DEI was a guilt laundering sham that saw a transfer of relatively meager (though not insignifcant) capital to a small black managerial class and a hodgepodge of opportunistic non-whites who rebranded as POC. Some people finagled their way into empty admin positions, others into promotions and raises, and a whole lot of lame nikkas cashed in on the speaking circuit at corporations and universities. A lot of books by black authors emerged, the bulk of which ranged from mediocre to comically trash. nikkas hustled the fukk out of the fellowship and award scenes via networking. But all the fast money - the guilt laundering money CACs were initially throwing around that many hoped would be spent creating programs that would spur years of cultural change and reform - just went to higher fees for individual grifters. And a couple years ago it started to dry up. A lot of the faces and voices you used to see reguarly on social media, in commercials, on shows, and in major newspapers and magazines no longer have those spots.
What people did - from Ibram Kendi X to Amanda Gorman to Patrice Cullors etc - was convince the public (black and white alike) that their individual financial come-ups were evidence of collective "excellence." It was cynical and despicable but it succeeded precisely because in the wake of so many recorded, state-sanctioned murders of blacks going unpunished, there was a real radical and determined political energy in the air; but, because there's no longer progressive political machinery in which to invest that energy, DEI culture offered a capitalistic alchemy that funneled the general public's desire for radical political change into consumerism - so they encouraged you to demonstrate your politics by supporting an Issa Rae show or a Jordan Peele movie, or celebrating an atrocious Amanda Gorman poem that had the sophistication of an R. Kelly ballad, or a group of black women in a cadillac commercial. But they didn't encourage any real organizing
What Kendi X did was most cynical of all. He pimped a supposed panacea to racism that was targeted not toward the oppressed but toward bleeding heart whites and corporate HR culture. Any book serious about change equips the oppressed with the language to make sense of their oppression, so they might move toward liberation. His book centered white people undergoing a new self-help exercise to solve racism. A counterintuitive strategy that created a culture of bookclubs and bizarre sadomasochistic workshops, often led by people totally lacking in credentials, talking in contrived blaccents about "the ancestors," "harm," tired, hollow buzzphrases, and even black culinary traditions while an audience of white people pretended to care.
The white people in charge of institutions - be they corporate or academic - generally prefer circuses and mascots to provocative ideas that challenge their positions in the hierarchy, so this was perfect for them. Throw some money at bread and circus acts, wait for the more intense energy for reform to die down, strategize their next steps in the meantime, and eventually pull the plug.
And here we are.
