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Biden staffers brag that they are part of the most diverse presidential team in history to signal that this administration prioritizes the interests of people who aren’t heterosexual, cisgender White men more than prior ones. Harvard didn’t declare “We are now a fully anti-racist university” in 2023 when it made Claudine Gay the first person of color to run one of America’s oldest and most prestigious universities. But Gay, in her inaugural speech, acknowledged Harvard’s “long history of exclusion” and cast her appointment as part of a “different future” for the college.
And even when institutions or individuals aren’t implying that greater diversity has a substantive meaning, it’s natural that people make that assumption. After all, the average American who is Black, gay, Muslim or a White woman is to the left of the average White Christian heterosexual male. A Congress full of randomly selected women would almost certainly be much more progressive than the current one — and one of only Black women even more so.
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Here’s the problem: Individuals, whatever their identity, usually don’t change powerful, established institutions, for several reasons. First of all, the minorities and women tapped to join such institutions are often chosen because they have signaled that they won’t disrupt the status quo too much. Many Black Democratic mayors and Black police chiefs have blocked efforts to increase scrutiny of officers or meaningfully reform police practices; they wouldn’t have gotten those jobs if they were going to push for major changes.
Second, even minorities and women who favor more progressive change are caught in a bind: Challenging the values of the institutions they are a part of would likely reduce their ability to advance, or even remain in their current roles. Before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Georgia’s Raphael G. Warnock co-signed a statement with a group of other African American and African pastors that was very critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — invoking Jim Crow in the United States and apartheid in South Africa as comparisons. I suspect his unwillingness to use such language or even call for a cease-fire in Gaza now is related to Warnock’s rising status within the Democratic Party’s establishment, which might support him as a candidate for president or vice president in the future.
Similarly, even if Vice President Harris or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were leery of the administration’s policy of rigidly aligning with Israel, they probably couldn’t allow those doubts to become public and stay in their posts. As she tries to gain slots on key committees and other sources of power within the Democratic Party, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) seems more hesitant to criticize President Biden and other party leaders.
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The third and biggest problem is that minorities and women often simply don’t have enough internal power to change these institutions, even when they try. More pro-immigration staffers of color in the Biden administration have quit, frustrated with the approach that the president has taken on that issue. Arab Americans and Muslims working for the administration and for congressional Democrats have repeatedly slammed Biden’s Gaza policy, both in internal meetings and numerous public letters. They haven’t moved the president or Democratic members of Congress.
Jazmine Hughes, a National Magazine Award-winning writer who is Black and a lesbian, resigned under pressure from management at the New York Times in November, with the paper frustrated that she had signed public letters criticizing the Times’s coverage of transgender issues and the broader news media’s handling of the Israel-Gaza fighting. Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Lowery, who is Black, left The Post a few years ago, after being reprimanded by editors who didn’t like his Twitter posts criticizing the media’s coverage of U.S. politics.
No one’s workplace does whatever they want. And plenty of progressive White men have similar beefs with Biden’s Israel policy and other instances of centrism at their institutions. But having prominent women and minorities helps to legitimize an organization’s progressive credentials and makes it harder to criticize.
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“While we are touted as the most diverse administration in history, it feels very disillusioning to see that leadership doesn’t listen when we counter the policy decisions they are making. People are fed up with that,” a Jewish Biden administration staffer told the magazine Jewish Currents in a recent interview. (The staffer did not provide their name because administration officials are not allowed to publicly criticize Biden’s policies.)
Don’t get me wrong: I’m thrilled women and minorities can ascend to the highest jobs. I’m so glad we have a Black woman as vice president, because Black women have faced so much discrimination in America’s past and present. And, in general, the people of color in top roles are more progressive than their predecessors. (Obama vs. Bill Clinton, for example.) I fully acknowledge that plenty of minorities and women simply don’t hold progressive views and aren’t being held back or silenced by their institutions.
But people pushing for real change should remember that greater diversity is not always progress and not automatically assume a minority or a woman (even one who identifies as liberal or progressive) will be an ally. Anyone who wants New York City’s police department to actually punish officers when they violate policies and laws must oppose Mayor Eric Adams (who is Black) in next year’s Democratic primary.
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Progressives should push institutions to fundamentally change, not just put more people of color in high-profile roles. The path to a consistently progressive Democratic Party is for the left to win primaries, particularly the presidential contest, and take over the party from within. A more diverse administration run by a centrist figure such as Biden isn’t enough.
And when change is impossible, progressives should look to create or revitalize alternative institutions. Several of the members of Congress calling for a cease-fire in Gaza are affiliated with the Working Families Party, which over the last few years has rebranded itself to be a left-wing rival to the Democrats, particularly in left-leaning areas. Many WFP-aligned members of Congress are people of color, but they are not tied to the center-left wing of the Democratic Party and therefore reliant on it for advancement.
The terms “diversity,” “equity” and "inclusion” are perhaps permanently joined together, since so many companies and universities have created DEI offices. But those three terms are not synonyms. What America really needs is a whole lot more equity and equality. Diversity and inclusion are necessary, but very much not sufficient.
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I’m glad people of color, LGBTQ+ Americans, White women, Muslims and others with identities that have often faced overt discrimination in U.S. history can now hold top positions in government and other major institutions. A person’s religion, race and other such personal characteristics should never have been used to limit their opportunities.
But I once assumed that greater inclusion would inevitably lead to equitable policies, because people from groups that had been unfairly diminished would see injustice more clearly than others and be more motivated to address it. I don’t think that anymore.
