House lawmakers butt heads on role of DEI in antisemitism, how to improve system

Antisemitism was a large part of a House panel discussion on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies Thursday, with Republicans saying DEI perpetuates racism while Democrats said campus antisemitism reflects failures in colleges’ programs, not diversity efforts as a whole. 

The House Education higher education subcommittee’s hearing on the impact of DEI on campuses comes after Republican-led states have advanced efforts to shut down diversity programs, and lawmakers have criticized increased antisemitism at universities. 

Jay Greene, a senior research fellow at The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, told the subcommittee that DEI practices are inherently flawed and promote inequality.

“According to this worldview, oppressors deserve to have their privilege taken away, while the oppressed deserve restitution for collective or historic wrongs,” Greene said. “Justifying unequal treatment based on group identity can yield horrific results.” 

Greene said antisemitism on college campuses is a clear example of this. He cited his research for the Heritage Foundation looking at DEI staff members’ attitudes toward Israel and China on Twitter.

Greene said his research found that staff members were “obsessed with Israel” and posted more critically of Israel than China.

Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-Calif.) said the study shows that DEI programs have allowed staffers to promote antisemitism, “the world’s oldest and most retrograde prejudices.”

“It really goes to show you that these have become Orwellian institutions in the truest sense of that term,” Kiley said. “And you know, when you think about what it tells us about the broader culture of our universities, I mean, our universities are supposed to be promoting progress — not in a partisan sense — but to be at the leading edge of new ideas, and here they are investing in these bureaucracies.”

Rep. Kathy Manning (D-N.C.) agreed with Republicans that antisemitic conspiracy theories hurt Jewish students and said it is often a reflection of a lack of understanding of the diversity of Jewish communities.

“Antisemitic conspiracy theories promote the idea that all Jews are powerful, that they don’t need or deserve protection as the minority,” Manning said. “Some might not understand that. In fact, most don’t understand the origins of antisemitism, or how pervasive it is, or frankly, how unique a form of discrimination it is.”

But Manning said she disagrees with antisemitism being “exploited to denigrate the value of diversity and the value of DEI programs on campuses that are doing the right thing to make minority students feel welcome and included.”

Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) said the threat of antisemitism should not be used as a “political tool.”

“It is disappointing to see the majority today attempt to use the very real pain that is caused by this conflict and the surge of antisemitism as a vehicle to push an extreme political agenda that is determined to erase the mention of the word diversity or equity on campus.” 

“The matter is that Black Americans and students of color have historically been denied access to universities despite being just as qualified and willing to learn as their white peers,” McBath said. “As much as my colleagues would like to say otherwise, this is reality.”

Greene said discrimination is a part of the “worldview of DEI” and that issues such as antisemitism are an inherent part of the system.

“Given that DEI has no legitimate purpose and serves to inflame intergroup tensions, we need to dismantle it,” Greene said. “At a minimum, we need to starve universities of the funds that they use to build the DEI bureaucracies.”

James Murphy, director of Career Pathways and Post-Secondary Policy at Education Reform Now, testified that DEI offices have a large variation in scope and mission that make generalized attacks on them “nonsensical.”

Murphy said very few DEI offices provide direct instruction to students, “let alone indoctrinate them into any set of beliefs.”

He referenced a statement by Mitchell Chang, interim chief diversity officer at the University of California, Los Angeles saying “if anyone is trying to tell students what to think, it is legislators who want to ban these offices wholesale or write bills to make it illegal for university employees to say phrases like unconscious bias or cultural appropriation.”