The May 2020 murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, now in prison, had a wide-ranging impact on society. It rekindled a needed national conversation on racial justice — Floyd was Black; his killer, White — but also was exploited by opportunists who hijacked peaceful rallies and turned them into violent riots. Colorado experienced its share of both.
Among other repercussions was a complete misfire that had nothing to do with honoring Floyd’s memory or learning from his tragic death. It was the sudden rise of a new dogma summed up in the catchphrase, “diversity, equity and inclusion.”
Also known by its acronym, “DEI,” the verbiage has caught on so quickly across our state and the rest of the country that just about everyone has heard of it — even if no one is entirely sure what it means.
Which made it the perfect platform for resurrecting discredited, discriminatory affirmative action policies under a new label. Not even four years after Floyd’s death, the “diversity, equity and inclusion” mantra has become the operating premise for a new generation of race- and gender-based policies and the bureaucracies that implement them in government, higher ed and other public institutions.