A Disappearing Act on DEI
Last week, I repeatedly read an article titled Diversity Policy Backlash Drives Cuts to DEI Staff by Inc. magazine’s Bruce Crumley. It struck a chord with my experiences at Sierra Club where I continue to learn about racism, sexism and ageism. I've began to wonder if the 132-year-old organization is really too big to fail.
In 2021, an article titled Sierra Club culture tolerated ‘anger and aggression,’ report finds by Politico's Zack Colman exposed Sierra Club’s toxic culture to the public. In May 2023, The Guardian’s Dharna Noor provided an update, “After the report’s release, the group hired an internal investigations team and conflict resolution team. . . But both have now been eliminated, according to staff.”
In September 2023, Maxine Joselow of The Washington Post’s revealed Sierra Club's harmful approach to address equity. Chief People Officer Aida Davis, a Black woman, bravely spoke out, "I have never felt more undermined, gaslit and disrespected, and my dignity diminished, than I have in this role.”
Inspired by Aida's courage, I announced my candidacy for Sierra Club California chair, knowing the uphill battle ahead. Change needs a starting point where 30% of Sierra Club members reside. Though I dropped out of the race, I raised some awareness on Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI) that the elections committee recommended allowing all 160,000 California members to vote, instead of the 80-100 appointed delegates.
As I've continued to push for a DEI discussion by Sierra Club California executive committee, Sierra Club president Allison Chin made a training offer to us. But the lack of response from both past and current California chairs has been consistent. In our January meeting, only half of the pre-allocated time was used to discuss Sierra Club values. This agenda item were entirely skipped at our February meeting today.
DEI remains a disappearing act.
Education has always been contested since Socrates had to drink poison for poisoning the mind of the youth against the empire of the Athenian state. DEI has a long regressive history in CA starting with the Blake decision where UC Davis couldn’t do affirmative action so whites could have access to the law school. Since then there have been fights over SAT scores and most recently the Supreme Court ruled that affirmative action at private schools like Harvard was illegal.
ReplyDeleteDEI which took off after George Floyd has faced a similar backlash. The backlash is expected starting with All Lives Matter. The goal is to suppress the E in DEI and prevent D and I on the payrolls. In a way I can see when you look at Clarence Thomas that not all D and I results in E. However there are many other situations where it does such as Marshall’s role in Brown V Board of education which was the most significant change to the US Constitution since the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments. However the backlash to DEI expansion under Floyd was ironic because Biden has increased police funding and border collaboration while simultaneously clamping down on protests to the increase in police violence. I think the bigger issue with DEI and policing is how policing got tied up in border enforcement which is largely Israel based under Iron Dome, a problem exposed by Hamas, since Trump.
Into this mix of race politics the Gaza situation has exposed another long fissure in American history. Jews made up half of Columbus’s crew when he unfortunately got lost and found the Americas because they were escaping the Inquisition. However they have managed to write themselves out of the slave ownership scholarship and white colonial expansion across the US. DEI was seen as a threat to Israel’s white colonial expansion. Leading Jewish groups like AIPAC ADL etc have opposed DEI and got Newsom to champion an alternative. The situation at Harvard removing the president Claudine Gay by billionaire Bill Ackman and alligning with MAGA republican Stefanik related to Gaza -protests by Palestinian students were not DEI they said and Gay was unable to contain them.
As in the Blake decision the right has been trying to change from DEI to meritocracy. However there too it’s limited. In CA the fight over Asians taking too many merit spots so the rules were changed once more to favor English over math and science. At it’s most elemental the struggle is how to diminish the gains of colored residents and maintain the privilege and supremacy of whites.
With that background your look at Sierra Club is essentially correct. There is toxic culture of white older mostly male authority but many white women (similar to trump voters) buy into the culture of our way or the highway. DEI as you note is disappearing both at the Sierra Club and within the larger culture.
But I think the problem relates to Gaza in that if you don’t give a hoot about genocide why would you give one over air quality or polluted water or climate change. The rich have said they don’t care and would just as soon colonize Mars first. The settler colonial ethic is what prevents the Sierra Club from being effective- especially on the obvious, cost free fixes known as Unglamorous Solutions. In Dark Money, Jane Meyer puts the problem on philanthropy itself. She says this tax write-off has allowed billionaires (almost exclusive white and male) to put their money toward causes that rig the system.
You really see money rigged systems where the air and water are dirty and how disenfranchised the places are- This has given rise to environmental justice. EJ in turn has lead to new organizations like CEJA whose model allows impacted communities to be heard- similar to the Jimenz Principles. The Sierra Club is too entrenched in it’s fundraising model and restrictions to make a difference going forward. The bottom line is DEI is contested by the wealth accumulated by white supremacy and the Sierra Club is relying on the compromised generational wealth to fix the problem.