I imagine I had the wrong type of Diversity

By Patrick Hall

It could have been sometime late last summer or a few months ago. At age 74, my memory and sense of time have become somewhat sketchy; but I digress. This occurred after a Sunday service at my current church. A priest I have known for many years approached me and pointed out that if he hadn’t known I was Black, we would’ve thought I was white or some racist or white nationalist. For several months prior to his candid observation, I had shared with him some of my opinion pieces that I wrote for Freedoms Journal Magazine. Over the past thirty-plus years, I’ve received similar comments from colleagues once they realized my socio-political beliefs, which deviate from the racial narrative that far too many Black people seem to have embraced in post-Civil Rights America. This narrative, or secular dogma, continues to define America as inherently unfair and racist, which many liberals, both white and Black, seem to promote and uphold.

 This reaction from many progressive liberal whites became especially noticeable in 1991 when I wrote an opinion piece in American Libraries magazine discussing the shortcomings and unintended consequences of Affirmative Action and other preference policies from the 1960s, which were aimed at addressing past and present discrimination against Black Americans. However, as I have emphasized in many of my previous writings, basing public policy on actions taken by one group of deceased individuals against another group of deceased individuals is inherently dangerous, if not calamitous, for any society. It approaches the height of human arrogance, if not hubris. The unfortunate truth is that Black people can never be repaid for what was done to them in the past. Yet, Black Americans can and have, in many ways, been negatively affected by social justice initiatives such as Affirmative Action, DEI, and other preference policies that have proven ineffective.
 
Decades ago, I attended a lecture by renowned sociologist William Julius Wilson, who authored the book The Truly Disadvantaged. During his presentation, I remember him saying something that has stayed with me over the years: he stated that while suffering can be endured, it can never be repaid. However, people—Black individuals and other so-called oppressed groups—can and have been corrupted by these public policies and so-called “Progressive/DEI guilt offerings.” They have simply placed what I term an “asterisk” next to minority achievement, sometimes worsening intercultural relations. Affirmative action and later public policy preference schemes, such as DEI, have fractured us as a society, leading us to judge individuals more by the color of their skin, gender, and other immutable characteristics.

Once again, these policies are supported and continue under current DEI programs, which largely aim to compensate for past discrimination by implementing discrimination practices favored by the Progressive Liberal intelligentsia or that “appear” more equitable. In truth, current affirmative action, preferences, and DEI strategies continue to provide public policy windfalls for middle-class blacks, college-educated white women, as well as foreign nationals with the right skin tone. My spouse, who is white, was born in the bombed-out rubble of post-war Germany in the 1940s and 50s. Her family was impoverished and destitute for much of her childhood. However, she doesn’t fit the DEI oppressed narrative or other woke characteristics because she is one of those “systematically” racist benefactors. She is a 78-year-old white woman!

From my 1991 article, I instantly became persona non grata within my profession and have been summarily attacked or criticized for daring to think differently, or as my minister friend inferred, I sounded like a white supremacist or some variation of the latter. Jeez, Louise! I guess I have the wrong type of diversity. As I inferred in the article entitled Against Our Best Interests, Liberal Progressives, both white and black, have primarily written me off as Uncle Tom or some species of self-hating, oddball, or misfit. By the way, I don’t necessarily care for the designation African American. I prefer American instead of the DEI/Woke hyphenated nonsense!

Victimhood…. a Comfort Food

A few years ago, I participated in a webinar at my alma mater, led by the college’s new associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Its theme was Diversity and Inclusion: Being Called to Make a Difference. Frankly, I entered this workshop with a great deal of trepidation. Having attended similar events in the past, where I, at times, naïvely contributed, I found that very little of substance was offered. I hoped to hear something different from the usual well-worn clichés about racism, sexism, misogyny, toxic work environments, microaggressions, and micro racism, along with the ever-present, vague goal of promoting social justice. In other words, the purported intent of this diversity training seemed little more than encouraging people to enhance their sense of victimhood in what is often defined as an inherently racist, sexist, and misogynist culture. Victimhood has become a source of comfort for many.

