https://lawliberty.org/podcast/from-equality-to-dei-and-back-again
Perhaps it’s been 10 years since lawliberty.org published
public commentary such as mine. Some review board must have decided citizens
ought not be considered academically “serious”. So much for “higher learning”.
In the first sentences of “From Equality to DEI—and Back Again?”, I thought word
choices by James Patterson and Robert VerBruggen prevent them from exploring
the gift of DEI or wokism as the latest development from liberation theology. I
surmised there was no way they could make the leap to necessary goodness as
humankind’s purpose. Too bad for their opportunity to aid churches.
I use an outline style to address their extensive coverage.
Phil’s points:
1.
Tolerance is not a civic word: in civic dialog,
each party owns their opinion. The party who perceives tolerance pities the
other, often changes the topic to avoid belittling them.
a.
“Serious” commentary on law and other opinion is
rendered by civic citizens.
i.
Law professors may and do ignore civic citizens.
b.
Citizens may be appreciative and responsible but
are not free of physics and psychology.
c.
Tolerant people deserve to chat about LSU sports
or recent hurricanes.
i.
I don’t tolerate tolerance offered to me.
2.
Perpetrators of harm cannot be justly included
in civic society.
a.
When harm is discovered, it must be adjudicated
with statutory discrimination.
b.
Pursuit of law requires civic citizens to
discover and legislate statutory justice.
3. DEI
stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion. A faction wants it to be mandatory, to constrain institutionalized white
supremacy. Another faction holds that DEI imposes incompetence.
a. Much of DEI has always been illegal.
b. In
practice, DEI is failure to accept humankind, that species with
synapse-connected neurons that accommodate, language, grammar, and pursuit of
necessary goodness.
c. Collaborating
humankind pursues good behavior. Factions require justice.
i.
Civic
citizens support good behavior.
ii.
Dissidents and rebels may be encouraged to
reform.
iii.
Criminals may be constrained.
iv.
Wickedness can be resisted and opposed.
v.
Evil can be annihilated.
d. Civic
citizens aid government to litigate and maintain statutory justice.
i.
Discovery of injustice inspires the work to
establish justice.
e. Race
has never been a valid way to divide humankind.
i.
DEI seems a development from affirmative-action
law.
ii.
And
wokeness is only used to divide humankind on race.
iii.
Civic
citizens collaborate for good behavior rather than divide.
iv.
The
1964 Civil Rights Act is about humankind, not race.
1. Allowed to discriminate against bad
behavior.
2. Not authorizing modern division
because of history’s oppressions.
a. Slavery is as old as Homo sapiens.
b. Factions, such as vocal minorities outside
civic integrity, are a consequence of not collaborating to necessary goodness.
4. Education begins with necessary
goodness and the human desire for integrity.
a. Humankind’s purpose on earth is to
discover, journal, and apply necessary goodness.
b. Necessary goodness is often unknown.
i.
Is
nuclear fusion beneficial for energy on earth?
ii.
Is
opportunity necessary to civic integrity?
iii.
Is
civic integrity the ultimate national goal?
1. Can a nation own integrity when some
citizens are dissident, rebel, criminal, wicked, or evil?
2. Does reform begin with legislation?
iv.
Can a
person demand their favorite food from a bureaucrat?
c. Higher education is bound to fail when
necessary goodness is not inculcated in youth.
i.
Therefore,
reform is needed in homes, churches, lower education departments, and in
employment practices.
ii.
There
is opportunity to inculcate in youth the comprehension and intention to pursue
necessary goodness for life.
iii.
Employment
may then be based on natural abilities and choices and the employer’s desire to
hire the best candidate for their job opportunity.
1. Meanwhile, institutions promote,
inspire, and facilitate non-civic citizens to reform to necessary goodness.
2. Refusal to reform lessens opportunity.
3. Simplicity lessens legal costs; does
not increase law careers.
d. Educating human beings rather than
racial factions lessens segregated housing.
i.
Yet
factions may responsibly create communities they prefer.
1. Black pride need not lessen white
pride.
ii.
Choosing
government contractors on merit spurs qualification for the work.
5. Necessary goodness lessens bigotry and
disparity by inspiring good behavior.
a. The present generation cannot take
responsibility for achievements of past generations.
i.
The
Civil War ended slavery.
ii.
The
Civil Rights Act of 1965 ended discrimination.
iii.
Meritocracy
is the present generation’s responsibility.
1. Necessary goodness increases human
capital.
2. Statistical integrity is essential.
a. Make certain the controlling variable
is included.
b. Avoid creative falsehoods like “audit
study”.
c. Or “reverse discrimination”.
b. It seems tragic that education
departments don’t inculcate the importance of family.
i.
Focus
on black men disparages civic obligation to humankind.
ii.
Marriage
is trust and commitment for life, rather than a reported ceremony.
iii.
Using
a stereotypical name is a personal choice, e.g., Vivek Ramaswamy.
1. Focus on black choices seems like
discrimination.
2. Human independence to choose is defensible.
3. But name choice is important to the
person.
c. Necessary goodness, which is pursued
by the civic faction, We the People of the United States, constrains both
constitutional opinion and statutory rule.
i.
DEI
flees necessary goodness
ii.
The
court seems to accommodate racial preference as a class issue.
1. Unjust to favor Hispanics over Asians.
iii.
Public
opinion, lacking civic integrity, does not pursue necessary goodness
1. Americans pursue justice rather than
fairness.
2. But not everyone contributes; some
insist on illiteracy.
3. They have no chance when education
departments fail necessary goodness.
6. The Trump administration seems to be
on the right march.
a. Even handed.
b. Solving the problems created by
the left
c. Compromise
can yield to collaboration to necessary goodness.
d. But
DEI employees have no incentive to collaborate.
e. Public
opinion is unqualified to civic integrity, and fairness is not justice.
7. It
seems DEI and wokeness are synonymous.
a. Debate
“since the 1960s” harkens back to liberation theology.
i.
Evolution is progressing such that the oppressed
will become oppressors.
ii.
It seems a Marxian imposition onto Roman
Catholicism.
b. The
political gift of DEI is to point out that no person, much less a pope, has the
prerogative to impose soul onto the life of a human being.
c. By
dismissing churches’ opportunities to respond to DEI, law professors miss an
opportunity to re-direct 200 thousand years’ Homo sapiens misdirection.
i.
Instead of constructing mysteries with which to
divide humankind.
ii.
Aid humankind’s quest to discover necessary
goodness.
iii.
Educate, encourage, and facilitate every child
to pursue good behavior.
Copyright©2025 by Phillip R.
Beaver. All rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted for the publication
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