The left has lost a major battle for the hearts and minds of Americans. Even as some corporations (and especially federal agencies) continue to proclaim their DEI policies as if they were a good thing, the public has returned a negative verdict. We know this because a major Democrat elected official unintentionally conceded as much.

DEI, the three initials that either stand for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” or “Didn’t Earn It,” depending on the listener, is now a slur according to the mayor of Baltimore. Pam Key reports for Breitbart: (video here)

Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut” that critics calling him a “DEI mayor” do not “have the courage to say the N-word.” (snip)

… Scott said, “I know and we know and you know very well that black men and young black men in particular have been the bogeyman for those who are racist and think that only straight, wealthy white men should have a say in anything. We’ve been the bogeyman for them since the first day they brought us to this country. And what they mean by DEI in my opinion is dually elected incumbent. We know what they want to say but they don’t have the courage to say the N-word. The fact that I don’t believe in their untruthful and wrong ideology and I’m very proud of my heritage and who I am and where I come from, scares them. Because me being at my position means their way of thinking, their way of life of being comfortable while everyone else suffers is going to be a risk. They should be afraid because that’s my purpose in life.”

YouTube screengrab

I have never met a conservative who objects to blacks, per se, in positions of authority. What conservatives object to is a lowering of standards and the imposition of de facto quotas to favor some identity groups while penalizing others on the basis of immutable genetic characteristics.  I would prefer a Supreme Court made of 9 versions of Clarence Thomas. Thomas Sowell is the most brilliant scholar of American society and culture that we’ve seen in the last half century.The real tragedy of DEI is that it raises a cloud of suspicion over any member of a favored group in a position of authority, since powerful forces openly declare their intent to lower standards in order to place favored applicants in positions over more qualified members of disfavored classes. 

So, as the good mayor concedes, DEI has been so discredited that it amounts to a slur.

That didn’t take very long at all. Despite virtually all the major institutions in our society, economy, and culture in full throated support of DEI.

Paraphrasing a bumper sticker that leftists used to love in the 1970s and 80s, “Reality bats last.”