For the past four months, people of color serving in top roles in the Biden administration have been among the most high-profile defenders of Israel as it obliterates the homes and institutions of Palestinians, whom Israel had already been oppressing in numerous other ways. That’s a clear example of a broader reality: having more minorities and women isn’t always the path to a more progressive country and, in some cases, obstructs that goal.
It’s rarely directly stated that, “If we add more people of color or women to institution X, that will move it leftward.” But that assumption is embedded in a lot of discourse. Democratic politicians who are White women or people of color often emphasize their connections to those groups, hinting they will be particularly strong advocates for those who share their identities. For example, in his 2008 campaign, Barack Obama argued his candidacy was an extension of the 20th-century Black freedom movement.
Biden staffers brag that they are part of the most diverse presidential team in history to signal that this administration prioritizes the interests of people who aren’t heterosexual, cisgender White men more than prior ones. Harvard didn’t declare “We are now a fully anti-racist university” in 2023 when it made Claudine Gay the first person of color to run one of America’s oldest and most prestigious universities. But Gay, in her inaugural speech, acknowledged Harvard’s “long history of exclusion” and cast her appointment as part of a “different future” for the college.
And even when institutions or individuals aren’t implying that greater diversity has a substantive meaning, it’s natural that people make that assumption. After all, the average American who is Black, gay, Muslim or a White woman is to the left of the average White Christian heterosexual male. A Congress full of randomly selected women would almost certainly be much more progressive than the current one — and one of only Black women even more so.
Here’s the problem: Individuals, whatever their identity, usually don’t change powerful, established institutions, for several reasons. First of all, the minorities and women tapped to join such institutions are often chosen because they have signaled that they won’t disrupt the status quo too much. Many Black Democratic mayors and Black police chiefs have blocked efforts to increase scrutiny of officers or meaningfully reform police practices; they wouldn’t have gotten those jobs if they were going to push for major changes.
Second, even minorities and women who favor more progressive change are caught in a bind: Challenging the values of the institutions they are a part of would likely reduce their ability to advance, or even remain in their current roles. Before he was elected to the U.S. Senate, Georgia’s Raphael G. Warnock co-signed a statement with a group of other African American and African pastors that was very critical of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — invoking Jim Crow in the United States and apartheid in South Africa as comparisons. I suspect his unwillingness to use such language or even call for a cease-fire in Gaza now is related to Warnock’s rising status within the Democratic Party’s establishment, which might support him as a candidate for president or vice president in the future.
Similarly, even if Vice President Harris or Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin were leery of the administration’s policy of rigidly aligning with Israel, they probably couldn’t allow those doubts to become public and stay in their posts. As she tries to gain slots on key committees and other sources of power within the Democratic Party, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) seems more hesitant to criticize President Biden and other party leaders.
The third and biggest problem is that minorities and women often simply don’t have enough internal power to change these institutions, even when they try. More pro-immigration staffers of color in the Biden administration have quit, frustrated with the approach that the president has taken on that issue. Arab Americans and Muslims working for the administration and for congressional Democrats have repeatedly slammed Biden’s Gaza policy, both in internal meetings and numerous public letters. They haven’t moved the president or Democratic members of Congress.
Jazmine Hughes, a National Magazine Award-winning writer who is Black and a lesbian, resigned under pressure from management at the New York Times in November, with the paper frustrated that she had signed public letters criticizing the Times’s coverage of transgender issues and the broader news media’s handling of the Israel-Gaza fighting. Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Lowery, who is Black, left The Post a few years ago, after being reprimanded by editors who didn’t like his Twitter posts criticizing the media’s coverage of U.S. politics.
No one’s workplace does whatever they want. And plenty of progressive White men have similar beefs with Biden’s Israel policy and other instances of centrism at their institutions. But having prominent women and minorities helps to legitimize an organization’s progressive credentials and makes it harder to criticize.
“While we are touted as the most diverse administration in history, it feels very disillusioning to see that leadership doesn’t listen when we counter the policy decisions they are making. People are fed up with that,” a Jewish Biden administration staffer told the magazine Jewish Currents in a recent interview. (The staffer did not provide their name because administration officials are not allowed to publicly criticize Biden’s policies.)
Don’t get me wrong: I’m thrilled women and minorities can ascend to the highest jobs. I’m so glad we have a Black woman as vice president, because Black women have faced so much discrimination in America’s past and present. And, in general, the people of color in top roles are more progressive than their predecessors. (Obama vs. Bill Clinton, for example.) I fully acknowledge that plenty of minorities and women simply don’t hold progressive views and aren’t being held back or silenced by their institutions.
But people pushing for real change should remember that greater diversity is not always progress and not automatically assume a minority or a woman (even one who identifies as liberal or progressive) will be an ally. Anyone who wants New York City’s police department to actually punish officers when they violate policies and laws must oppose Mayor Eric Adams (who is Black) in next year’s Democratic primary.
Progressives should push institutions to fundamentally change, not just put more people of color in high-profile roles. The path to a consistently progressive Democratic Party is for the left to win primaries, particularly the presidential contest, and take over the party from within. A more diverse administration run by a centrist figure such as Biden isn’t enough.
And when change is impossible, progressives should look to create or revitalize alternative institutions. Several of the members of Congress calling for a cease-fire in Gaza are affiliated with the Working Families Party, which over the last few years has rebranded itself to be a left-wing rival to the Democrats, particularly in left-leaning areas. Many WFP-aligned members of Congress are people of color, but they are not tied to the center-left wing of the Democratic Party and therefore reliant on it for advancement.
The terms “diversity,” “equity” and "inclusion” are perhaps permanently joined together, since so many companies and universities have created DEI offices. But those three terms are not synonyms. What America really needs is a whole lot more equity and equality. Diversity and inclusion are necessary, but very much not sufficient.
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