The Attacks on DEI and Jim Crow of the Mind

Two years ago I wrote and published a book titled Jim Crow of the Mind and the New State Laws Designed to Preserve the Idea of White Male Supremacy. I warned that more states may join the fifteen states that the book addresses. 

Today, the laws of those fifteen states have become the national policy of the Trump administration. The national attacks on programs labeled "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) are only a part of the Trump administrations' Jim Crow policies focused on education. These policies are designed to suppress any views that challenge the idea of white male supremacy. It should now be apparent that Donald Trump is a white male supremacist. (The few white women he has appointed were also intended to be submissive white male supremacists.)

In Chapter 20 of my book, titled "The Danger: What Lies Ahead?" I wrote: 

Are these state laws a prelude to increased racism and sexism throughout the country? Are they the beginning of something much worse?

It is clear now that the answer to both questions is a terrible Yes.

I also wrote in that chapter:

These laws are not just about several states but about the fabric of the nation as a whole. These state laws further rip the national fabric, and either we sew it up now or it will rip even more until the nation is completely torn apart, far more so than today.

It's taken only two years from those words to come to the shredded nation we have today. We have a lot of sewing to do, and let us hope that it is not too late.

To better understand what is happening to us and the nation, I invite you to read my book and my previous posts going back many years. I also invite you to visit my website to see what else I have written on the subject of democracy, racism, and sexism: johnlhodge.com.

Today my letter to the Boston Globe was published. The Globe added the photo:

LETTERS

Diversity is the essence of America

Updated October 6, 2024, 2:10 a.m.

19

Jeneba Kanu, originally from Sierra Leone, held an American flag while waiting to become a US 

citizen during a naturalization ceremony at George Washington's Mount Vernon in Alexandria, Va., 

in May 2006.JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images

Renée Graham has written the speech that I wish Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris would read to the nation (“Diversity is America’s greatest strength. But now a lot of people find it threatening,” Ideas, Sept. 29).

Diversity is the essence of America. The ancestors of all of the people who are Americans came from elsewhere. Even the Indigenous people originated in Asia. These arrivals, recent and distant, have mixed in various ways, culturally and biologically, to produce not an undifferentiated blob but a degree of diversity that might be unique in the world.

Harris, who affirms her Black and Asian American heritage, is symbolic of this diversity. Let’s move forward with her.

John L. Hodge

Jamaica Plain

Attaining Diversity in Higher Education

Below is my letter as published online today in the Boston Globe advocating for a different way to determine college admissions. (The paper version in the Sunday Ideas section has a different but similar title.) The foundation for this letter is Chapter 9 of my book Overcoming the Lie of Race: "Understanding Merit and the Need to Replace 'Affirmative Action.'"

BOSTON GLOBE, SUNDAY, AUGUST 19, 2018

COLLEGE DIVERSITY ISN’T JUST ABOUT MAKING AMENDS FOR THE PAST

While I applaud the revealing of the terrible impact of past racism and the eugenics movement on higher education, I disagree with the point, “The pursuit of diversity now can help universities make amends” (“Diversity in higher ed is about making amends for past sins,” Ideas, Aug. 12). The pursuit of diversity is needed not so much to amend for the past but to counteract current discrimination.

Current discrimination is contained in the tests that universities rely on to determine admissions. Test scores do not and cannot indicate who has the qualifications to make contributions to the well-being of society. The testing environment itself has no relevance to such qualifications. That environment requires each test-taker (1) to work alone and (2) to find the right answers (3) to isolated questions.

In the real world, people rarely accomplish anything without collaboration with others. Complex problems usually have more than one right answer. Real problems affect other problems, so an answer to one may impact the answers to others.

Diversity in university admissions is vital because, regardless of test scores, those who have succeeded in spite of discrimination may have more socially beneficial skills than those with less to overcome.

John L. Hodge

Jamaica Plain

John L. Hodge. a retired health care lawyer and a former professor of philosophy at California State University East Bay, writes frequently about democracy, ethics, and human rights.

Ms. Romney Captures the Essence of Republicanism

As reported by ABC news and other news organizations, Ann Romney announced,

“I had the most rocking time in Puerto Rico at a political rally than I’ve ever had in my entire life.” “You people really know how to party.”

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/08/ann-romney-switches-focus-from-wooing-women-to-hispanic-voters/

Perhaps an appropriate response would be, “Right, Ann. We’ve been singing and dancing since the beginning of colonialism and slavery.”

Ms. Romney’s comment reveals the essence of the Republican Party, a Party that does not know how to participate in a diverse society and a diverse world, except to speak down to it.