Make no mistake about it, “DEI hire” is the new “N-word.”

I’m glad they are saying it out loud and in public because they are telling us undeniably who they are. Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the language of racism took two covert directions. The first, was for people of the dominant ruling group to become more indirect with a sarcastic tone of plausible deniability. The second direction of expressing racist thought was sequestered in “safe” all-white spaces such as country clubs, executive suites, and even church deacon/elder board meetings.  

Neither of these paths was the “high road” or a communication of contrition; they were just altered ways to speak evil. They were examples of white power code-switching if you will.

Solomon said, “There is nothing new under the sun” (Ecclesiastes 1:9). We just develop new ways of concealing the wickedness in our hearts and cultural beliefs. Currently, the “safe space” of blatant racism continues, although the language has morphed slightly to create more plausible deniability as needed based on potential financial costs to organizations that get caught in illegal discrimination lawsuits. Cases of discrimination since 1964 have impacted many enterprises in the fight for equal access, pay, and equity. This justice has even taken some to bankruptcy over the last 60 years, thus, a coded caution has evolved.

The first iteration of this racist codeswitching was the use of the “Affirmative Action Hire” phrase. I rarely hear the N-word anymore as I did from many people when I moved to the United States in 1972. It was shocking then because I hadn’t heard it, and didn’t know what it meant, but there was an undeniable disdain that was expressed toward what I came to learn were Black people when that word was used. I was 10ish when I first became aware that we thought ourselves somehow above “them” . . . even at church, where I first heard the “N-word.”

Let us not be fooled into thinking that the vitriol behind racist language has become milder. Whether it be “Affirmative Action Hire,” “N-word,” or the phrase “DEI Hire,” the emotion, and assumptions behind these expressions of white supremacy remain just as strong with members of the dominant population who utter them.

Upon the passage of the Civil Rights Act, it became more difficult to discriminate against someone based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin.  The Act also struck down the “Jim Crow” laws which applied different standards of protection and provision for White, Black, and Brown Americans  (ex: segregated public spaces including federally funded programs and schools). The US Supreme Court had failed to find these supposedly “equal but separate” spaces unconstitutional in several landmark cases (Plessy v. Ferguson). Thus, the Civil Rights Act became necessary to guarantee all people equal rights, protections, and access to the “American Dream,” systems, and processes.

Make no mistake, however, the passage of the Civil Rights Act did not end racist, sexist, nationalistic, or religious discrimination in either social contexts or hiring practices.

It seems we may be just now reaching a tipping point, but we have yet to change. There is a significant gap in time between when discrimination became illegal and the time when those things became generally unacceptable to the bulk of the population.

Extremists will always exist, but what the general population accepts is what dictates the laws and policies we support.  The degree to which the population supports an idea such as white supremacy dictates the degree to which it is practically and legally rejected or protected.

Our collective conscience was seared by our long history of building, enforcing, and accommodating white supremacy. It has taken us 60 years since the Civil Rights Act for 51% of Americans to begin to see the evil in white supremacy. (This statistic is based on the percentage of people who voted to remove the 45th president in 2020 who ran on a blatantly racist, fearmongering campaign and won the previous campaign in 2016.) Almost half of us voted for racism and/or misogyny as an acceptable leadership model in the last two elections.

Our minds and collective memories have been so conditioned by the evils and perceived benefits of white supremacy that it has taken roughly 7-8 generations (20-25 years per generation) for the scales to begin to fall from our eyes since the end of the Civil War in 1865.  We may call ourselves the “moral majority” or “economic conservatives” but we use and tolerate the racist comments and treatment of  Black people and other non-dominant people groups.

“Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks” (Matthew 12:34).  When we hear coded or blatant racism out of the mouths of our leaders, we must realize they are revealing who they truly are, regardless of their acclaimed religious affiliations or economic theories we cannot allow them to remain our leaders.

As a white woman approaching my 60^th birthday, it is my hope that these macro-aggressions and micro-aggressions against women claiming we have “slept our way to the top” or are simply an (unqualified) “DEI hire” will cease.

Your words show us who you are, political and religious leaders.

Let’s stop claiming (blasphemously) to be a “Christian Nation” while we continue to vote for people and policies that strip away the dignity, potential, and accomplishments of well-qualified people who are created in the Image of God while using racist tropes such as “DEI hire.”