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Wait, is that what I think it is?

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No!

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So we're running through all of these different ideas and concepts that people seem to get

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wrong, seem to butcher or misunderstand them deeply.

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And more recently, it's been DEI, right?

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And this is DEI is one of those things where, I mean, it's just a feeling, an intuition

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that I have.

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Okay, so don't try to hold me to it.

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I'm just, you know, spitballing here.

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Okay.

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But it's a feeling that there are a lot of concepts or ideas or things that are implemented

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at the college level.

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And then it gets used by private sectors, by companies, by, it becomes part of a public

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discourse for no good reason.

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It was like never meant to be for the public.

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And then, but then it gets translated into these areas incorrectly.

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And then it becomes something that like a straw man argument where people will start

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ranting and raving about DEI when in reality is not what people have used it to be or made

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it out to be.

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Like, I'm not sure what, but there seems to be a lot of misconceptions around DEI.

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Look, DEI is not anything particularly insane.

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Okay.

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DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusivity.

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Okay.

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Let's take each of these in turn.

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Okay.

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Diversity.

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Okay.

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People value diversity for educational reasons more than anything, I think.

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Okay.

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At least in theory and in their mission, right?

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It's not diversity for diversity sake, right?

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The diversity there is really so that we acknowledge that each individual by themselves have certain

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biases.

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If you have a homogeneous group of people who all think alike, have similar backgrounds,

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have similar experiences, then they're not actually privy and they're not very aware

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of the differences that exist elsewhere.

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As a result, you end up with a very myopic view.

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You have a very narrow view of the way the world works.

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And what that means is that when you're doing research or when you're learning, you're going

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to come in with those biases, right?

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People are people.

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We're limited in our experience.

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We don't know everything about everybody or how things could be done all around the world

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or how things are done all around the world, right?

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We just know our own experiences and it's the stuff that we learn in books maybe.

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Okay.

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We're seen on TV.

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That's it.

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Okay.

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And as a result, right, you're going to have certain biases.

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Whether you like it or not, you're going to have biases.

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Everybody has some.

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Okay.

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Get over it.

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Okay.

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It's a normal thing to have.

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Let me give you one bias that I had that I didn't realize that I had, right?

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I grew up in California, okay?

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It was a whole new world for me when I moved over to the East Coast, when I studied in

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Boston, when I was working out in Pennsylvania, right?

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These environments is like, well, the weather's different, right?

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But the culture was different.

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The people were different.

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The way that they engaged with the world were different.

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Their mindset, their worldviews.

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And this is within the United States.

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This is within the United States, let alone experiencing culture shock when I'm going

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across borders to other countries.

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Very, very different, okay?

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So one of the things that I realized was, hey, I thought that people were such and such

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a way generally.

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And then I realized, no, no, no, no, no.

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My experiences taught me that people in California tend to be a certain way, right?

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Or not even California, right?

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Because there's a big difference between the culture in Northern California and Southern

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California, I think, to some degree, versus like Central California.

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That's a very different culture there as well, right?

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So look, it was just my limited experience.

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I didn't realize I had these biases until I was exposed to people with different perspectives,

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right?

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That's the way biases get exposed.

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It doesn't get exposed because you reflect on your biases.

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That's not how it happens.

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You get exposed to your biases by having somebody who has a different perspective or a different

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way of understanding the world, a different way of navigating the world, right?

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You butt heads with differences, and that's how you become aware that whatever you thought

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as the quote unquote norm or what is, you know, common sense or obvious, maybe isn't

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so common sense and not so obvious, right?

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That's what it is.

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Okay?

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It's not a big deal.

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It's not a knock on you.

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That's just reality.

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And here's the thing.

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If you want to get at the truth, you're going to need people who have different perspectives,

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different approaches to life, different experiences to come together and really sharpen each other,

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right?

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Like, what is that?

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How does that go?

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Like, iron sharpens iron, right?

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You need to butt heads, right?

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You need to face differences in order for you to at least have that discussion to get

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closer to the truth.

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That's what you need.

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We need scientists to have disagreements on what path to go through, what path to go in

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research.

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We need sociologists to have disagreements about what is best for society.

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We need these differences because it's in those conversations, it's in the conflict

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that we birth better ideas.

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So there's a genuine interest for colleges to invest in diversity.

