This Juneteenth, don’t let lies about DEI set us back

Misinformation can hinder all of us from reaching our full potential.

By Kwame Raoul and Marc H. Morial

Juneteenth celebrates the spread of freedom from slavery to all corners of the South, but it is also a yearly reminder of a troubling past, elements of which we seem destined to repeat when it comes to the harms of legal disinformation on a disenfranchised group of people.

Today’s national Juneteenth celebration commemorates June 19, 1865, the date on which approximately 250,000 enslaved descendants of Africans in Galveston, Texas, learned of their freedom—almost three years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation declaring all persons held as slaves in the Confederacy immediately free.

Delayed notice of this change in legal status wasn’t unique to Texas. Across the confederate South, enslaved people learned of their freedom in waves, long after their bondage was legally void. During the intervening weeks and years, hundreds of thousands continued to labor in harsh and demeaning conditions because they hadn’t yet learned of a critical change in the law that guaranteed their freedom. Although older systems of disseminating news kept information from spreading as quickly as it does now, the years-long delay between the Emancipation Proclamation and Juneteenth was also the result of a concerted effort by beneficiaries of slave labor to maintain power by keeping enslaved persons in the dark.

The problem that led to Juneteenth 160 years ago illustrates the dangers of disinformation and misinformation designed to preserve the status quo. Today, we face increased attempts to confuse and miseducate the public on the legal status of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs in all areas. Despite a limited ruling by the Supreme Court in Students for Fair Admissions v. Harvard that applied only to race-based college admissions criteria, anti-equality crusaders are engaged in a cynical attempt to mislead the public on the function and legal status of diversity, equity, and inclusion programs. Opponents of equality wrongly label DEI as a divisive racial quota system. But, at its foundation, DEI aims to reduce all sorts of barriers that prevent many of us from realizing the American dream.

Just as purposeful misinformation kept the enslaved persons in Galveston in bondage, misinformation around diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives can hinder all of us from reaching our full potential.

This year’s Juneteenth celebrations occur under the shadow of disinformation and misinformation—all to maintain an unequal status quo in the United States. Current attempts to redefine DEI create an environment in which racial misinformation and disinformation thrive. As part of a campaign to ferret out so-called “unlawful” DEI, federal agencies have closed their civil rights divisions. This means that all Americans are less safe from discrimination for any reason, such as disability, age, or veteran status. Similarly, spurious claims that longstanding recruitment programs that seek qualified job applicants from the broadest possible talent pool are now illegal serve only to hoard opportunities among a select few. It is no wonder that anti-DEI elites are not eager to open the doors of opportunity to all. Doing so would risk diminishing their own concentrated power. Instead, they seek to maintain the status quo by advancing falsehoods about the state of the law.

One of us is a state attorney general, and the other is the leader of a national civil rights organization. Our work forces us to confront the practical implications of disinformation and misinformation about our rights. These very real harms are why state attorneys general have led multi-state guidance campaigns to explain the continued legal status of DEI programs to schools, businesses, and nonprofits across the country. And they’re why the National Urban League has convened a coalition of leaders from every sector of the civil and human rights space at the Demand Diversity Roundtable to work together for progress. And they’re why we’re now teaming up to spread the truth about DEI and its continued legality. It’s our responsibility as Americans to know our history—the good, the bad, and the ugly—so we aren’t doomed to repeat it. As diversity, equity, inclusion, and civil rights are attacked nationally, it’s our duty to speak up and remind each other and ourselves that truth ultimately prevailed over attempts to stymie progress through legal disinformation 160 years ago and that it will do so today.

Across the country on June 19, those who truly know American history will be celebrating the date when all former slaves across the South learned the truth of their freedom. But while we celebrate, we must also remain conscious of the forces that seek to erase our past, redefine our present, and destroy our future as a nation that thrives not in spite of diversity, equity, and inclusion—but because of it.

Kwame Raoul is the attorney general of Illinois. Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of National Urban League.

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