Welcome to the Be the Bridge podcast. Be The Bridge exists to empower people and culture toward racial healing, equity, and reconciliation.

Latasha Morrison founded Be The Bridge in 2016 to foster needed dialogue and brave spaces and to give people the tools to pursue racial justice.

We provide resources and community to do just that.

And this podcast is one of those resources.

You'll hear interviews hosted by Latasha and our team, conversations about current events,

and encouragement for your racial literacy journey.

Thank you for listening, subscribing, and engaging in this important work.

DEI has become quite a target.

What exactly are we talking about?

DEI stands for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Occasionally, you'll hear DEIA, which adds

accessibility to the acronym. So what does it mean when we are told that government or private

entities are getting rid of their DEI initiatives? Are they getting rid of diversity,

getting rid of equality, equity, becoming less inclusive. In some ways, it seems

the hope is for all of the above, but also the phrase is regularly being used in a way that has

nothing to do with what DEI actually is. If we go back in time, for the bulk of the history of the

U.S., what we see is governments, schools,

companies, et cetera, all being set up initially to only allow white men to participate.

Getting that spot in a prestigious school or that great job was based on your race and gender,

not solely your merit. As all other groups were systematically

blocked from even applying, what we now called DEI therefore started as desegregation and gender

equity efforts. It said that because no race or gender is actually superior, we need to diversify in order

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