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In fact, I think that there's a genuine interest in any society to go ahead and invest in diversity

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to ensure that we have these moments that people butt heads, right?

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Now, I'm not saying let's just have people constantly arguing with each other.

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That's not what I'm saying, right?

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But what I'm saying is that it's a necessary process to growth.

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It's a necessary process to growth.

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People do not grow and change for the better if there are nothing but people who agree

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with them around them, right?

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You're not benefited by it.

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You're not benefited by it, okay?

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So if you're against diversity, it could be on some philosophical grounds of, yeah, that

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actually doesn't lead to more truth.

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It actually leads to more lies or something.

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I don't know.

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Maybe you have an argument for that.

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But I'm guessing that's not the issue with most people.

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Most people's issues with diversity seems to have something to do with the diversity

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itself or the way that we get to having a diverse body, okay?

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We'll come back to this, okay?

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But look, if you have an issue with diversity, let's have a separate conversation about it,

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right?

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I could give you actual data points in research about why diversity could be beneficial and

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when it's not beneficial, right?

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There might be certain cases where it's appropriate and other cases where it's not.

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I'll tell you this, in educational settings, it's extremely beneficial.

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And I'm not talking just diversity in the sense of ethnicity or diversity in the sense

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of life experiences.

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It's also diversity in thought, right?

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Political spectrum.

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All these things we might want on the table.

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We want people to have these sorts of disagreements and to work through those disagreements because

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it benefits everybody, right?

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It benefits everybody, okay?

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So that's what the D, diversity, really is.

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Equity is simply an acknowledgement that life is unfair.

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That's all it is, okay?

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I'm bringing it down for you.

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I'm not going to explain it to you in some highfalutin complicated way that is often

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discussed in maybe like research circles or something, right?

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I'm just going to talk like I would talk to a friend and explain to them what this stuff

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is, okay?

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Equity just means that some people had a head start in life, okay?

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This is not an insane thing, okay?

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Life is unfair.

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Some people are born into families without family conflict and so that helps them learn

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better.

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Some people are born on certain month of the year.

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I don't know if people ever thought about this, right?

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But the way that the school system works, you're going to be much more developed if

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you were born in a certain month of the year because you'll be one of the older kids and

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your brain will be more developed and you're going to get better grades and accolades at

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an early age, which is going to translate into you being pushed into some of these higher

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level classes later on.

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Look, like that's just the reality of it, right?

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Life is sometimes unfair, okay?

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You know what else is true, at least in the United States, right?

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Certain things seem to play a role and there's actual metrics that bear it out, right?

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Which is your ethnicity, your socioeconomic status, right?

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Your parents' education.

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These all seem to impact whether or not you're able to get a college degree, whether or not

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you're able to succeed in colleges, right?

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Look, my parents knew nothing about college application or anything like that.

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I definitely was at a disadvantage because as much as I try to learn and figure things

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out on my own, I did not have the resources to know all the things that I needed to actually

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do before I applied to colleges.

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I didn't know that I had to submit for FAFSA until it was closer to the deadline, right?

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It wasn't something that was on my radar.

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I didn't know that I should be looking at a range of different colleges.

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In fact, my search was fairly narrow because I just didn't have any help and I didn't even

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think about college until it became a year or two from applying to colleges, right?

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It wasn't something that was prevalent discussed in my home because they just didn't know when

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or where or the timeline for how to prepare for these things, okay?

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They just didn't know, okay?

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I'll tell you something else, right?

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My child is going to benefit greatly.

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She's got a huge advantage, okay?

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Huge advantage for no other reason than that both her parents have advanced degrees, right?

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I didn't realize it until she went to school and I realized, oh my goodness, she's learned

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so many words, right, that is going to help her advance academically so easily that we

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didn't actually try to teach her.

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She just was around our using this sort of language, right?

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Words that might not be used in other households, right?

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I remember my vocabulary was terribly weak because I came from, you know, my parents

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were not English speakers.

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In fact, they were terrible at English and to this day, they can barely speak English,

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right?

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So I wasn't learning new words at the ripe old age of like one, two years old where I

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should be exposed to a lot of these words and then even later on, I just didn't know

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a lot of words because I wasn't exposed to those words on a regular basis at an early

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childhood and those early childhood years are critical for developing vocabulary, right?

