DEI is DEAD: Victor Davis Hanson Says Trump Just SLAYED the Dragon
Hanson dropped the three irrefutable reasons DEI will be buried forever—and made a bold prediction the Left will hate.
DEI is DEAD.
Victor Davis Hanson says Trump has cut off the head of the SNAKE.
The president saw that the emperor had NO clothes.
Hanson laid out the three IRREFUTABLE reasons the entire system is COLLAPSING.
Then came his prediction—one the Left WON’T want to hear:
“Donald Trump is going to win this war to abolish something that has turned NIGHTMARISH.”
Victor Davis Hanson didn’t waste time. He opened with a direct hit to the “progressive” left:
“DEI, the acronym for diversity, equity and inclusion is dying.”
Just a few years ago these race-based policies were everywhere, pushed by institutions and corporate boards at the peak of their influence.
But Trump’s return to power changed everything.
Through executive orders, Hanson explained, Trump cut off DEI’s lifeline: federal funding.
If an organization wanted to keep getting government money, it had to drop the program.
“And why did Donald Trump not like it? Because he said the emperor has no clothes.”
In Hanson’s view, DEI is nothing more than legalized discrimination, where skin color [not ability] determines who gets hired, promoted, or tenured.
And opposition to it isn’t only coming from one group.
“When you look at the polls, it’s not just that 60% of so-called White people who often feel they’re victimized by DEI oppose it, but Hispanics and Blacks also poll that they are against it and that’s baffled people.”
It’s not baffling at all, he said, when you think about it.
Many minorities don’t want the stigma of being labeled a “DEI hire” when they’ve earned a job through merit and hard work.
Hanson then went on to masterfully break down the three reasons he believes DEI is IMPLODING...and why Trump will emerge victorious in the fight to abolish it.
The first reason, he said, is historical distance.
DEI grew out of affirmative action in 1965, which was meant to address the Jim Crow South and the legacy of slavery.
At the time, America was about 89% white and 11% Black, and African Americans, on average, were far poorer than whites.
The thinking was to boost opportunities based on skin color, even if that meant implementing quota-like systems.
But, Hanson as pointed out, that was three generations ago.
“First of all, from 1965—if you think about it, we're 35 years in the 20th century and 25 in the 21st. We're 60 years behind that.”
“We’ve had three generations who grew up without Jim Crow and no knowledge of systemic racism, essentially.”
Today, he said, young Americans haven’t lived through the era DEI was meant to address.
“But the point is flagrant racial prejudice—three generations haven't seen it, but they have seen bias predicated on race through DEI.”
The second reason is demographic reality.
The U.S. is no longer a simple 90/10 white-to-Black society.
America is multiracial, with growing Hispanic, Asian, and Arab populations, and one in three people marrying outside their ethnic group.
That creates a practical problem for DEI: how do you decide who qualifies for special treatment?
Who gets the victim card?
Hanson said this uncertainty invites abuse...and politicians have taken advantage.
Look no further than Elizabeth “Pocahontas” Warren. He cited a recent New York Post headline:
“Elizabeth Warren Meets Mamdani: Two liars who lied about who they were.”
Warren claimed Native American heritage to land a job at Harvard Law, only for DNA tests to show “less than 0.001%.”
Mamdani, a wealthy Indian American from Uganda, identified as “African American” on a college application to imply he was Black.
“The point is, whether you’re Ward Churchill or Elizabeth Warren or Mamdami, or all these people, you game the system and you try to suggest that you are a DEI person, when you’re not.”
The rules, he said, are so loose that they echo the “one drop rule” used by racists in the South...labeling someone as nonwhite based on the smallest trace of ancestry.
“That's what those racists in the South did. Before and after the war, they considered somebody ‘nonwhite’ with one drop, and here we're doing the same thing.”
Hanson detailed how this is an impossible task to determine who is whom.
“You can't. And the people who police DEI will not be honest.”
It is an entirely flawed system.
The final reason comes down to class.
If DEI is truly about lifting people out of poverty, why do these policies benefit some of the most successful groups in America?
“Indian Americans, according to our census, are the wealthiest, most privileged ethnic group in America.”
Wealthy elites benefit from the same preferences as truly disadvantaged individuals, simply because of skin color.
“So what I’m getting out is your skin color no longer can be correlated exactly with your class.”
This results in elites on the left getting preferential treatment based on skin color, not need.
“So you end up with a wealthy group, as I mentioned, a Joy Reid and Eric Holder, or Barack Obama getting special preferences for their children when maybe there’s a lot of poorer, much poorer people in East Palestine, that have no such recourse.”
Hanson also asks why so-called minorities who just recently arrived in the U.S. should benefit from programs meant to right the wrongs of America’s past.
“What does Mr. Mamdami have when he comes into the United States? What is Ms. Ilhan Omar have? What does AOC’s parents have? What did the squad members have?”
When you cross the border, do you immediately become a victim with no ties to America's past?
“Does it mean that when you walk one inch into the United States from southern Mexico and Michoacán, suddenly you can say, I’ve been treated terribly by America and I need affirmative action?”
“If you’re from a wealthy Indian family in South Africa, and you come in the United States, when you get to the airport, you say, I’m a victim. They did it to me. I want affirmative action because I don’t look as White as everybody else.”
Hanson’s conclusion was blunt:
“DEI is imploding because you can’t tell who qualifies in a multiracial society, nor would you want to know.”
“Two you can’t cite historical oppression that would justify repertory action.”
“And three, there’s no connection necessarily anymore between class, money, affluence, and skin color.”
His prediction was just as clear.
“Add it all up, and Donald Trump is going to win this war to abolish something that has turned nightmarish.”
That nightmare is now over thanks to a president who decided to take a stand and return America back to meritocracy.
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Great piece. Victor Davis Hanson always tells it like it is. He is one of my favorites.