David French by Gage Skidmore.
(Image by Wikipedia (commons.wikimedia.org), Author: Gage Skidmore) Details Source DMCA
Duluth, Minnesota (OpEdNews) October 22, 2024: Recently, I read the op-ed commentary titled "I Don't Want to Live in a Monoculture, and Neither Do You" by the op-ed columnist David French (born on January 24, 1969; B.A., summa cum laude, Lipscomb University, 1991; J.D., cum laude, Harvard Law School, 1994) in The New York Times (dated October 20, 2024).
Because David French was trained as a lawyer, he was trained to argue. Since January 2023, he has been an op-ed columnist for The New York Times, so he regularly practices arguing.
For further information about David French, see the Wikipedia entry about him:
Now, David French was prompted to reflect further about monocultures after he read Nicholas Confessore's extremely long article titled "The University of Michigan Doubled Down on D.E.I. What Went Wrong? A decade and a quarter of a billion dollars later, students and faculty are more frustrated than ever" in The New York Times Magazine (dated October 16, 2024).
D.E.I. = Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion.
A decade is a fairly long time, and a quarter of a billion dollars is a lot of money.
Briefly, David French answers Nicholas Confessore's question, "What Went Wrong?" by arguing that the leftist D.E.I. bureaucracy at the University of Michigan was doomed to failure because it was part of the leftist monoculture in academic today.
However, David French also argues that a rightist monoculture is also doomed to failure.
In short, David French is against both leftist and rightist monocultures. Fine. I have no problem with the position.
Now, I want to turn to one sentence in David French's well-argued op-ed: "I was shouted down more than once by far-left peers in law school, and much of my legal career was dedicated to responding to what we'd now call D.E.I." Hold this boldfaced expression for a minute; I plan to discuss it a bit later.
Ah, we have not always called D.E.I. by that handy acronym. OK.
So to learn when, or about when the acronym D.E.I. came into widespread use, I checked Wikipedia. Wikipedia does indeed have a long entry of "Diversity, equity, and inclusion":
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
