I’ve made another anti-fascist educational video. Below, full text and a list of main sources for the video — which I talk more about at the end of the video.
So, language matters. You hear of people being fired because of DEI, of programs being shut because of DEI, of grants revoked because of DEI. But that’s not true. DEI is not the cause. Diversity is not firing people. Equity is not slashing grant money. Inclusion did not fire four-star general Charles Q. Brown.
Bigots are doing the firing. Racists, sexists, transphobes, homophobes are doing the firing. People who hate diversity, who hate equity, who hate inclusion are shuttering programs, slashing funds, and firing highly qualified people.
Language matters. When we’re told that people are getting fired or losing funds because of DEI, then that implies that, somehow, diversity, equity, and inclusion are, I guess, committing suicide? But they’re not. It’s not suicide. It’s murder. Elon Musk, Donald Trump, Pete Hegseth and their administration are the murderers. The entire Republican Party — and some Democrats — are accessories to murder.
Autocracy infects language, fascists poison syntax, and then we absorb their viral sentences — which, in turn, infects the brain, like tiny doses of arsenic that, over time, sicken the body politic.
Inoculate yourself by refusing the poisonous logic of fascism, by using your own language, by calling hatred by its proper name.
No one is getting fired or purged because of DEI.
Main sources:
- Karen Fields and Barbara Fields, Racecraft (2012)
- Victor Klemperer, The Language of the Third Reich (1957; English translation by Martin Brady, 2000)
- Timothy Snyder, On Tyranny: Twenty Lessons from the Twentieth Century (2017)
Related (on the blog unless otherwise indicated)
RESIST
- “No More Kings! Protest Musk’s Coup, on Presidents Day 2025” (16 Feb. 2025)
- “Another World Is Possible” (19 Nov. 2024).
- “You Are Not Alone: A Letter to My Students After the 2024 US Election” (6 Nov. 2024).
- “Resolutions for a New Academic Year: A survival guide for higher education in perilous times” (Chronicle of Higher Education, 5 Sept. 2017)
- “The Public University in an Age of Alt-Facts: Remarks on Receiving a Higuchi Award” (13 Dec. 2016)
- “Surviving Trumpism, Restoring Democracy” (12 Nov. 2016)
CHILDREN’S LITERATURE & EDUCATION
- “Defending the Right to Read: Resources for Opposing Book Bans” (1 Jan. 2024).
- “Why Are People Afraid of Multicultural Children’s Books?” (Geschichte der Gegenwart, 21 May 2023). See also the related blog post.
- “Breaking up with your favorite childhood classic books” (Washington Post, 16 May 2021).
- “Seuss, Racism, and Resources for Anti-Racist Children’s Literature” (9 Mar. 2021).
- “Trump is a liar. Tell children the truth” (Public Books, 15 Oct. 2019). See also the related blog post on the essay.
- “Migration, Refugees, and Diaspora in Children’s Literature” (ChLAQ) (11 Dec. 2018). Blog post announcing special issue of the Children’s Literature Association Quarterly on this subject, including excerpts from my introduction.
- Refugee Stories for Young Readers (Public Books, 23 Mar. 2017). Francesca Sanna’s The Journey and other contemporary refugee tales for children.