I attended my first employee-sponsored Multicultural and Diversity Training sessions in the 1970s in Seattle. Unfortunately, the socio-cultural hermeneutics or principles driving such events haven’t changed much. Essentially, you learn that America is bad! Institutional racism shapes our history and culture. White males and toxic masculinity underpin many of our nation’s institutions. Along with the insidious presence of microaggressions, implicit racial and gender bias, the peer-reviewed principles of critical race theory, the heterosexual oligarchy, and many other collective sins, these are still the same dragons brought out for slaying.

 As many conservative Black Americans, like myself, have noted, a culture, people, or group that prioritizes personal responsibility over collective guilt or blame is much healthier—not just politically and psychologically, but spiritually. However, if you’re prone to viewing sexism, racism, homophobia, and/or cultural appropriation in everything, Diversity and Equity Workshops will offer a narrow and ultimately rigid approach to living your life and engaging with your surroundings. More importantly, the foundational belief of the diversity industry suggests that if you don’t notice racism or your preferred "ISM," you simply aren’t looking hard enough.

  As a former Progressive Liberal Democrat now in my fifth decade of sobriety, ideas like diversity, multiculturalism, equity, and inclusion are little more than tribalism and balkanization masquerading as congeniality. The real results of these various social justice philosophies are that they have us marinating in our little race, gender, safe space, and hyphenated enclaves, waiting to be offended, hurt, set upon, suspicious, and egregiously oppressed by God knows what. It is the very definition of “woke” as a cultural-political dogma.

At their core, diversity, equity, and inclusion are neo-segregationist concepts. Since the 1970s, the diversity industry has completely subverted, if not overturned, the hard-fought achievements and wisdom of the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. and others. Today, it has become almost Nicene in the secular catechism of the DEI catechumenates to judge one another by the color of one’s skin (or genitalia) rather than by the content of one’s character. Yet, here we are in 2025, concerned about the equity of transgender restrooms, removing statues, symbols, and histories we dislike, or contemplating the unfathomable mysteries of implicit racial or gender bias, critical race theory, and white privilege. Like everything else in the diversity/equity/inclusion crusade, it relies on the belief, or secular apostasy, that in the absence of discrimination, parity would flourish across all segments of society.

 Also, let’s not forget the latest progressive dogma of the diversity industry: white fragility. One might need a Rosetta Stone to unpack the mind-numbing absurdities tied to this Neo-Cistercian flagellation mindset. It has become the latest craze among many well-educated white liberals who have far too much time on their hands.

During the pandemic, I had time to read Robin DiAngelo’s 2018 book, White Fragility. It essentially serves as a reiteration or compilation of previous liberal white guilt nonsense propagated by the cultural left since the 1960s. If any of you recall the song “Love Me, Love Me, Love Me, I’m a Liberal” by Phil Ochs, “mea culpa liberalism” has resurfaced in the book White Fragility. To paraphrase the late Walter Williams, White Fragility is ultimately a therapeutic narrative focused on helping certain educated white liberals feel better about themselves by fully and unreservedly admitting to their white fragility or deeply hidden racism. If whites deny it in any way, that itself serves as an admission of their racism, fragility, or white privilege. White fragility exemplifies a quintessential “Kafka Trap” being revived here in the early 21st century. It presents a damned if you do, damned if you don’t fallacy. If our justice system operated this way, no one accused of a crime would ever be acquitted, as their denial would only confirm their guilt.

At the same time, White Fragility is a work that is extraordinarily condescending and paternalistic towards Black individuals. It portrays the Black underclass and other so-called oppressed people of color as helpless, unstable, weak, and delicate poster children. Chapter 9 of DiAngelo’s narrative provides readers with a list of words and phrases that white people must avoid in order not to hurt the feelings of people of color. Although I must admit I have a partiality for the term Tar Baby.  

Take care, and God Bless.