DEI and Affirmative Action: Trump's New Executive Order Explained
In this engaging two-minute animated video, we break down the concepts of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) and Affirmative Action, particularly in the context of Trump's recent executive order. Discover how DEI initiatives aim to create a more inclusive environment in workplaces and educational institutions, and learn about the implications of affirmative action in promoting equal opportunities for underrepresented communities. With colorful animations and clear explanations, we make these complex topics accessible and easy to understand.
Understanding Civic Power
Power is something we are often uncomfortable talking about, especially in civic life—how we live together in a community and a democracy. While we like to believe power resides solely with the people, discussing who actually holds it can feel dirty or negative.
However, power is no more inherently good or evil than fire or physics. It simply is. It governs how governments work and determines who sets the rules of the game. Learning how it operates is key to being effective, being taken seriously, and not being taken advantage of.
Basic Definition: Power is the ability to make others do what you would have them do. In the civic arena, this means getting a community to make the choices and take the actions that you want.
The 6 Main Sources of Civic Power
Physical Force: Control of the means of force and a capacity for violence (e.g., the police or a militia). This is power at its most primal.
Wealth (Money): The ability to buy results or almost any other kind of power.
State Action (Government): The use of law and bureaucracy to compel people to do or not do certain things.
In a democracy: The people theoretically grant this power through elections.
In a dictatorship: State power emerges from the threat of force rather than consent.
Social Norms: What other people think is okay. Operating softer and peer-to-peer rather than through centralized government machinery, norms heavily influence human behavior (e.g., the evolution of marriage equality).
Ideas: Principles like individual liberties or racial equality can generate boundless power if they motivate enough people to change their thinking and actions.
Numbers: A vocal mass of people creates power by expressing collective intensity of interest and asserting legitimacy (e.g., the Arab Spring or the rise of the Tea Party). Crowds count.
The 3 Laws of Power
Politics is the work of harnessing the flow of power, while policymaking is an effort to freeze and perpetuate a particular flow. Policy is power frozen. To understand how this works daily, examine these three laws:
Law 1: Power is never static. It is always either accumulating or decaying. If you aren't taking action, you are being acted upon.
Law 2: Power is like water. It flows like a current through everyday life.
Law 3: Power compounds. Power begets more power, and powerlessness begets more powerlessness.
The central question of democracy is how we apply Laws 1 and 2 to stop Law 3 from allowing a select few to accumulate total control and enshrine their privilege into policy.
Civic Literacy: Reading and Writing Power
To become more powerful in public life, you must become literate in two distinct ways:
1. Learning to Read Power
To read power means to map out your society, campus, city, or country as a text.
Look at who has what kind of power and how it is organized.
Understand why things turned out the way they did, who made them that way, and who wants to keep them that way.
Study the strategies others have used—whether frontal attacks, indirection, coalitions, or charismatic authority.
2. Learning to Write Power
To write power requires you to believe you have the right to be an author of change.
Speak up in an authentic voice and organize your ideas.
Organize other people.
Practice consensus building and practice conflict.
Start by setting small objectives in your neighborhood, then aim bigger. Watch the patterns, see what works, and repeat.
The Ultimate Question: Character
While understanding the mechanics of power is a matter of strategy, deciding why you want power is a matter of character.
Do you want power to benefit everyone, or only yourself? Are your purposes pro-social or anti-social?
Struggle and Transformation: The Challenge of Martin Luther King Jr.
Harding argues that American society has "domesticated" Martin Luther King Jr., turning him into a harmless holiday icon. In doing so, we forget that by 1968, the FBI and the status quo viewed King as the "most dangerous Negro" in the nation because he demanded a radical restructuring of American political, economic, and moral systems.
Harding challenges readers, particularly the church, to move beyond surface-level celebrations and embrace King’s radical, unfinished vision.
Key Pillars of King’s 1968 Vision
The Eradication of Poverty
Structural Injustice: By 1968, King realized that poverty and unemployment were structured into the very well-being of the American economic system.
Systemic Overhaul: He argued that poverty could not be solved by minor adjustments; it required a fundamental transformation of economic structures.
Revolution Against Injustice: King called on the poor (across all races) to organize a nonviolent revolution against the societal structures that refuse to lift the load of poverty.
Multi-Racial Solidarity Against Racism
Beyond "Equality": King believed that simply achieving "equality of opportunity" within an exploitative system was beside the point.
A Common Task: He sought to organize Native Americans, blacks, Hispanics, and poor whites together. He believed the true way to defeat racism was for all races to unite around a common goal to transform society into a non-exploitative community.
Global Solidarity and Anti-Militarism
Opposing the Vietnam War: King refused to "segregate his conscience" by focusing only on domestic civil rights while ignoring global injustice.
Critique of U.S. Foreign Policy: He criticized the U.S. government for using military power to protect economic interests and suppress poor, non-white populations abroad (such as in Vietnam and Latin America).
Conscientious Objection: King openly opposed black youth joining the military to fight in oppressive wars, arguing that the military shouldn't be the only place young people could find a job or dignity.
The Challenge to the Church
Conforming vs. Transformative Faith: Harding criticizes Christians who accept the material benefits of an unjust economic system while claiming systemic issues are not "Christian business."
True "Salvation": King’s work challenges the church to realize that true righteousness means actively standing with the poor, the helpless, and the outcast.
The Unfinished Journey
Harding notes that King left us with a complex, unanswered question: How do we successfully marry revolution with nonviolence?
Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision required a radical transformation of societal institutions to eliminate poverty and militarism, rather than just civil rights reforms.
Honoring the Legacy: We fail the legacy of leaders like Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, and Fannie Lou Hamer if we do not courageously move forward and confront systemic injustice.
Embracing the Challenge: Our greatest challenge is creating a nonviolent revolution. Just because it has never been successfully done before does not mean it is impossible.
Active Participation: We must actively participate in building a new, just future rather than standing rigidly as frightened protectors of the past. Transforming ourselves is required to transform the world.
This hour in history needs a dedicated circle of transformed nonconformists. King recommends the deliberate refusal to assimilate into societal norms, systemic inequalities, or oppressive cultural practices. Instead, he encourages channeling this non-conformity into positive social change, personal integrity, and the active construction of a more just world