A Black Lives Matter sign sits in front of a home on March 23, 2021 in Evanston, Illinois. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing,” said Irish statesman Edmund Burke way back in the 1700s, and that resonates with me strongly as I watch diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts come under direct attack these days.
I have spent the last decade serving as executive director of a Boston-based anti-racism organization that provides programming in both Boston and Maine. Which means I have had a front row seat to watching the DEI field grow over the last several years and have wondered what the outcome of that growth would be as long as we pushed for greater inclusivity without directly addressing the ever-increasing rise of white supremacist activity in the region.
Back in 2020, when DEI efforts became all the rage nationally and internationally, I had several conversations with white colleagues who found my concerns to be off-putting. After all, corporations and communities were all pledging to put more resources into DEI initiatives—surely that was a good thing.