Letter to the editor: All DEI programs are not the same
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The article “Ending diversity push or fueling student anxiety? Trump administration’s anti-DEI stance sparks debate” (Feb. 25, TribLive) quotes Adam Kissel, currently at the Heritage Foundation: “The DEI party in education is over. As commonly practiced, DEI initiatives and offices treat people differently by identity group, stereotype by identity group, and intend to have different outcomes for identity groups that the DEI initiatives privilege.”
The comment is misleading in multiple ways. It lumps all diversity, equity and inclusion programs into their most controversial subtype, affirmative action. Then the final clause falsely implies unilateral action, arising from original prejudice, primarily to unfairly disadvantage individuals. All three of those contentions are false.
I won’t commit Kissel’s own mistake and claim that the Heritage Foundation as a whole can only be as good as his hyper-partisan and deceptive “analysis.” But there’s evidence some of their funds are being ill-spent.
Eugene V. Torisky Jr.
Latrobe