DEI Was Never Going to Save Us

People keep asking me what I’m going to do now that DEI is under attack.

It’s a funny question because, as a Black woman, I’ve always been under attack. So DEI being under attack is not more alarming than my entire existence being a threat in my America—the true America.

But what I find, as I engage in these conversations, is how much people still get wrong about DEI—even now that it’s a household acronym.

People say things like, “Well, it’s basically good HR, right?” or “Workplaces still need people to get along, so your work is still needed.”

And though I’m smiling on the outside—because I’m talking with my OB/GYN, or my mortgage broker, or my gym instructor—my insides are melting.

My work has never been about helping people get along.

My work is about fundamentally changing the way we relate to each other.

My work is a continuation of my ancestors’ fight for freedom.

A Tool, Not the Destination

Across the country, DEI is being dismantled. Chief diversity officers are disappearing from leadership teams. State legislatures are banning diversity programs. Funders are quietly pulling back from racial justice commitments they made just four years ago.

Let’s be clear: this is intentional. The push to gut DEI is part of a broader backlash against racial justice, an attempt to reassert control over even the smallest gains toward equity.

And yet, I am not panicking.

Because DEI was never meant to save us.

For years, DEI has been framed as a solution to structural inequities. We were told that if organizations recruited more diverse talent, provided equity trainings, and created more inclusive cultures, racism could be chipped away from the inside.

And to some extent, that framing worked. Billions of dollars were poured into DEI programs. New roles were created. Companies made public commitments to racial justice.

But DEI was never about liberation. It was about reform.

To be clear, DEI has certainly played an important role in advancing the broader civil rights movement. It has opened doors, created language for institutional change, and given many of us access to spaces where we were once barred from entry entirely.

But a tool is only as useful as the system that wields it. And too often, DEI has been absorbed into the very structures it sought to disrupt—serving as the ceiling, rather than the foundation, for what’s possible.

When DEI Becomes the Ceiling

For many institutions, DEI has functioned as the upper limit of racial progress—a set of initiatives that mark the boundaries of what is acceptable.

Rather than challenging power structures, DEI has been deployed to preserve them.

Rather than addressing racism, it has been used to manage race.

Rather than redistribution of power, it has been about the representation of peoples.

This is why, in many cases, DEI work has remained tethered to the logic of capitalism—ensuring that companies and institutions can extract value from diverse talent without fundamentally restructuring how power and resources are distributed.

It’s why organizations can tout diversity numbers while failing to protect Black and Brown employees from harm.

It’s why so many DEI leaders are sidelined, underfunded, or fired when they push too hard.

So when we see DEI under attack, the real question is not just how do we defend it? but also: what does this moment reveal about the limits of what DEI was ever allowed to be?

Don’t Panic. Organize.

If DEI was never meant to save us, then its rollback—while harmful—does not spell the end of the movement for racial justice. It simply reminds us that liberation was never going to be found in corporate statements or diversity task forces.

Instead of panic, this moment calls for clarity. 

DEI was—and still remains—one strategy. But it was never the only strategy. 

DEI has been a useful tool — a wedge in a slamming door. But if the wedge gives way, we shouldn’t lament its loss. It’s never been about the wedge—it’s about the opening. 

The goal has always been freedom, not just inclusion. And while we have fought to make workplaces, schools, and institutions more equitable, we must also be building the things that will sustain us outside of these systems.

That means:

• Shifting our energy toward collective power—investing in movement-building, mutual aid, and community-led solutions that don’t rely on institutional approval.

• Expanding our vision beyond organizational diversity efforts—pushing for policies that address wealth redistribution, labor rights, land back, and structural racism at its root.

• Recognizing that justice work doesn’t begin and end in the workplace—it is about reimagining society itself.

If the wedge gives way, we can find other wedges. Or pry bars, or battering rams. Because where there’s an opening, there’s hope.

Liberation is the Work

Let’s be real: we know why DEI is under attack.

Because even in its most constrained form, it was still a threat.

Even within the narrowest institutional constraints, DEI makes people uncomfortable. It forced conversations about race, power, and privilege that some never wanted to have.

But if this backlash has taught us anything, it is that we cannot afford to continue mistaking access for justice.

We cannot allow DEI to be the end goal when liberation is what we’re after.

And we cannot look to the same institutions that built these barriers in the first place to be the ones that take them down.

So yes, we should fight for what has been lost.

But we should also dream bigger, organize smarter, and build beyond what DEI ever allowed us to imagine.

Because our freedom will never be found in a framework.

We are the ones who will create it—and demand it.