The contemporary opposition to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives is not occurring in isolation—it is rooted in a long history of ideological, political, and rhetorical strategies designed to resist social progress and maintain existing power structures. Understanding this moment requires us to examine both historical frameworks and modern manipulations of language that shape public perception and policy.
This glossary provides definitions of key terms that help contextualize the current anti-DEI landscape. Some of these terms describe longstanding tactics—such as dog whistle politics and strategic dishonesty—that have been repurposed to undermine equity efforts today. Others, like the DEI Scare, illustrate how historical fear-mongering tactics, such as those seen during the Red Scare, have been adapted to delegitimize diversity initiatives.
A central theme across these definitions is the use of cognitive biases—psychological tendencies that shape how people interpret information. For example:
Availability heuristic is exploited by emphasizing isolated cases of alleged DEI overreach to justify broad rollbacks of equity initiatives.
Status quo bias makes people resistant to change, leading them to defend existing inequalities as natural or beneficial.
The illusory truth effect makes repeated misinformation about DEI seem credible, regardless of its accuracy.
By recognizing these tactics, we can better understand how political and ideological forces manipulate public opinion and shape policies that reinforce systemic inequities. Language is not neutral—it influences the way people think, vote, and engage with social issues.
This glossary is a tool for critical engagement, helping readers decode the strategic language and historical patterns that have led to the present anti-DEI moment.
Understanding these terms is the first step toward resisting misinformation, challenging narratives that perpetuate exclusion, and advocating for a more just and equitable society.
The Alt-Right, short for “alternative right,” is a far-right movement rooted in white nationalism that gained prominence after the 2008 election of Barack Obama, the first Black president. Founded by Richard Spencer, the Alt-Right promotes white identity politics, rejecting egalitarianism, multiculturalism, and immigration while advocating for the preservation of a white-dominated society.
Blending white supremacist ideologies with modern digital strategies, the Alt-Right uses confirmation bias (the tendency to favor information that reinforces existing beliefs) and ingroup favoritism (the preference for members of one’s own group) to spread its messaging. By framing white Americans as victims of diversity and progress, the movement exploits status quo bias, making individuals resistant to demographic and cultural change.
Anti-DEI teleology refers to the ideological framework that opposes Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion initiatives by framing them as unnecessary, divisive, or harmful to societal cohesion. In practice, this opposition aims to dismantle systems that address inequity, portraying them as ideologically driven or antithetical to meritocracy while maintaining existing power structures that marginalize underrepresented groups.
This strategy exploits availability heuristic (the tendency to overestimate the importance of readily available information) by using outlier cases of alleged “DEI overreach” to discredit broader systemic issues, while leveraging system justification bias, which leads individuals to defend existing inequalities as fair or natural.
In this context, “civil rights” has been co-opted to argue that white individuals and collectives have been harmed by illegal DEI practices. This framing creates a false equivalency between systemic racial discrimination and individual cases where white individuals claim harm from equity initiatives.
This reframing exploits false balance (giving equal weight to unequally supported arguments) and victim mentality bias (where dominant groups frame themselves as persecuted).
Colorblind racism is the use of neutral-sounding language and policies to advance measures that reproduce and widen racial disparities without overtly racist intent.
This approach relies on denial bias (rejecting racism’s role in inequality), status quo bias, and false equivalence (treating vastly different situations as though they are the same).
The DEI Scare refers to the political opposition to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts that repurposes McCarthy-era Red Scare tactics to manipulate public opinion.
This strategy aims to create fear and suspicion around DEI initiatives, portraying them as radical or dangerous while using legislation to intimidate companies and organizations into abandoning DEI programs.
This approach relies on moral panic (the exaggerated perception of a societal threat), bandwagon effect (encouraging widespread opposition based on perceived consensus), and illusory truth effect (the tendency to believe repeated statements, even if they are false).
Dixiecrats were a faction of Southern Democrats in the mid-20th century who vehemently opposed civil rights reforms. They championed segregation and used the rhetoric of “state’s rights” to block federal efforts to dismantle Jim Crow laws.
This movement leveraged status quo bias (resistance to social change), ingroup bias, and appeal to tradition (the belief that longstanding practices must be maintained regardless of their harm).
Dog whistle politics refers to the use of coded language that appears neutral on the surface but conveys a deeper, often racist or exclusionary, message to a targeted audience.
This strategy exploits plausible deniability (allowing speakers to deny intent) and perception bias (where individuals interpret ambiguous language in ways that align with their beliefs).
Fear manipulation involves the intentional activation of fear responses through coercive language, sensationalist narratives, and emotionally charged policies.
This tactic relies on negativity bias, availability heuristic, and loss aversion (people’s tendency to fear losses more than they value gains).
Hyper-individualism is the reduction of sophisticated social understanding and relationships to purely individualized experiences. It minimizes structural inequalities by framing systemic issues—such as racism, poverty, or gender discrimination—as personal rather than collective concerns.
This ideology relies on fundamental attribution error and self-serving bias (where individuals credit success to their abilities but blame failures on external factors).
Jingoism is an extreme form of nationalism characterized by aggressive foreign policy, militarism, and xenophobia. It promotes the belief that one’s nation is superior to others, often justifying war or political aggression under the guise of patriotism.
Jingoism exploits fear bias (where people make decisions based on fear rather than logic), groupthink (discouraging dissenting opinions), and zero-sum bias (the belief that one group’s gain means another’s loss).
Merit is framed as a neutral measure of success based on objective achievements, such as test scores, grades, or job performance. However, in practice, it often normalizes systemic disparities by ignoring the unequal access to resources and opportunities that shape these outcomes.
