Project 2025 Attacks Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

Your quick breakdown on the P25 fascist attacks on DEI

This article is part of a series I am writing on Project 2025 (“P25) and its fascist assault on our basic rights and liberties. As a human rights lawyer, I am reading the entire 900 Page fascist manifesto (so you don’t have to) to give you the tools to quickly debunk its claims. Subscribe to receive these regular updates, and if you’re in a position to support my work at $5/mo or $50/year, I am more than grateful. You can also read my initial overview of P25, titled, “Project 2025 Invites Fascism To America.”

In this article, I am covering the P25 attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.

So, Let’s Address This

Credit: The Hill

MAGA Exemplifies Didn’t Earn It

Let me be clear right off the bat. MAGA claims that “DEI” stands for “Didn’t Earn It” is truly remarkable because in reality, generating historic wealth through 2 billion acres of stolen land from Native Americans, enslaving Black people for 300 years, banning Asian immigration until 1965, and banning women from financial access til 1974 — all without paying a single red cent in reparations or restitution — is the living breathing example of not earning it.

Every MAGA accusation is a confession, and projection of their own weakness. Now, let’s dive into the P25 attacks on DEI.

P25 Mentions DEI At Least 15 Times

The phrase “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” is referenced at least 15 times in the P25 manifesto. The P25 Forward sets the tone for how degradingly it treats DEI, stating:

The next conservative President must make the institutions of American civil society hard targets for woke culture warriors. This starts with deleting the terms sexual orientation and gender identity (“SOGI”), diversity, equity, and inclusion (“DEI”), gender, gender equality, gender equity, gender awareness, gender-sensitive, abortion, reproductive health, reproductive rights, and any other term used to deprive Americans of their First Amendment rights out of every federal rule, agency regulation, contract, grant, regulation, and piece of legislation that exists.

You’ll notice the truly remarkable irony of professing to stand up for First Amendment rights while championing a punitive government ban on certain words they don’t like. P25 then continues by addressing DEI in the military, in higher education, and in federal agencies, and argues for the need to remove it from every aspect of government.

DEI and the Military

On Page 103 the P25 fascists declare they intend to ban DEI in the military, writing:

Eliminate Marxist indoctrination and divisive critical race theory programs and abolish newly established diversity, equity, and inclusion offices and staff.

Once again, P25 defines free speech as shutting down speech and representation they do not like. This isn’t democracy, this is fascism. But it doesn’t stop here. In a formal section on “The DEI Agenda” on Page 258, P25 calls for defunding of all DEI initiatives, and furthermore demands that all “implementers and grantees that engage in ideological agitation on behalf of the DEI agenda should be dismissed, and entities should be debarred.”

In other words, fire anyone who so much as utters the words DEI. This type of backwards and oppressive thinking will stagnate our government and our military, and purge critical thinkers—in effect creating a brain drain. Rather than recruiting the best and brightest, this risks accelerating kakistocracy, which is “a government led by the least qualified, most stupid members.” A truly fitting description for MAGA extremists.

DEI and Higher Education

P25 then turns its ire to higher education, lamenting (incorrectly) on Page 352 that DEI violates federal civil rights laws in admissions processes. I can only imagine this is a nod to the MAGA intention to assert the fabricated presence of ‘anti-white’ discrimination in America. Predictably, P25 concludes that:

The next Administration should work with Congress to amend the HEA and should consider the following reforms: l Prohibit accreditation agencies from leveraging their Title IV gatekeeper role to mandate that educational institutions adopt diversity, equity, and inclusion policies.

A few pages later P25 mandates a university funding strategy to prevent companies like “Ford and Google” from funding DEI initiatives at universities. So much for free market economics and small government, right?

DEI and Federal Agencies

Continuing the facade, on Page 561, P25 makes the remarkable claim that:

Federal agencies and their components have established so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices that have become the vehicles for this unlawful discrimination, and all departments and agencies have created “equity” plans to carry out these invidious schemes.

This reminds me of the old saying, “when you’ve had privilege your whole life, equality feels like oppression.” The MAGA fascists behind P25 have enjoyed privilege their entire lives, and the mere idea that they are no longer the center of attention translates in their mind as “unlawful discrimination.”

On Page 582, P25 calls for the elimination of “racial classifications” in labor, and of course blames DEI for such efforts at fair hiring to have existed in the first place. If you haven’t already, I address the MAGA myths on Affirmative Action here, and this well rebukes the P25 propaganda around racial classifications in hiring.

On Page 708, P25 takes a hammer to DEI in the Treasury Department, demanding in significant part that the potentially future Trump administration should:

…expose and eradicate the practice of critical race theory and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) throughout the Treasury Department. These steps will include: Identify…and ensure that such [DEI] initiatives are completely ended. Treat the participation in any critical race theory or DEI initiative … as per se grounds for termination of employment. Eliminate the 25-member Treasury Advisory Committee on Racial Equity.

Again, it should concern anyone who believes in a system of checks and balances, that P25 is advocating for the wholesale termination and punishment of those uttering the words DEI. Where does this extremism and limitation on speech stop?

On Page 830, P25 makes a similar call to dismantle DEI initiatives in the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”). And finally on Page 873, P25 asserts, without evidence, that DEI is being utilized as part of a scheme to win favor and government contracts while offering an inferior product or service or even to cover criminal activity, stating:

…there is a movement of firms attempting to use both ESG and DEI as a sort of reputational laundering to avoid enforcement of potentially criminal activity. The FTC should set up an ESG/DEI collusion task force to investigate firms—particularly in private equity—to see if they are using the practice as a means to meet targets, fix prices, or reduce output.

The irony of P25 complaining about criminal activity on financial matters when their dear leader was just convicted of 34 counts of financial fraud. I’m reminded of Frank Wilhoit’s wisdom that, “Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition. There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.” P25 protects but does not bind MAGAs, and binds but does not protect anyone not MAGA.

In Summary

P25 views DEI as the source of all ills in America. It is dead set on returning our government and business hiring practices to the Jim Crow era, a time when Black people, Asians, Latinos, and women had no meaningful opportunity for an equal shot at admission, a job, a loan, or a promotion. A P25 administration will absolutely further normalize discrimination against people of color and women, not to mention LGBTQ+ Americans. And P25 absolutely will fine, punish, and arguably imprison for alleged racial discrimination anyone who even mentions the concepts of DEI. It is imperative, therefore, that we do not allow this fascist manifesto to become American policy.

This is the first in a series of posts I am writing after researching Project 2025. Subscribe to receive these regular updates, and if you’re in a position to support my work at $5/mo or $50/year, I am more than grateful.

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