Why Trump is right to take aim at federal DEI programs

3 hrs ago

Star Parker Founder & President, Center for Urban Renewal and Education

By Straight Arrow News

The new Trump administration is cracking down on the federal government’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs, including in the military and in the Department of Education. Trump officials are ordering all federal DEI employees to be placed on leave and eliminating DEI considerations in hiring following an executive order the president signed on his first day back in office. In the business world, DEI typically encompasses recruiting practices, employee training, and other initiatives aimed at increasing representation across race, gender, class, religion and other variables.

Watch the video above as Straight Arrow News contributor Star Parker explains why she thinks DEI programs are harmful, unconstitutional, and “should have been challenged in court a long time ago.”

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The following is an excerpt from the above video:

And the Trump administration is doing the right thing to purge our country of all this divisive diversity, equity and inclusion type of philosophies that have seeped into law, in every federal department and every corporation, and in our schools. They’re damaging to us as a society. They’re damaging to e pluribus unum.

And why did I say they’re inconsistent with the United States Constitution? Because the Constitution has guaranteed certain freedoms, and we know of the freedom of religion. We know the freedom from religion. We know the freedom of the press. We know the freedom of speech, in fact the presses have their speech because it’s the Fourth Estate.

Well, the Fifth Estate in the United States Constitution is the right to assemble, the right to associate according to your choices. Where we lost ourselves and moved away from our own Constitution during the 60s — the Voting Rights Act was reestablished in law, but the Civil Rights Act was also amended during the 60s to say that you cannot set up governmental barriers against a people, and in particular, people based on their race.

Well, what happened as a result? Well, the liberals decided they wanted to go one step further and start forcing association, forcing assembly. And it ended up with affirmative action in law.

Yes, we lost ourselves. We took a wrong turn back in the 60s, and we should have just stopped to get the dream of Dr. King fulfilled. I don’t think it’s an accident that Dr. King’s celebration was on the same day of inauguration. And I think it healthy for the Trump administration, they continue with their goals to purge us of DEI, multiculturalism and affirmative action.

The organization that I founded here in Washington, D.C., in 1995 did a watch party for the inauguration last week. And many of the folks in attendance weren’t normally conservative in their worldview, but they voted for Trump. And so the question kept arising from the African-Americans that were in attendance. Why is Trump trying to change Dei? What’s wrong with diversity, equity and inclusion? Because a lot of African-Americans look at Dei as an extension of affirmative action, and they really believe that these are good ideas.

So I found myself having to say over and over again to various ones that were asking me, why would we as an organization, cü also be against Dei. And I kept explaining that I is like the branches and the leaves of a tree of multiculturalism. And multiculturalism grew out of the root of affirmative action. And all of these measures are inconsistent with the Constitution. In fact, they’re so out of the Constitution that they should have been challenged in court a long time ago.

And the Trump administration is doing the right thing to purge our country of all this divisive diversity, equity and inclusion type of philosophies that have seeped into law in every federal department and every corporation and in our schools. They’re damaging to us as a society. They’re damaging to E pluribus unum. And why did I say they’re inconsistent with the United States Constitution? Because the Constitution has guaranteed certain freedoms, and we know of the freedom of religion. We know the freedom from religion. We know the freedom of the press. We know the freedom of speech, of press after speech, because it’s the fourth estate.

Well, the fifth estate in the United States Constitution is the right to assemble, the right to associate according to your choices. Where we lost ourselves and moved away from our own Constitution during the 60s, the Voting Rights Act was reestablished in law. But the Civil Rights Act was also amended during the 60s to say that you cannot set up governmental barriers against a people, and in particular, people, based on their race.

Well, what happened as a result? Well, the liberals decided they wanted to go one step further and start forcing association, forcing assembly. And it ended up with affirmative action in law. Yes, we lost ourselves. We took a wrong turn back in the 60s, and we should have just stopped to get the dream of Doctor King fulfilled. I don’t think it’s an accident that Doctor King’s celebration was on the same day of inauguration. And I think it’s healthy for the Trump administration, they continue with their goals to purge us of dei, multiculturalism and affirmative action.