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So look, equity is all it is, it's just an acknowledgement that life is sometimes unfair.

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Some people have advantages that other people don't.

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That's the way it is.

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And the reality is that if that's the case and that is not something that was up to the

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student, then it makes sense that when you're in college, you're trying to make sure that

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you are giving those who had less, give them an actual opportunity to compete with everybody

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else.

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That's all it is.

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That's all it is.

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That's all it is.

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It's not I'm trying to boost up one specific group.

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It's simply an acknowledgement that hey, society operates in such a way that certain people

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tend to be at a disadvantage than others.

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In the United States, let's be honest, we have a long history of racism, long history

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of racism, not just slavery, but we're talking like Jim Crow laws and all of the other dog

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whistly stuff and policies that exist even today.

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There's a lot that especially go against brown and black bodies.

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So look, this is not to try to boost some people up and make them more successful than

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others.

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That's not what equity is.

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Equity is just nothing more than simply, hey, life is unfair.

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Let's try to make it a little more fair.

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If you're against equity, this is what you're telling me.

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You're against fairness.

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Okay.

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Now you might be, again, you might be on some strong philosophical grounds, on some moral

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grounds.

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You're like, no, I don't believe in fairness.

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I believe that whatever is, is, right?

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If it's unfair, it's unfair, deal with it, right?

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You might be that, fine.

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That's fine.

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But don't make this out to be something that is not, okay?

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It is not colleges pushing some group to have an advantage over others.

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That's not what it is.

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It's giving the people who had no, who has suffered from disadvantages and taking away

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those disadvantages, right?

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This is no different than a lot of the disability laws that exist in the United States, right?

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When they say like, oh yeah, we need to make sure to include like, for instance, a ramp

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at this big corporate building, right?

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Why?

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So that people who can't like, you know, walk up stairs can actually get in and out of the

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building.

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Okay.

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That's what that is.

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All right.

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That's what that is.

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That's all it is.

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That's all it is.

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Okay.

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All right.

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So inclusivity, I and D, I is just inclusivity, which means we're trying to create a space

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where everyone can participate.

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Okay.

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Again, you might have some philosophical objection, right?

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You might want to exclude some people.

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You might be like, hey, I don't want people a part of the table, you know, in the decision

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making table, right?

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Fine.

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Then stand up to it, like own up to it, right?

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That's all I ask.

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That's all I ask.

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But the I is simply nothing more than, hey, let's create a space where everybody can participate.

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Everyone feels comfortable enough and open enough and safe enough to be able to participate.

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This goes hand in hand with the diversity portion, right?

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Because there's no point in getting a bunch of people with different perspectives together

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if they can't have a discussion, right?

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If they can't have discourse.

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The inclusivity part is important because it ensures that the people who are there from

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different perspectives, especially those that are in the minority, especially those that

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are historically been shut out of these discussions, that they're at least given that room to make

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their voice heard.

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That's all inclusivity is.

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That's all it is.

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Okay?

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So let me be clear about something.

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Okay?

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DEI is nothing more than an acknowledgement that the world sometimes is unfair.

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It's often been unfair to specific groups of people.

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And so as a result, it is important to at least make sure that we are thoroughly considering

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those different marginalized groups.

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Okay?

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And then each place is going to focus on maybe something a little bit different, but it could

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be based on ethnicity.

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It could be based on gender.

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It could be based on socioeconomic status.

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It could be based on whatever, right?

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There'll be a range of different things.

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But it's an acknowledgement that there is this real thing called unfairness that exists.

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And it seems to exist along some of these lines as the metrics bear it out or as the

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metrics bear it out with regards to that particular college, right?

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Or the institution, right?

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And so we're trying to make sure that we're making a conscious effort to take away those

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disadvantages and to ensure that all voices that need to be heard are being heard.

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All right?

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That's all it is.

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That's all it is.

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Okay?

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This is not, right?

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Don't conflate it with some quota thing where people are specifically hiring people of a

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specific background just to meet some sort of quota.

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That's not what this is, right?

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It was meant to kind of focus college's attention to the realities of the kind of unfairness

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and how that's reflected in college, and trying to rectify it to some degree so that it's

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fair.

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That's all this aiming for.

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Its aim, its goal is fairness.

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Its goal is equity.

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It's to ensure that the people who started with less and are having to catch up, get

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a chance to catch up.

