Or: How we spent a billion dollars teaching people not to say the wrong thing while the empire just kept empire-ing
You ever notice how every corporation, university, and government agency now has a DEI department? Diversity, Equity, Inclusion. Sounds great. Feels great. Costs a fortune.
And yet, nothing really changes.
The same people stay in power. The same land stays stolen. The same categories stay intact. The same empire keeps running.
But hey, at least we have land acknowledgments now. And bias training. And mandatory pronouns in email signatures. And a whole new vocabulary for talking about race without ever asking the uncomfortable question: What even is race?
That question is forbidden. Because the answer leads somewhere nobody wants to go.
The Potty Training Discourse
Here’s what DEI teaches you:
- Don’t be racist
- Be inclusive
- Celebrate diversity
- Listen to marginalized voices
- Do the work
This is not radical. This is not even political. This is kindergarten. It’s potty training. It’s the absolute minimum standard for living in a multi-ethnic society.
It costs nothing. It risks nothing. It changes nothing.
And yet, this is where the entire conversation has been stuck for thirty years.
Corporate DEI trainers get paid six figures to teach adults not to say the n-word. Government agencies spend millions on “unconscious bias” training that has been proven not to work. Universities hire diversity officers who produce reports, run workshops, and collect salaries — while the adjunct professors who teach the actual classes can’t afford rent.
The performance is the point. The change is not.
The Cosplay of Inclusion
Land acknowledgments are the perfect example.
You stand up. You read a script. “We acknowledge that we are on the traditional territory of the [Indigenous Nation].” Everyone nods. Everyone feels good. Then you move on to the next agenda item.
No land is returned. No sovereignty is restored. No power is shared.
Imagine Russia occupied Ukraine. Then imagine Russian oligarchs standing up and saying: “We acknowledge that we are on Ukrainian sovereign territory.” Then they go back to their mansions and their exploitation. Business continues as usual.
Would anyone call that justice? Of course not. They’d call it farce.
But in Anglo countries, this farce is performed daily. At universities, corporations, government agencies. And no one laughs. Because everyone is afraid to be the one who laughs.
The DEI Industrial Complex
DEI is not a movement. It is an industry.
Consultants. Certifications. Conferences. Reports. Training modules. Diversity officers. Equity managers. Inclusion specialists.
All of them depend on the perpetuation of the problem they claim to solve. If race were abolished, if categories were dismantled, if power were redistributed — the DEI industry would collapse.
So it has a vested interest in keeping race real. In keeping categories intact. In keeping the conversation stuck at potty training.
This is not a conspiracy. It is an incentive structure.
You cannot solve a problem when your salary depends on the problem continuing. And DEI’s salary depends on race continuing.
The Nativist Backlash (Just as Trapped)
The Elon-led nativist backlash against DEI is not the answer. It is the mirror image.
DEI says categories are real, but we must manage them fairly. The nativist says categories are real, but we must protect our own. Both sides agree on the premise: race exists. It matters. We must organize around it.
Neither side asks: Was race ever real? Or was it invented?
It was invented. 1600s. Caribbean. Bacon’s Rebellion. The planter class needed to divide poor whites from poor blacks. So they invented whiteness. Then they exported it. Then they called it science. Then they built an empire on it.
Race is not natural. It is not eternal. It is not biological. It is a tool. A tool of empire. And it is still being used.
DEI wants to manage the tool more gently. The nativist wants to wield the tool more aggressively. Neither wants to break the tool.
The Core Argument (Everyone Avoids This)
Here is the question that will get you uninvited from the party:
What is race?
Not “what is racism.” Not “how do we fight discrimination.” Not “how do we be more inclusive.”
What is race?
The answer: a social construct invented in the 1600s to justify subjugation. A category system designed to divide. A legal fiction dressed in scientific language. A tool of empire.
If race is invented, it can be uninvented.
Not through colorblindness that ignores history. Not through diversity that celebrates categories. Not through inclusion that manages hierarchies.
Through abolition. Dismantle the categories. Return the land. Redistribute the power. End the empire.
That is the core argument. And no one in polite society wants to hear it.
The Way Out
You don’t have to stay trapped in the DEI-nativist loop.
Log off. Go outside. Talk to someone who doesn’t look like you. Not to debate. Just to share something.
Learn history. Real history. Bacon’s Rebellion. The invention of whiteness. The export of racial categories. The empire that built the world we live in.
Then act. Not by performing virtue. By building justice. Support land back. Honor treaties. Dismantle categories. Challenge power.
The algorithm cannot monetize a real conversation. The DEI industry cannot profit from actual change. The nativist backlash cannot survive a population that sees through its performance.
You are not a product. You are not a target. You are not a pawn.
You are a person. In a body. On a land. With a history. Living in an empire.
Now go. The work is waiting. The truth is waiting. The potty training is over.
— With thanks to Edmund Morgan, the historians of the Caribbean, and everyone who ever asked “what is race?” and refused to stop until they got an answer