The recent "Dear Colleague" letter issued on February 14th by the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights is the latest and most ominous threat to diversity and truth in education under the new administration thus far. It provides their interpretation, however vague, of the 2023 Supreme Court SFFA v. Harvard decision banning "race conscious" college admissions. They extend that principle to far-reaching areas of K-12 and college life, giving institutions 14 days to eliminate DEI programs or risk losing federal funding. Consideration of race would be prohibited in hiring, promotion, and compensation (which is already the case anyway) as well as in need-based financial aid, themed housing, and graduation ceremonies. Some of you may have attended an Asian American graduation ceremony complementing the main campus ceremony. These are now seen in violation of legal precedent.

These anti-DEI policies are promoted under the guise of restoring a "race-blind" meritocracy. But we know that defining "merit" on an uneven playing field is a fraught exercise. Racial disparities and racially skewed institutional policies and practices not only remain, but are becoming more pronounced along with income and wealth inequalities.

The censorship of public data containing race and gender information, the defunding of government grants and contracts touching on issues of race, gender, reproductive and environmental rights, and moves to squash scientific research more generally roll back decades of social progress in this country. Attacks on DEI are also at their core an erasure of the multitudes of identities that we, as a diverse society, have come to acknowledge and respect as part of an inclusive democracy. In what world would an Asian American graduation ceremony be illegal? One in which the expression of personal identities and the formation of social communities related to race and gender are forbidden?

Back in the 1960s, I remember being forced into the classroom closet as punishment for blurting out words in Japanese after a kid threw wet sand that got in my eye. Though born in the U.S., my grandmother babysat me, so my first language was Japanese. When in pain, the words came out in my first language. The mantra of "English-only" dominated that era. I thought we had left those days of forced assimilation and finally embraced the diversity amongst us, made a commitment to seek equity in society, and became more mindful of inclusion in our daily lives and in our institutions.

Few of us want to go back in time to the pre-Civil Rights era, although some argue we backslid decades ago. The "Dear Colleague" letter foreshadows legal directives that will undermine the basic notion of cultural pluralism and the ideals of racial and gender equality. We will need to fight to preserve every bit of the progress we have made to secure what freedoms and democratic norms those before us dedicated their lives to, and push further.