The refusal to define does two jobs, I think. The first is the talking-past you describe — each side attacking a version nobody defended. The second shows up mid-conversation: the definition switch. Someone argues from the anecdote version, gets pressed, and slides to "no no, I'm talking about the institutional side here." Each definition doubles as an emergency exit from the others. Kept undefined, the word isn't just ambiguous — it's mobile. Your script pins that down too: once someone names which practice they mean, the exits close.
Thank you for this excellent review and dialogue about DEI and its purpose. I find it interesting that opponents of DEI think that 40 or 50 years of leveling the field is enough to overcome 10,000 years of Patriarchal misogyny, 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation and institutionalized repression of equality, opportunity and access. It does not.
What bothers me most is not understanding that DEI improves access for all, not just one population. The practice and meaning of DEI have been warped into something unrecognizable.
The refusal to define does two jobs, I think. The first is the talking-past you describe — each side attacking a version nobody defended. The second shows up mid-conversation: the definition switch. Someone argues from the anecdote version, gets pressed, and slides to "no no, I'm talking about the institutional side here." Each definition doubles as an emergency exit from the others. Kept undefined, the word isn't just ambiguous — it's mobile. Your script pins that down too: once someone names which practice they mean, the exits close.
Thank you for this excellent review and dialogue about DEI and its purpose. I find it interesting that opponents of DEI think that 40 or 50 years of leveling the field is enough to overcome 10,000 years of Patriarchal misogyny, 400 years of slavery, Jim Crow laws enforcing segregation and institutionalized repression of equality, opportunity and access. It does not.
What bothers me most is not understanding that DEI improves access for all, not just one population. The practice and meaning of DEI have been warped into something unrecognizable.