This framing exploits fundamental attribution error (overemphasizing individual responsibility while ignoring systemic factors) and just-world bias (the belief that people get what they deserve).
Populism is a political approach that claims to represent “the people” against a perceived elite or establishment. While it can emerge from both the left and right, right-wing populism often exploits racial and cultural divisions, using nationalism and exclusionary rhetoric to rally support.
Populist movements leverage us-versus-them bias (a cognitive tendency to view groups in binary opposition), outgroup homogeneity effect (the belief that members of opposing groups are all the same), and negativity bias (focusing more on negative narratives than positive solutions).
Strategic chaos refers to the deliberate creation of confusion and instability through misinformation and contradictory narratives.
It exploits cognitive overload (overwhelming people with conflicting information) and gaslighting (manipulating individuals into questioning reality).
Strategic dishonesty is the calculated use of misinformation, distortion, and outright falsehoods to manipulate public opinion and policy outcomes.
It works alongside recency bias (favoring recent information over older facts) and illusory truth effect.
The “Tough on Crime” policy, first popularized by President Richard Nixon, was ostensibly designed to address rising crime rates but was strategically employed to target civil rights activists and anti-war protesters. This strategy uses a justice driven framework to target policy and practices that seek to create a more just and equitable world.
This framing relies on availability heuristic (amplifying specific crime incidents to justify broad crackdowns), racial coding, and fear bias (using crime narratives to generate public anxiety).
The terms listed here reveal the deep-rooted connections between historical systems of oppression and their modern manifestations. From the Alt-Right movement to “Tough on Crime” policies, each concept illustrates how ideological frameworks and strategic rhetoric have been used to normalize inequity while resisting efforts to achieve systemic equity. By recognizing and understanding these terms, we can better identify the tactics employed to undermine civil rights and equity initiatives, equipping us to challenge these narratives and advocate for meaningful change.
Language is not neutral—it shapes perception and policy. Therefore, clarity in defining and exposing these terms is a critical step in fostering accountability and progress.
Judy Lubin
Dr. Judy is an applied sociologist, racial equity changemaker, yoga and mindfulness practitioner, author, auntie, bestie and beach lover. Judy’s elemental nature is water, and with her she brings calming, reflective energy to hold space for deep listening, inner work and transformative dialogue.
The curator of the Embodied Justice program, she hosts the accompanying podcast and co-facilitates events and dialogues focused on the collective healing and sustainability of Black changemakers.
At CURE, Dr. Judy has built transformative racial equity frameworks and change management processes that have impacted thousands of lives. She began her career focused on health disparities, recognizing that stress from societal racism can become embodied and manifested through “weathering” that prematurely ages the body and shortens the lifespan of racially marginalized communities.
She is unapologetically committed to centering Black people and the communities that have inspired her life’s work. The daughter of Haitian immigrants, she grew up in South Florida surrounded by music, her grandmother’s herbal garden, and the struggle to make it in a country that saw her family as outsiders.
In 2022, after experiencing multiple health emergencies coupled with burnout from the intensity of the “racial reckoning” that increased demand for CURE’s racial equity services, Judy began a process of listening to the wisdom of her body, healing old trauma wounds, and reclaiming rest and her love of mind-body healing. During this time she explored somatics, indigenous and and ancestral healing practices and earned certifications in multiple healing modalities including yoga and energy medicine.
Emerging from a place of rest and listening to what her soul wanted to share, she now weaves mindfulness, body-awareness and spiritual activism to support changemakers and organizations to regenerate their leadership and give to the world from a place of ease and wholeness.
Long committed to promoting women’s health and wellness, she is the author of The Heart of Living Well: Six Principles for a Life of Health, Beauty and Balance.
Find Judy on instagram or linkedin at @drjudylubin, where she (occasionally) shares posts celebrating Black joy, healing and well-being.
Shawn J. Moore
Residing at the intersection of leadership and mindfulness, Shawn creates sacred spaces for stillness and self-inquiry to help social impact leaders align their strengths, intention, and impact. Through his integrative approach, he holds transformative containers for self-renewal, personal discovery, and capacity-building that ease clients on their journey towards peace, clarity, and freedom.
Shawn is committed to empower changemakers to become embodied leaders – unified in mind, body, and heart – with the tools to mindfully pause, reconnect to their inner knowing, make strengths-driven decisions, and lead the change they believe the world needs.
Reckoning with his own contemplation of burnout, purpose, and alignment, Shawn transitioned out of his role as Associate Dean of Student Life & Leadership at Morehouse College in the fall of 2021 to focus more on mindfulness and stillness-based training programs and workshops.
While leadership resonates with him deeply, it is his personal and spiritual practices that allows him to continue to show up for himself and others. He is a yoga teacher (E-RYT® 200, RYT® 500, YACEP®), sound and reiki practitioner, meditation teacher, Yoga Nidra facilitator, and Gallup-Certified Strengths Coach, all focused through a Buddhist lens and 17 years of personal practice. He has contributed workshops, practices, and educational opportunities for celebrities like Questlove and Dyllón Burnside, and various yoga studios and colleges, Yoga International, Omstars, Melanin Moves Project, the Human Rights Campaign, Spotify and Lululemon. He currently serves as the Facilitation and Community Manager for BEAM (Black Emotional & Mental Health Collective).
Shawn hosts a podcast called The Mindful Rebel® Podcast that creates a platform to continually explore this unique intersection of leadership and mindfulness. Find him on instagram @shawnj_moore
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and to provide a better browsing experience.
