Victor Davis Hanson: Not Enough People Were ‘Marginalized,’ So Obama Created DEI

The Daily Signal Podcast

The Daily Signal

News, Government, Politics, Daily News

4.6 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2025

⏱️ 7 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Why did President Barack Obama start using words like “diversity, equity, and inclusion” instead of the typical "affirmative action"? Affirmative action was created to right the historic wrongs imposed on African Americans during the Jim Crow era, which included about 10% of the U.S. population. Obama used DEI to expand the terminology to anyone who isn’t white. Why? Victor Davis Hanson argues in this edition of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” that it was to dramatically increase the size of the historically marginalized constituency, allowing the Obama administration to implement its expansive woke agenda: “Affirmative action was created during the civil rights era, 1964 and '65, and then, now, it has been with us almost 60 years. But remember what it was originally designed for—to address the historic racism and oppression of black Americans through slavery and Jim Crow, de facto segregation in some of the Northern states, but de jure segregation in the South. "And it said that because of that African Americans had not been given equality of opportunity. Statute never said anything about quotas or equality result ... “When the Obama administration came in, they saw that that constituency was not big enough for the type of woke agenda that they were envisioning "So, they recreated it. They used a word, “diversity.” And diversity then would morph in, during the Obama years, to “diversity, equity, and inclusion.” They added the “equity and inclusion” so you didn't obsess on race, which was the obsession. But they didn't want you to think about that. So then, all of a sudden, anybody was diverse on one qualification. "They were not white." For Victor’s latest thoughts, go to: https://victorhanson.com/ Don’t miss out on Victor’s latest videos by subscribing to The Daily Signal today. You’ll be notified every time a new video drops: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHqkXbgqrDrDVInBMSoGQgQ The Daily Signal cannot continue to tell stories like this one without the support of our viewers: https://secured.dailysignal.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:22.0	Shopify is made for entrepreneurs like you.
0:24.5	Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:29.6	I want to talk today about the controversy over diversity, equity, inclusion.
0:34.7	I want to compare it with affirmative action.
0:36.7	Affirmative action was created during the
0:38.9	Civil Rights era, 1964 and 65, and now it has been with us almost 60 years, and it said that African
0:46.6	Americans had not been given a quality of opportunity. And it was often challenged by not just so-called
0:53.4	whites, but Asians as well.
0:55.0	And then something happened to this paradigm.
0:58.0	When the Obama administration came in,
1:00.0	Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for the Daily Signal. I want to talk today about the
1:16.9	controversy over diversity, equity, inclusion, but in a little different strain. I want to compare it
1:22.7	with affirmative action. Affirmative action was created during the Civil Rights era, 1964 and 65, and now
1:30.3	it has been with us almost 60 years. But remember what it was originally designed for
1:37.3	to address the historic racism and oppression of black Americans through slavery and Jim Crow, de facto segregation
1:46.7	in some of the northern states, but de jure segregation in the South.
1:51.5	And it said that because of that, African Americans had not been given a quality of opportunity.
1:58.5	Statute never said anything about quotas or quality result. That's something that came in later.
	...

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