If you could have any superpower, what would it be?
In one survey, flying, invisibility and the ability to teleport all received votes. But the preferred capability was easily time travel, followed by mind reading.
What’s notable, though, are some of the demographic differences. White people (by 11 points) and men (by 21 points) picked time travel over mind reading. Those margins weren’t close. But Black people and women picked mind reading as number one on their superpower wish list.
What might account for those disparities? For some groups, I suppose going back to another time might seem appealing. You know, when things were great. For others, however, mind reading would be advantageous as a survival mechanism. If you could perceive what people are really thinking, behind their polite (or not so polite) smiles, you could know for sure who’s a threat.
Mind reading isn’t possible. But when you hear some people talk today, their thought bubbles might as well be visible. Because they’re barely disguising what they really feel.
A few blogs ago, I wrote about euphemisms and how some can be used for nefarious purposes. There’s a related language trick, where people take words that describe one thing, and turn them upside down to weaponize them.
Case in point: DEI.
Name an issue these days, and you can find self-identified experts who’ll quickly and definitively arrive at a singular cause.
I’m talking about complex and vastly different matters: the wildfires of California, the recent plane crash in the Potomac River, the collapse of a bank, the collapse of a bridge, armed forces capabilities, and the state of corporate productivity and competitiveness.
These are issues with intricate facets that, separately, demand expertise in areas like forest and land management, climate, aviation, micro and macroeconomics, structural engineering, military science, business management, etc.
Or, if you want to save time, you can blame it all on DEI.
That’s the current bogeyman for politicians and commentators on the right, who seem to ascribe all of society’s ills to diversity, equity and inclusion.
To these critics, DEI is a dirty word that stands for “didn’t earn it”.
They’ll say that any problem or disaster can be boiled down to ineffectual personnel who have no business holding their position, and who couldn’t possibly have landed it on merit.
In these shifting political winds, it’s no surprise to see many companies pulling back from DEI initiatives, including Walmart, Meta, Amazon, McDonald’s, Ford, Lowe’s and Harley-Davidson.
Other companies, meanwhile have reaffirmed their DEI commitments, like Costco, Apple, Microsoft and Delta. But it’s a fight.
DEI isn’t the first example of a term that has been twisted out of shape as a cover for opposition to racial, gender, economic or other forms of equality. It’s merely the latest.
This is an old playbook. Only the rhetoric changes.
- Detractors refer to social justice as “radical leftism”.
- Many have called multiculturalism a “threat to traditional values” and marriage equality a “threat to traditional marriage”.
- To some, integration is “social engineering”.
- Proponents of civil rights have been labeled “troublemakers”, “agitators” and “communists”, while workers’ rights advocates are “anti-business socialists”.
- Affirmative action has been critiqued as “reverse discrimination”
- Over time, feminists have been called “man haters” (and much worse).
- Black Lives Matter was met by a backlash that “all lives matter”.
- Any number of terms that aim for respectful, non-stigmatizing and inclusive language have been dismissed as “political correctness”.
- Diversity training and other education on inclusivity is branded as “indoctrination”.
- And woke – which originally meant being alert to racial or social discrimination – has been used to condemn progressive thoughts and actions of any sort.
Words have meaning, and opposition to them also has hidden meaning. Not always so hidden, really. You don’t have to mind read to get where some people stand.
Those who like to manipulate and denigrate certain words often do the same to certain people. So let’s be clear. For many, declaring that they’re anti-DEI is just a convenient code word. It’s a sanitized replacement for the racial, ethnic, sexist and other slurs that are rattling around in their heads.
They’re this close to saying the quiet part out loud.
Stuart Foxman is a Toronto-based freelance writer, who helps clients’ products, services, ideas and organizations to come alive. Connect with me here on LinkedIn, or check me out at foxmancommunications.com where I share these blogs too. More original posts coming regularly about communications, information, motivation, writing, branding, creativity, media, marketing, persuasion, messages, learning, etc.
February 5, 2025