DEAR COLLEAGUES

Dear Colleagues,  A Comparison of the Civil Rights Law vs. DEI

“I fear I am integrating my people into a burning house…” Martin Luther King, Jr. allegedly spoke these words to Harry Belafonte after the signing of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. As I contemplated writing, I turned back to that pivotal law. Sixty-one years later, I must ask: are we still trapped in that burning house, with little sign of relief? Travel with me as I toddle between the Civil Rights Act of 1964 (particularly Title VII, which addressed labor and employment practices) and today’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) movement.

To understand the parallel between the Civil Rights Act and DEI, let’s briefly turn the pages of history. The 1964 Act secured fundamental rights, including access to employment, healthcare, decent housing, and equal education. Yet segregationists filibustered for more than seventy-five days to block its passage. The resistance now feels hauntingly familiar. Isn’t DEI also about striving for fairness in these very same areas—employment, healthcare, housing, and education?

As Aiken reminds us, “The passage of time can dull our collective memories of the circumstances surrounding the passage of the Civil Rights Act.” Before our memories fade, we must recognize that the seeds of DEI were already present in the Act. It took the death of George Floyd, a modern-day lynching, for many to see the persistence of injustice. We were confined in our homes during the COVID-19 pandemic, watching together—just as the world once watched in Birmingham in 1963, when children were blasted with fire hoses and attacked by dogs. That time, the images were in black and white. This time they were in color. And so the Civil Rights Movement was reborn under a new banner: DEI.

Consider the attacks on DEI today. A recent “Dear Colleague Letter” claimed that educational institutions have “toxically indoctrinated students with the false premise that the United States is built upon systemic and structural racism.” But if this is not the case, what do you call it when people are displaced from their land, massacred, enslaved, stripped of dignity, and sold as property? What do you call it when entire groups are labeled “savages”? These are not inventions of indoctrination but realities etched into our history.

The Civil Rights Act promised desegregation, yet many neighborhoods, schools, and institutions remain siloed by race. We are like salt and pepper shakers—specks of each other mixed in, but still confined to separate bottles. Targeting schools and universities reveals a deeper fear: that our children’s minds might become enlightened. Khalil Gibran wrote, “Your children are not your children. They are the sons and daughters of Life’s longing for itself… You may give them your love but not your thoughts, for they have their own thoughts.”

To escape that burning house, we must confront America’s full story—the good, the bad, and the ugly. This nation was built not by one people but by many, from every corner of the globe. It belongs to all its builders. Education is the fireproofing of our shared house. Without it, all of our children—regardless of color—risk being trapped in the flames. To honor 1964 and move beyond today’s debates, we must rebuild not a burning house, but a livable home for all.

Written by: M. Rayah Levy
March 28, 2025