Malcolm X once asked a deeply inner-directed question, "Who taught you to hate yourself?" Though originally addressed to Black America, the question echoes with
Dr. Lessie Branch
The rejection of initiatives designed to uplift and unify, mirrors the self-defeating blindness described by Dr. W.E.B. Du Bois’s “Veil” from The Souls of Black Folk. Once thought to reflect the reality of Black Americans, this metaphor now highlights our society’s resistance to shared humanity and collective liberation.
The opposition is incongruous. White Americans, particularly white women, have been the primary beneficiaries of affirmative action policies, experiencing both significant increases in educational attainment and workforce participation. Yet many white Americans oppose the very programs that have contributed to this socio-economic advancement.
Du Bois described the Veil as a shroud that dulled the vision of white Americans, preventing them from recognizing Black people as fully human, yet, in bitter irony, this new Veil appears to be clouding the objectives of DEI initiatives by obscuring its role in achieving equity. This distortion recasts DEI efforts not as bridges toward collective progress but as existential threats that blind many white Americans to the uncomfortable truth that they have always been beneficiaries of policies they now oppose.
The antagonism to these initiatives originates in a tangled web of false narratives and propagandized fears that promote a racialized view of inclusion efforts, shockingly by those who have benefitted most from their success. This distorted view misrepresents not only the programs, but their contribution to the collective good.
