This post is part of the digital companion series to Jen Psaki’s “The Blueprint,” a new podcast examining where Democrats stand after big losses in 2024 and how they can win again. Below is an adapted excerpt edited for length and clarity from the March 3 episode featuring former Georgia House Minority Leader Stacey Abrams.
Within hours of taking office, President Donald Trump followed through on one of his top campaign promises, attacking diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in the federal workforce. But what Trump and other Republicans have failed to realize is that DEI isn’t new and it isn’t tangential. Although the acronym gained attention in the past 5 to 10 years, the core principles it represents have been around since America’s inception.
We’ve allowed the intention of DEI to be hijacked by those who want the freedom to discriminate.
We know that from the very beginning of this country, despite our national credo, the government purportedly by and for the people immediately raised barriers to block full participation in the American Dream. To dismantle these impediments, the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendments were necessary first steps toward including Black Americans. Native Americans received citizenship in 1924 and the Chicano Movement began to remedy the oppression of Mexican-Americans. We had the 19th Amendment and Title IX to help women get on equal footing. We have the Americans with Disabilities Act, Title I for poor kids, and the Family and Medical Leave Act. Despite their timing and target, these are all massive DEI laws. Laws passed by Democrats and Republicans, all intended to make sure that diversity, equity and inclusion are part of our nation’s story.
Simply put, diversity means all people. That’s all it is. Diversity means all people should have the chance to participate. Equity means that everyone has a fair opportunity. Inclusion means everyone should have a pathway to the American dream. Our entire country is premised on DEI, a foundational set of values that oppose uniformity, inequality and exclusivity. But the problem is, we’ve allowed the intention of DEI to be hijacked by those who want the freedom to discriminate.
So when you see people who are anti-DEI, what we should be asking is which part don’t they like? Is it opposition to the diversity part, because they think too many people get a fair shot in today’s America? Do they not like the idea of equity, because they don’t want to have to compete? Or are they offended by inclusion because they believe some people should be isolated and kept away from opportunity?
We, as Americans, have to correct past mistakes and provide everyone with access to the ability to improve their beginnings and imagine more. As legal scholar Kenji Yoshino said to me recently, “Talent is everywhere. Opportunity is not.” DEI is about how we marry the two.
Too often, race, gender, disability, class, sexual identity and other differences are dismissed as cultural issues. And it’s not just the Republican Party treating immutable characteristics as choices to be made. In the aftermath of Kamala Harris’ loss, some members of the Democratic Party argued that paying too much attention to the attacks on these communities drove voters away. But I push back on that idea and against the relegation of my humanity as merely a cultural issue, like the kind of music I like or the TV shows I prefer.
Part of Trump’s tactical toolbox is chaos and cacophony. He makes so much noise that you forget to look at what he’s actually doing.
I am a woman, so abortion rights are not a cultural issue. It’s a medical issue. It’s an economic issue. It’s an educational issue. It’s a moral issue. As a Black person, my race isn’t a cultural fascination. In this country, race has long been the excuse for barriers to a person’s ability to take care of themselves and their families. When identity becomes weaponized as an excuse for blocking access, we are not the America we aspire to be.
Creating divides by pretending differences are distractions is just one small part of what Trump and the Republican Party seek to accomplish with their flurry of executive orders. The administration has flooded the zone with a barrage of policy changes to distract the American people from what it means to cancel a contract with a service-disabled veteran or make a lactation room a violation of federal policy.
So if Americans want to fight back, we must pay attention. We must differentiate between what is shock and awe and what is meaningful action. Part of Trump’s tactical toolbox is chaos and cacophony. He makes so much noise that you forget to look at what he’s actually doing — that’s why I call him a flimflam artist. The pain and harm he causes is real and we should never diminish that, but we also can’t give him more credit than he’s due.
For example, despite what Trump says about birthright citizenship, the president cannot rescind a constitutional amendment with an executive order. Something like that can’t happen unless we allow it to happen. And simply because your particular identity isn’t under attack, do not be fooled. You might be next. Right now, we have systems in place to stop our nation from restoring its original sins, but Trump has weakened our faith in our systems and each other.
America doesn’t simply exist by wishing and hoping, our systems of laws and customs exist by intention. My advice for Democrats is not to just talk about resistance, but also demonstrate insistence. We have to insist on recognizing our common humanity, our bounty of differences, our system of government and our work that has yet to be done. And we have to insist on our politicians doing their jobs to protect us all.
