DEI programs not only fail to fight campus antisemitism—they actually encourage it

Dear Friend of Israel, Dear Friend of FLAME:

How much have you heard about DEI initiatives? They’re shocking.

Despite their noble-sounding missions, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) programs in American universities and colleges exclude—and often attack—Jews, already the single most persecuted minority in the U.S.

Worse still, evidence shows that despite the vast budgets and bloated bureaucracies dedicated to DEI initiatives, they have proven to be ineffective at improving the campus experience of marginalized groups.

Studies show the prevalence of antisemitism—largely its anti-Zionism form—is skyrocketing on U.S. college and university campuses, to the point where Jewish students don’t feel safe and even resort to hiding their Jewish identity to avoid persecution.

Rather than remedying this problem, DEI initiatives instead promote a radical, rigid ideology that depicts Jews as members of the white privileged class—disregarding the fact that many Jews are people of color.

DEI staff also encourage antisemitism by labelling Israel as an oppressor state and demeaning Jews who support it. If efforts are made to include antisemitism in DEI initiatives, they are often quashed.

Since the perverse culture that spawned DEI programs is today so ingrained, and the movement wreaks so much damage, many believe these programs should be eliminated entirely.

The bitter irony is that Jewish students need and deserve support from their college and university administrations more than ever.

Jew hatred on American campuses has escalated wildly, threatening Jewish students in the classroom and making them so fearful to admit support of Israel or even their Jewishness.

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), the number of antisemitic incidences at college and university campuses between 2014 and 2021 increased three-fold, from 47 incidences in 2014 to 155 in 2021, and 359 anti-Israel incidences in the 2021-22 academic year.

Other recent surveys show more than half of Jewish students (55%) have experienced antisemitism on campus and nearly three quarters of Jewish students hide their Jewish identity for fear of persecution.

In addition, 55% of Jewish students hide their support of Israel. Not surprising: Some 65% of Middle East studies professors and researchers in U.S. schools falsely assert Israel practices apartheid.

Unfortunately, while the missions of DEI programs sound benevolent, their implementation is almost always malign. In theory, DEI is all about improving the lot of disadvantaged and historically-marginalized groups.

In practice, however, DEI initiatives promote an inflexible ideology based on critical race theory, according to which a person is foremost the member of a collective identity based on race, gender, or other “approved” categories. Each of these identities is categorized as either “oppressors” or “oppressed.”

In this context, Jews are assigned to the white, privileged, oppressor group. And since Jews are allegedly oppressors, so is the Jewish state—a belief that fuels anti-Zionist antisemitism.

Note that assigning American Jews as white people is never done in consultation with Jews. In fact, Jews as a people—of many colors—have been oppressed, persecuted and the victims of massive genocide for millennia because they are not considered white.

According to the Pew Research Center, fully 17% of American Jews report some identity as Hispanic, Black, Asian or multiple race; plus born to non-U.S. or Canadian parents in the Americas or Asia (except FSU), Middle East, North Africa or Africa. In other words, a huge percentage of American Jews are objectively not “white.”

Scurrilously, many DEI “professionals” demonstrate a clear bias against the Jewish state. A Heritage Foundation study done in 2021 examined the Twitter feeds of 741 DEI personnel at 65 universities and found that of all Israel-related tweets, 96% were critical of the Jewish state.

By contrast, 62% of tweets DEI personnel made about China—a notorious human rights violator —were favorable. The study also found that while DEI personnel frequently accuse Israel of genocide, apartheid, settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing and other extreme crimes, similar accusations were not directed at China.

University-based DEI staff also seem to care little that the majority of Israel’s total population are people of color . . . or even that the majority of Israeli Jews are people of color, hailing from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) regions.

No wonder, then, that DEI initiatives do little to address antisemitism. Indeed, a study done by the advocacy group Stop Antisemitism found that of 24 major colleges with DEI initiatives, only two had any specific programming or materials related to antisemitism.

Moreover, attempts at improving DEI initiatives to include Jews and antisemitism are often quickly rebuffed. Take the case of former DEI faculty director, Dr. Tabia Lee, who is black. She attempted to organize a program on antisemitism and the Holocaust. Lee invited Jewish speakers of color—Jewish immigrants from the Middle East, one of whom was queer. However, since these speakers’ identities contradicted the “correct” view of Jews and Israel as white oppressors, Dr. Lee was ridiculed by her colleagues and eventually fired.

No evidence shows that DEI programs—despite bloated staffs and budgets of hundreds of millions of dollars—have actually helped improve the lives of members of marginalized communities on campus. According to another Heritage Foundation study, the average university has more than 45 people working as staff responsible for promoting DEI, 4.2 times the number of staff that assist students with disabilities. The average university has 3.4 DEI personnel for every 100 tenured or tenure-tracked faculty members—a large number of whom draw six-figure salaries.

Yet, the Heritage study, which included surveys administered to students at 65 universities, accounting for 16% of all students in 4-year institutions in the US, found that there was “little relationship” between DEI’s vast bureaucracies and minority students’ satisfaction with their college or university experience.

Tragically, the DEI industry has spread like a blight—so rapidly consuming vast quantities of money and spreading such a poisonous philosophy that excision seems the only solution. Such was the conclusion of the State of Florida, which recently banned colleges and universities from spending any public funds on DEI initiatives.

Please make the point when speaking with family, friends, colleagues—or in letters to the editor—that DEI initiatives ignore Jewish students and harm many of them, especially those who support the Jewish homeland. What’s more, DEI has no proven effect in improving the lives of any U.S. college and university students. It’s time to end the disastrous DEI experiment.

I hope you’ll also take a minute, while you have this material front and center, to forward this message to friends, visit FLAME’s lively Facebook page and review the P.S. immediately below. It describes FLAME’s new hasbarah campaign—“Demand Justice for Jewish Students”—which exposes rising attacks on Jewish college students’ identity and how these acts of antisemitism can be defeated.

Best regards,
James Sinkinson, President, President
Facts and Logic About the Middle East (FLAME)

P.S.

You’ve surely seen headlines describing increasing attacks on Jewish students—in the classroom and in the public square—by radical anti-Zionist students, as well as faculty members. So far, university administrators have failed to prevent this kind of antisemitism on campus. At the heart of this discrimination, Israel’s enemies outrageously claim that Zionism is not part of being Jewish. No wonder more and more Jewish students are hiding their Jewish identities on campus. I think you’ll agree that we supporters of Israel need to speak out. FLAME’s new hasbarah—explanatory message—“Demand Justice for Jewish Students”—tells how recent law suits based on Title VI anti-discrimination laws are putting pressure on college administrators to protect Jewish students from such attacks. I hope you’ll review this convincing, fact-based editorial, which FLAME recently published in the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Star Tribune, Los Angeles Times and Newsmax. This piece will also be sent to all members of Congress, Vice President Harris and President Biden. If you agree that this kind of public relations effort on Israel’s behalf is critical, I urge you to support us. As of today, more than 15,000 Israel supporters receive the FLAME Hotline at no charge every week. If you’re not yet a subscriber, won’t you join us in receiving these timely updates, so you can more effectively tell the truth about Israel? Just go to free subscription.