Who Told You DEAI is the Problem?

Dear… dear… dear… America,

A few days ago, I asked: Who benefits when you only see one tree?

Today, let’s go deeper: Who told you DEAI is the problem?

Somewhere along the way, someone convinced you that the real issue wasn’t exclusion—but the effort to address it.

That fairness was dangerous.

That making room for others meant losing something yourself.

But let’s pause.

Because I can tell you this:

The people calling DEAI a “threat” aren’t the ones—

• Forced to navigate more barriers to vote—barriers that exist even after their harm has been made clear.

• Steered away from certain neighborhoods even when they can afford to live there.

• Purged from voter rolls or denied help at the polls because of bureaucratic rules designed to make voting harder.

• Teaching their children how to survive encounters with people who see them as a threat before they even say a word.

• Fighting—over and over again—for rights that others never had to earn.

And yet…

Some of the same people struggling under this system have been told that DEAI is stealing from them.

• That DEAI is why their schools don’t have resources.

• That DEAI is why they didn’t get the job.

• That DEAI is why their town is struggling.

But let me ask you this:

• Was it DEAI that shut down the factories?

• Was it DEAI that sent jobs overseas?

• Was it DEAI that drained funding from public schools?

• Was it DEAI that let wages stagnate while corporations made record profits?

No.

And here’s something to think about:

• If your state gets more from the federal government than it gives, why are your schools underfunded, your hospitals closing, and your wages stagnating? Who’s really keeping you from getting what you deserve?

• If your schools are underfunded, your hospitals are closing, and your roads are crumbling—while your leaders reject federal funding to fix them—what does that tell you?

Because the truth is—this isn’t just about policies.

It’s about the choice people make in following "leaders" who embrace an old leadership model.

A model that hoards power instead of sharing it.

That sees control as strength and inclusion as weakness. That convinces people to fear change—because change threatens who’s in charge.

It’s leadership rooted in control.

And it depends on keeping people divided, because divided people don’t ask hard questions.

Watching Flint residents fight for clean water taught me a lot about the impact of these old leadership models—how power is protected at the expense of the people who need it most.

Because here’s the thing—when leaders fail, they rarely take the blame.

Instead, they point the finger elsewhere. They tell you the real problem isn’t them—it’s the people trying to fix things.

So I’ll ask you this:

📌 If DEAI is the problem, then what was the excuse before it existed?

📌 And if DEAI disappeared tomorrow… what do you think they’d point to next?

Sincerely,

Someone Who’s Still Trying to Understand You