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That's all it is.

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getting a leg up. They're not getting a leg up. They're just getting something that other people

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already have. That's all it is. That's all it is. Now that I explained to you what DEI is, now you

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can see why this whole discussion has gone off the rails. Let me start off with one thing.

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I think, it's just my opinion, it's just my opinion, so don't try to make it out as if I'm

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trying to affirm something in a stronger manner than I really am. It's just an opinion.

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What I have seen, at least from private companies who have incorporated quote-unquote DEI,

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is that they're not actually doing real DEI. It's like they use the name DEI and that's not

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what they're doing. They're doing something closer to just simply, I don't know, it seems honestly,

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the cynical side of me says this is just like a publicity stunt where they're just putting

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certain faces on billboards or claiming that they're doing X, Y, and Z just for good public

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relations or something. Look, that's not the real work. If you're doing real DEI, then here's what

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you would do. You would do things like, hey, let's think about where we advertise our openings for

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our company. Do we advertise only in circles where it tends to majority be of a particular background?

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That seems to limit our pool and it seems to really restrict the kind of people and perspectives

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that we bring on board. Maybe we should look to advertising in other places as well so that we

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get a pool of applicants and we get a diverse pool of applicants and we also consider the people who

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often have been excluded to now be included in consideration for these positions. That would be

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an actual proper application of DEI in the workforce. Here's another one. Look,

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if there's gender bias happening in the hiring process, that's a serious problem. Why? For the

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company, it's actually bad for the company. What did I say about diversity? One of the things you

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want is you want people to have different perspectives and be able to duke it out for

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the betterment of everyone. If you're not doing this strictly for ego, then it's a serious problem

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if you're hiring the wrong people. If you're hiring people who are simply going to agree with

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you on everything else, and it so happens to be along the lines of gender, that's going to be a

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serious concern. You might want to ask the question, look, it might just be that that's just how

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coincidence, that's just how it turned out, but it could also be that there's something in

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your hiring process and your promotion process that leads to the outcome that you have. In other

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words, the fact that you might not have diversity is not an indication necessarily that you're doing

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something wrong, but DEI, apply properly, should raise questions about why you don't have any

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diversity. Let me give you an example just from my own work at Pasadena City College. So

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at the academics, when we're looking for teachers, we have to go ahead and submit a blurb of what

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we're looking for when we're looking for candidates to be the next full-time instructor,

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for instance. We send it out there and we get a bunch of applications. Now,

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the question is this, if we seem to garner a bunch of applicants that look more or less similar to

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one another in their application, in terms of where they went, what degree they got, and so on

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and so forth, that might be a good thing because that might be what we're looking for, but you

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might ask the question, huh, is there something about the way that we explained this description

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of this job that is attracting a certain group of people? This is just an acknowledgement that we

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might have some bias here in the way that we constructed this advertisement that is attracting

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a particular group of people so that we get this homogeneous group of applicants, right?

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Whereas, if we actually took the time to think about it and say, oh, maybe the wording here,

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we want to make sure that we're being a little bit more inclusive in what works,

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maybe we don't want to require a PhD. It doesn't seem necessary for teaching masters,

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seems sufficient. Oh, maybe when we want to advertise, not just on this particular job board

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where it's predominantly people who went to research colleges and are looking to do research,

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but rather we also open up the job board and post it up on all these other websites to attract

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customers, sorry, not customers, but potential candidates from different sectors of the

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population. Look, I don't think people would be up in arms about that. I don't think so. At least

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that's just me. I'm not up in arms about it because I'm just saying, oh, we just want the

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best candidate. We realize that we're getting a very specific subset of the applicant pool,

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potential applicant pool, right? And so maybe we should expand our search a bit so that we could

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at least attract all the people that might be well qualified for this position. That's all it is.

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It's not guaranteeing somebody of a particular skin color or specific gender. It's not guaranteeing

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them a specific spot on the team. That's not what it is. It's a way for companies, it should be

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anyways, a way for companies to reflect. But here's the thing. I gather that most companies

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are not doing this. That is my sense. From everything I've read about the kind of programs

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that they implement, it doesn't seem and the kind of trainings that they seem to, at least people

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who have spoken to me about the trainings that they've been required to take, right? That doesn't

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seem to be what's actually happening, right? That doesn't seem to be what's actually happening,

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which tells me that one of the reasons people have this impression of DEI is probably because

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there are people that are implementing it in a terrible manner. It might also happen at the

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college, at colleges too. It could happen anywhere because like I said, people are people, okay? It

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doesn't matter. It doesn't matter your education level. It doesn't matter what company you work

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for, right? People are people, right? So they're going to get these ideas and they're going to

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implement it in a terrible way and then people are going to get upset. But you should not be getting

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upset with DEI. You should be getting upset with the way that they're being implemented, right?

