Racist dog whistle: the right wing has weaponized ‘DEI’ - eviltoast
  • Nightwingdragon@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This is the way things have always been. Use a word to classify something, and it’ll be quickly turned into an insult and/or slur.

    Words like “idiot” were originally medical terms used to describe those with mental illness or special needs. Then people started using it to insult people they didn’t like. And every replacement quickly gets similar treatment. When I was growing up, the term “Mentally retarded” was the preferred and most common term to use. Then people hijacked it and turned it into a general-purpose insult. Today, the word “Special” is getting similar treatment. And whatever term will become the new acceptable term will get the same treatement in short order.

    The same happens with race. Every classification of race eventually gets devolved and turned into a racial slur. And then when they start using a new term to describe them, the racists quickly turn that into a slur as well. This will be no different. Just like they did before, bigots have once again taken a general purpose term and turned it into an insult. And if it gets bad enough where people have to start renaming their DE&I departments and programs, whatever term is used to replace DE&! will be given the same treatment.

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 months ago

      A professor I had in undergrad once use the term “vernacular treadmill” to describe that process. It just keeps spinning and we have to update what we define as insulting as it becomes used that way.

      • soba@lemmy.ca
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        7 months ago

        Yep, first they used ‘political correctness’ then it was ‘SJW’, then ‘virtue signaling’, and now ‘woke’. They’re all trying to say the same thing; that people on the left don’t actually believe the things they say but feel pressured to conform to… something? A media narrative? A desire to not be perceived as a total asshole? But we’re all totally fakers.

        They’ve been using woke for awhile now, I guess it’s DEI’s turn.

        • rhombus@sh.itjust.works
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          7 months ago

          It’s because there’s very little they truly believe in, so when they see people on the left have actual convictions they assume they’re liars just like themselves.

        • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          They’re all trying to say the same thing; that people on the left don’t actually believe the things they say but feel pressured to conform to… something? A media narrative? A desire to not be perceived as a total asshole? But we’re all totally fakers.

          Every

          Accusation

          Is

          An

          Admission

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Anti-DEI is a passing call of the ignorant. Successful leaders have known of the benefits of diversity, well before the recent DEI movement. Nothing will stagnate your team faster than a room full of people looking in the same direction.

  • SpiceDealer@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Oh boy! It’s “Cultural Marxism” all over again. I wonder if an incel somewhere is going to use this as a justification for committing mass murder, a la a certain Norwegian.

    • Stern@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      DEI:PTSD::Cultural Marxism:Battle Fatigue::Political Correctness:Shell Shock

      To borrow from ye olde SAT questions.

  • DigitalTraveler42@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    This should have been a no brainer once these idiots started calling the Baltimore Mayor the “DEI mayor”.

    These racist, misogynistic, homophobic, and anti-Semitic/islamophobic assholes are always looking for a new dog whistle to use or a new popular thing to corrupt, or even seemingly innocent things to corrupt.

    Fuck Nazis and all of their allies and enablers.

    • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      Yes. They actually really love complaining about those things “killing small businesses back in my home town”

    • jeffw@lemmy.worldOP
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      7 months ago

      I mean… to be fair, they got the W on that one. Obviously the ADA was bipartisan but Bush signed it into law

      BUT inclusion is different when you can’t infantalize the disabled. Now we’re talking about able bodied people who they can’t write off as insert insult or slur for people with disabilities here

      • Bobmighty@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        The disabled community got that win. Bush was forcefed heaping piles of bad publicity by protesting disabled people. They worked damn hard to put that bill in front of him and apply the right kind of pressure to make sure he fucking signed. Sure, he took the win as the politicians always do but that win firmly belongs to the disabled community.

    • RvTV95XBeo@sh.itjust.works
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      7 months ago

      Someone should probably tell the so-called “DEI Mayor.” I think it was actually just a bunch of racists using that term, not people who just thought we had a dedicated DEI professional on city staff to champion diversity, equity, and inclusion.

      He will be so shocked to learn it was racism the whole time.

  • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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    7 months ago

    Republicans are always in search of ways to cause Democrats to cede ground. And Democrats keep falling for it because they love to surrender and call it compromise.

  • jaemo@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    They need to get their own 3 letter acronym. I suggest DIE. Disorder, Ignorance and Exhaustion, since these seem to be their top 3 exports.

  • Septimaeus@infosec.pub
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    6 months ago

    DEI — short for diversity, equity and inclusion — has become the latest dog-whistle term in the conservative war of words to frame basic egalitarianism as a net negative.

    I totally blanked on that acronym. It was a few paragraphs in.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
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    7 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    But as online clips of the 39-year-old Democrat in his city of Baltimore varsity jacket began circulating, the conversation around the bridge collapse shifted from Scott’s emergency management strategy to his skin color.

    It comes against the backdrop of huge row-back and assaults on bedrock civil rights measures after more than a half century of legislative and social gains, with Florida leading the charge of red states pushing bans on DEI efforts in higher education and public office.

    “There’s always been this idea in societies that inherit from colonialism and slavery that opening up opportunities to those who are gravely marginalized incurs this kind of tax,” says Jamie Thomas, a linguistic anthropologist with a focus on race and pop culture.

    For decades, says Ellen Berrey, a University of Toronto sociologist whose research explores the cultural dynamics of race and racism, law, organizations, and social movements, DEI was a safe word – “code for everybody.

    Even “Baltimore” – which, as Thomas notes, “has such a history of anti-Blackness and racism and violence” – became a conservative metonym for a largely Black city with more problems than points of interest, resonating even more after Freddie Gray’s 2015 death in police custody.

    But Baltimore mayor Scott provided the ultimate mic-drop response to the right wing’s coded attacks, one that revealed the gap between his would-be detractors and the three-letter insult that keeps crossing their lips.


    The original article contains 1,266 words, the summary contains 232 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!

  • casual_turtle_stew_enjoyer@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I’m not right wing, but I have a general distaste for some people in DEI solely because of their reputation of proactive hatred and shame tactics. See localizers propping up GamerGate 2.0. Literally the most pathetic kinds of nuisances, the ones that will cleanse and sensor all media to fit their agenda but will scream bloody mary if you dare try and censor something they like. Hypocritical drama queens that want to dominate culture so they can mold it as they see fit and won’t have it any other way.

    For examples of pathetic, see Sweet Baby Inc (censorship, racism, unlawful hiring practices), Veritable Joy Studios (sexism and racism my employees on Twitter), awkwardtheturtle/DrewiePoodle (career online community manager who gets off to reactions from conducting racist and sexist harassment, their ego seems to be the only reason they still wake up in the morning). I feel like I’m forgetting someone, but I’m sure Keffles needs no introduction, none of these even compare to that disgrace.

    • ripcord@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      DEI or not, these sound like people no one should really give a shit what they have to say anyway.