Editor’s note: This is the monthly contribution from Boardhawk columnist Dr. Aaron Massey.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has been under scrutiny for decades. With recent pressures, companies like Target, McDonald’s, Meta (Formerly Facebook), Walmart, Ford, and many more are rolling back or completely eliminating their DEI efforts.
Citing “wokism” and “cancel culture,” many organizations no longer feel that DEI efforts are worth the investment.
Simply put, education can not afford to believe such things.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion has become a trite phrase, used so often that it has lost its meaning and original purpose. Hot take: that’s intentional.
The narrative that is often pushed with DEI is that a Black man who is less qualified than a White man gets the job because the employer has to hit a quota of Black employees. Or that woman gets the promotion over that man because there needs to be a certain number of women in leadership.
If they tell you these sorts of stories long enough, you start to reduce the concept of DEI singularly to those examples.
Providing an alternate conceptual framework
But let me give you a different conceptual framework: For almost 250 years, Black people were enslaved in America. They couldn’t own land or property. They weren’t “allowed” to read. They were systematically excluded from participating in American society (e.g. three-fifths compromise). Then they were “freed.”
They weren’t given the land they plowed or the wealth they curated from years of labor. They weren’t even given a “my bad” for slavery. Instead, they were given lynchings, Jim Crow laws, and the KKK. When it was no longer legal to enslave a people, to murder people due to their race, social practices took the form of policy. From housing laws to corporate convention, these racist practices became human resource policies.
Fast forward to the 1960s (and after years of folks risking their lives for change) and the concept of a diverse workforce was born. See, it’s important to understand the background of how we arrive at policies and social constructs.
DEI efforts didn’t come from Mark losing out on a job. They came from decades of atrocities, systemic economic exclusion, and laws aimed at denying the humanness of Black people. It’s because of this part of American history that education cannot give up its diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
DEI is not selling Pride shirts at Target (them making money off of your celebration of newly acquired rights is wild). DEI is not freshening up/writing your DEI statement on your website after the murder of George Floyd (looking at you, Walmart).
The case for DEI in education is rooted in the needs of all students, the needs of all teachers and staff, and the hope and strength of communities.
Let’s define diversity
Diversity, in its most basic form, means “the condition of having or being composed of differing elements” (Merriam-Webster, 2025). In schools, this looks like having students from the neighborhood and from different countries. It looks like having students that are gay, bi, or questioning. It looks Black, White, Latino, Native, Asian, etc. It looks like having a trans principal. It looks like varying political beliefs, histories, and religious doctrine.
Diversity is public education. And don’t conflate the definition. How a diverse community comes together for the greater good will always be a debate (e.g. book bans, sex education, Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms). But diversity itself is a staple of public education that must be protected.
When I was a principal at a high school in Denver, I had never experienced Día de los Muertos, a Mexican holiday where they honor their deceased. My students explained its history, described the customs, and designed the altar in a reserved space in the building. Because I had not grown up in a diverse community (I grew up in East St. Louis where it’s almost 100% Black), I had not been exposed to such a beautiful tradition.
It made me reflect on loved ones that have moved on in my own family, how I honor them, and how I share their lives with my children. I value Día de los Muertos because I was fortunate enough for students to trust sharing their culture with me. Diversity in schools has the power to bring people together in ways that are necessary for our society to progress.
Equity: The hot-button issue
Equity. Uh oh. Is this where the friction with DEI comes from?
Well let’s go back to the definition. Equity, in its most basic form, means “fairness or justice in the way that people are treated” (Merriam-Webster, 2025). I do quite a bit of reading of folks whom I don’t agree with. Understanding their perspectives helps me understand why certain decisions are made.
What I’ve learned from them is that the term “equity” is a hard stop. College campuses across the country have retired the word for more agreeable language.
K-12 should not.
Equity is making sure every student gets what they need for the chance of making their own decisions in their lives. If you’ve ever taught before, you know that Derrick needs a fist bump and morning check-in before he can start his day. Or that Alia needs a little more independent time to process content.
Equity is what we used to call differentiation. Some students love that PowerPoint presentation. Other students need manipulatives to understand the concept.
It goes past academics, though. We have students that live in food deserts – meaning they don’t have access to nutritional foods in their local area. Schools supply bags of food over the weekend to make sure students and families can eat. They got what they needed though everyone didn’t get a bag of food.
That’s equity.
There are kids who take two buses everyday to get to and from school. Schools give them bus passes. They got what they needed though everyone didn’t receive bus passes.
That’s equity.
I had a family in St. Louis that got evicted from their home the day of parent-teacher conferences. My family and a few colleagues paid for a hotel for a few days. Then we connected them with some housing assistance programs.
That’s community and equity. When done right, education is equity.
It’s not just equity for students either. You wonder why it’s so hard to retain teachers? Teachers need equity as well. For example, as a parent, I shouldn’t have to use sick leave to go to my daughter’s theater program. Or use PTO for an eye exam. Teachers all require something different to be able to do their job at the highest levels. Yes, equity has the power to solve issues like teacher retention as well.
Inclusion shouldn’t be controversial
Inclusion is “the act of including” (Merriam-Webster, 2025). Bringing people into the culture of the group. Everyone on a certain level wants to be included. Yes, even that “loner” kid that googles military planes during class wants to be included.
Schools aim to include students into the school culture because we know inclusion is a critical aspect of adult life. Being a part of something bigger than yourself is a natural need for human beings.
Intellectual, cultural, and social inclusion matters to everyone. If you don’t believe me, go to any bar in America when “Sweet Caroline” is played. Go to any barbecue, if invited, when “Swag Surf” is played. We yearn for inclusion and schools must protect that.
Education, don’t follow the “dismantling of DEI” trend. For us, DEI is more than clickbait and arguing in the comments section on X.
It’s how well we serve students, how well we take care of teachers and staff, and how seriously we take our responsibility to prepare the next generation.