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If anything, I think that people, like companies getting rid of DEI is a terrible idea. They should

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just do it better. They should actually invest the time and energy to do it better. But they're not,

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if they're not willing to, like what could I tell them, right? That's your choice. That's your choice.

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Okay? So look, all I'm saying is this. If you're going to complain about DEI,

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complain about DEI. Don't complain about some sort of perception you have of DEI, right? I have a

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theory and I don't know how accurate this theory is. Somebody could go ahead and actually tell me if

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there's any research on this, right? I have a theory that if people get emotionally worked up

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over a term like DEI, okay, then it probably says more about them than it does about the concept

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itself. The concept is just a concept. It's an idea. Okay? Your reaction to it, honestly for me,

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says more about you. And I'm speaking for myself too, right? If you've listened to any of my tirades,

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here's what you should be doing. You should be judging me. Why? Because I'm getting worked up

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over stuff that probably doesn't bother a large portion of the population. And they can go ahead

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and look at me and they can say like, look, whoa, this seems to be something you're really worked

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up about that other people aren't worked up about. Seems to say something about you, right? Probably

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does. Probably has something to do with me. It could be something about my personality. It could

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be something about my experiences, right? I'll tell you this. Some of the stuff that I get worked

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up over, it's probably because there's a long history and multiple conversations. Like what

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you're hearing is a snippet at the end of a longer conversation I've been having with a bunch of

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other people, right? So I'm probably getting worked up for a reason, right? And it's not about you.

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It's probably about me. And I'll own that. All I'm asking is that everybody else do the same. Own

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your shit, okay? If you're getting worked up over DEI, unless you have some philosophical ground

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against diversity, equity, and inclusivity, okay? My guess is that you are getting worked up about

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something else. Implicit bias of some sort maybe. Figure out what that is, okay? But don't go around

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telling other people that they're wrong for implementing DEI, especially if you don't really

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understand what it is, okay? And for the general public out there, all right, let me be honest with

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you. How many of you who are getting worked up over DEI actually understand DEI and have seen it

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utilized correctly? And that correctly part here is important, okay? I don't want to talk about your

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individual experience at your specific company. Your company might suck in the way that implement

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and they implement DEI. Here's the thing, this is what people do. They have their own personal

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experience and then they just generalize. This is a hasty generalization. This is just terrible

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critical thinking here, right? Hasty generalization to everybody else, okay? Don't do that, please,

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all right? Take the time to actually figure out what this is and what it looks like for it to be

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implemented correctly. Because I guarantee you, if it's implemented correctly, you wouldn't even know

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that DEI exists. That's the beauty of it. DEI implemented well is something that should be

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working in the backgrounds, not at the forefront. It's not something that you should feel like it's

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something being bashed over your head. If it's being implemented correctly, it's just there.

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It's just there in the background doing its thing and you just don't hear about it ever. Why? Because

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if it's working well, then you just have a fruitful community where people of different

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perspectives and backgrounds feel included and are able to engage in discourse and feeling

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included in these conversations. Everybody's happy. That's what you have. When you have a DEI,

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that's working correctly, okay? So if it's not operating the way it should be as your company,

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don't blame DEI. Blame the people implementing it. And my guess, and just like I said, it's just a

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hunch, okay? Is that, and based on the outcomes anyways, I'm pretty confident in this to some

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degree, right? Is that a lot of these private companies that implemented DEI didn't really

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actually implement DEI. They just took the name. They just took the name. And as a result,

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people have this impression of DEI that is just not true. Okay? So let's correct what everyone

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seems to, a lot of people I say, just seem to get wrong about DEI. Okay? And seriously,

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check to make sure you're understanding these ideas correctly before you start having an opinion on

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it, okay? Stop forming opinions without sufficient grounds, right? Be reasonable people. That's all

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I ask. Please.