying job as their white counterparts (Georgetown). Our “disadvantaged” and “low-income families” being affected by gaps in opportunity are not those who make up the highest earning jobs. It’s those who receive no formal education beyond high school, those who earn the least and those whose demographic background prevents them from receiving the same opportunities as their peers. The fact remains that diverse communities continue to be afflicted by historically racist practices in employment and schooling.
Fortunately, I am one of those lucky few Black Americans able to attend college. I am one of the lucky few Black Americans who will have the chance to enter a higher-earning position. I am one of the lucky few Black Americans raised in a middle-class family. But the fact that I am only one of a handful should be a blatant call to our policy makers that there is something amiss in our system.
The reality is that DEI, a chapter in our nation’s history that aimed to rectify the transgressions of our past, is coming to a close not because we have moved past racism, but because we are engulfed in it. The DoEd’s Feb. 14th statement, filled with racially charged anti-inclusionary language, is tangible evidence that our nation has not grappled with the “darker period in this country’s history” they claim to fight against. Their statement does little to fix our nation’s problems, misrepresents nationwide efforts to rectify systemic racism and showcases the extent of our country’s deep-seeded racism.
But our government doesn’t see it that way—they actively ignore my race. Needless to say, the funding for our Black History Month event was cut, taken away for fear of being targeted by the government’s attacks on diversity in higher education. I can only imagine what else we will lose in the future. I’m left with distasteful questions: does the end of DEI mean erasing the parts of myself which are entrenched in my identity? Am I supposed to hide my skin tone so as to not offend my peers whose relationship with race is less matured? Am I supposed to segregate my skin from my personhood so that I can yield to the anti-diversity policies of our nation? At this point, I fear that I might.
I am tired of being afraid of our national boogieman, tired of appeasing so as to not offend and tired of having to prove my racialized experience to the individuals perpetuating it. Our country has not outrun racism, and recent assaults on DEI show just how far we have to go.
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