Somewhere during my ninety-year journey I developed a three-line, fifteen-word personal action mantra.It goes like this.
“Look unflinchingly at the past. Apply it to the present. Then pivot to the future.”
So when I think about diversity in 2025, I think about pivoting for renewal, not merely defending the diversity past or doubling-down on current diversity strategies. That’s why my currentADR column series is entitled Renewing Diversity.As circumstances of the past few years have made abundantly clear, the diversity movement is long overdue for renewal, lest it relegate itself into footnote status in the long course history.
We may be living through the most turbulent half decade in the history of the diversity movement that took off in the late 1960’s.In the process, the very idea of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has been taking a shellacking, including legislative restrictions on its very existence. Consider some of events.
The publication of The 1619 Project and the ensuingattack on Critical Race Theory.The police killing of George Floyd.The growing strength and virulence of the anti-diversity movement, ranging from President Donald Trump’s 2020 ban on federal diversity training through Florida’s passage of the Stop Woke Act to the national surge of diversity-related book banning. The 2024 presidential campaign, with inflamed and accusative proclamations about biracial identity, transgender rights, White nationalism, immigration, and, yes, tampons.
