In the opening weeks of the second Trump presidency, the supposed wrongs of DEI have been used to justify just about everything. Diversity, equity and inclusion policies have been blamed for a tragic aviation disaster and used to justify firing independent agency officials and accessing the nation’s sensitive payment systems and private personal data.

It can be difficult to take seriously these attacks by an administration that appoints staggeringly unqualified individuals to high posts, allows unvetted billionaires and teenagers access to sensitive government databases, and retaliates against public servants who hold wrongdoers accountable. But we must.

The assault on DEI is based on a misleading caricature of these policies and their beneficiaries. It is an attack on well-established principles of equality, based on highly dubious interpretations of the law. And it is designed to bully employers and educators into dangerous and potentially unlawful overcompliance.

Opponents often characterize DEI as “preferences” or “special treatment.” But attacks on DEI threaten a wide range of policies that seek to realize the promise of civil rights law: to advance equal opportunity for all Americans. These benefit not only women, people of color and gay and transgender individuals, but also military veterans, people from impoverished or rural areas, religious minorities and first-generation professionals. DEI policies combat harassment and retaliation. They open the workplace to pregnant and caregiving employees and to persons with disabilities.

Critics define DEI as being in opposition to merit. But DEI’s purpose is exactly the opposite: to remove barriers and biases and ensure that employment opportunities are based on the ability to perform one’s job — not on arbitrary factors such as race, sex, religious beliefs, ancestry or country of........

© The Hill