Law professors naturally overlook DEI's gift: the call for necessary goodness

 

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 of all or portions of this paper as long as this complete copyright notice is included.