When Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Are Banned

"To be anti-racist is to recognize that policies not only reflect inequality—they create it. Banning equity initiatives doesn't remove bias, it reinforces it." ~ Ibram X. Kendi

"When you strike down diversity programs, you strike down the very tools we use to confront structural inequality. Silencing DEI is silencing progress." ~ Kimberlé Crenshaw

"A society that bans equity and inclusion initiatives reveals its deep commitment to maintaining the status quo of injustice." ~ Cornel West

"Without deliberate attention to race and equity, systems of exclusion will not only persist—they will adapt and survive. Banning DEI is not neutrality, it is complicity." ~ Michelle Alexander

"Erasing DEI from our institutions is not about freedom or fairness—it's about consolidating power and preserving hierarchy under the guise of equality." ~ Brittney Cooper

You live in a culture of fear, where you can be punished at any time for breaking ambiguous rules. In a system based on suspicion, the state is constantly monitoring you, keeps an eye on you, and encourages citizens to report you, turning neighbours against neighbours. There is an official ideology that you have to adhere to, and questioning it puts you at risk of repercussions from both the government and a society that has been indoctrinated to view dissent as disloyalty.

You see how systems are built on oppression, how Canada’s foundation rests on stolen Indigenous lands, broken treaties, and the deliberate destruction of families through residential schools, a genocide cloaked in bureaucracy.

The racism is systemic, woven into laws and organizations, from policing to education to healthcare. In a true democracy, the state can’t force patriotism on you, but nationalist education does exactly that, rewriting history to justify racial hierarchy while erasing the violence of colonialism.

When Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion are banned In government and other organizations, when critical race theory is silenced, it’s only a matter of time before Black History Month or Indigenous History Month are erased or negatively stereotyped to such a level that it's an embarrassment to celebrate such months, because authoritarianism demands control over memory itself. This new type of authoritarianism thrives on vague laws or rules or policies, dismantling rights and ideas that challenge power, all while gas-lighting the public into believing oppression is freedom.

And when they tell you that you, the dominant group, are the real victims, it’s just a way to justify targeting everyone else, shifting blame to the marginalized while consolidating power for those at the top. This is how democracies decay, not always with a coup, but with slow, calculated erosion, until one day you wake up and realize how much has already been taken.

We see this south of the border, their federal government proudly deporting millions of permanent residence and new Americans back to their former countries. We see organizations and even the US military and other organizations dismantling diversity, equity, and inclusion and scapegoating that important concept of protecting diversity in democracy into targeting it as racist, and discriminatory, and not merit-based, which is complete nonsense.

While large American urban centres are being ripped apart with immigration ICE agents, and cities erupting in massive protests and ablaze, in just four more days; June 14th, the world will view the president's birthday with all the pomp and prestige, the propaganda wow factor who resonate throughout America, showcasing strength and power of a military state, it's military parade, seen as the new American authoritarian military dictatorship.