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

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." https://www.dailysignal.com/2025/02/1... 00:00 Introduction to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Controversy 00:06 Historical Context of Affirmative Action 01:40 Challenges and Changes in Affirmative Action 02:16 The Obama Administration's Shift to DEI 02:53 Issues with the DEI Framework 03:59 Economic and Social Implications of DEI 05:44 Political Reactions and the Trump Era 06:20 Conclusion and Final Thoughts