DEI Jujitsu: Flipping the Backlash to Reframe Our Work

The current administration’s anti-DEI Executive Orders have sparked varied responses in the nonprofit and private sectors—some organizations are defending DEI in name and practice, while others are scrubbing it from materials and rebranding.

But there’s a third way. Jujitsu teaches us to use an opponent’s momentum against them. What if we reframe this attack as an opportunity to reflect on DEI’s origins, clarify its meaning, and adopt clearer, more resonant language? What if we even reclaim the very language the administration is using to discredit our work? What if we engage in DEI jujitsu?

Bye-Bye “DEI” 

While the underlying work remains crucial, there are some reasons to move beyond the “DEI” acronym.

• DEI’s origin is not a hero story: DEI wasn’t born from radical inclusion but from 1960s federal mandates prompting “racial encounter groups” that often pitted Black and white federal employees against each other. When backlash ensued, agencies retreated to superficial “equal opportunity” trainings. Corporate America entered the fray in the 1970s when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) gave employees pathways to sue private employers. Thus, the DEI industrial complex took shape, continuing to mushroom in the government, education, and for-profit sectors, shapeshifting through acronyms and frameworks—not as a movement for liberation, but as a reactionary corporate response. And the backlash we see now? It’s a reaction to that reaction. 
• DEI lacks a shared definition: On a recent call, a colleague said, “I don’t do DEI work; I do racial equity work.” This is a symptom of the broader problem that not everybody agrees on what DEI means. Some associate DEI with HR and people-and-culture initiatives. But the term also became a catch-all during the 2020 boom, with influencers and storytellers branding themselves as DEI experts. It is no wonder that we spent so much time with our clients just level setting to explain what we mean by DEI and help them define it. If even experts can’t agree on what DEI means, and defining DEI requires months of explanation, maybe we shouldn’t cling to an acronym so vague.
• DEI doesn’t translate globally: Our work increasingly supports global climate and environmental organizations, where “DEI” simply doesn’t resonate. Partners use terms like “women’s equality,” “social justice,” “fighting nationalism,” and “tribal rights.” Even DEI’s individual components don’t always fit into international contexts shaped by colorism, colonialism, religious oppression, and caste systems. (read this LinkedIn post for more thoughts on why “global DEI” is problematic)

The 4 P’s (because who doesn’t love an alliterative framework?) 

Amidst growing attacks, organizations like the Meltzer Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging advise adapting messaging to reduce legal risk. This and other resources have been helpful, but when we quickly react by scrubbing websites and replacing words instead of being thoughtful, we’re just perpetuating reactivity. Besides, how long can we hide behind euphemisms? The Wayback Machine archives websites, and our DEI work lives in other realms, including social media and other communications. And though doing a global find-and-replace to change all instances of “diversity,” “equity,” and “inclusion” to “representation,” “fairness,” and “belonging” may avoid an initial keyword scan, this administration will eventually see through these tactics. Unless we stop doing this work wholesale, we will not escape notice. 

So instead of hiding or dodging attacks, let us take this backlash as an opportunity to communicate with greater clarity and impact. Instead of retreating, let us refine and reframe using a framework that we are calling the 4 P’s: precise, plain, principled, and (non)performative.

1. Precise is about being clear. Avoid acronyms and generalizations. Spell out what you mean. Clarity matters more than brevity. This may mean you’re using more words and that the way you talk about your work may not be as pithy as you would want to couch it for your communications, but we’ve always said ambiguity does a disservice to us all. 
2. Plain is about making sure the language we use is understandable, accessible, and uses everyday words. People describe problems as “hard,” “unfair,” or “challenging,” yet we respond with jargon like “cis-hetero-patriarchal hegemony.” We often spend more time defining terms like intersectionality, epistemology, and incommensurability than actually addressing these unfair challenges. We have created vocabulary sheets and entire webinars focused on defining terms like intersectionality, systemic oppression, white fragility, hegemony, critical race theory, neoliberalism, praxis, settler futurity, epistemology, ontology, cosmology, incommensurability, and more. We’ve intellectualized this field to the point that it is no longer accessible to the people we’re aiming to serve.This work isn’t about theory—it’s about people. The more time we spend defining jargon, the less time we spend doing the work.
3. Principled means rooting down in your values irrespective of what is happening in the world. Structures might be dismantled; but values and beliefs persist. Historically, we have partnered with organizations to develop and implement their DEI visions and commitments. But DEI touches everything an organization does, internally and externally, programmatically and operationally. As the landscape evolves, so too has our approach. Ultimately, DEI commitments should not stand apart from your core values—they should be seamlessly integrated. This could mean your DEI principles don’t live on a separate page than your core values, and your DEI strategies don’t live in a different plan than your strategic plan. DEI becomes part of your DNA.
4. (non)Performative means checking your own motivation for doing this work to make sure it isn’t just window dressing. For example some organizations insist on using JEDI when they don’t actually engage in justice work (because who wouldn’t want to be a Star Wars warrior?). True justice in land conservation means actions like returning land to Indigenous communities or addressing environmental harm in frontline communities. If an organization isn’t doing this, adding a “J” to its acronym can be performative.

Enter Jujitsu

So what are some examples of language that employs the 4 P’s above? Language resources abound.

• The Raben Group, which houses Green 2.0, conducted a study of American voters and published the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Messaging Guide outlining words and phrases that resonate with American voters. 
• Lily Zheng, author of DEI Deconstructed, offers a new acronym FAIR, which employs the more everyday terms of Fairness, Access, Inclusion, and Representation.
• We Make the Future suggests some examples of better connecting narratives around race and class in its We Make the Future Race Class Narrative Example Language.

But to find language that employs the 4 P’s and is unassailable, we need look no further than the values our current presidential administration purports to espouse. Enter jujitsu.

Consider these positions taken in the Executive Orders:

• Illegal discrimination must end. We agree.
• Merit-based opportunity should be restored. Absolutely.
• Civil rights protect all Americans. That’s the foundation of our work.
• Hard work, excellence, and achievement matter. Yes, they do.
• We must promote fairness, neutrality, and accuracy in curriculum. We couldn’t agree more.
• Every person should be treated with dignity and respect. Exactly.

And presto! We have reclaimed the values they claim to hold dear. 

Our jujitsu practice can go beyond the EOs. We learned recently that DOGE has brought in an HR attorney who advises employers to “move away from defining diversity exclusively focused on employees’ race, sex, or other protected category,” and to instead focus on “bringing together employees with diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, perspectives, and beliefs to achieve common workplace goals.” We too believe that diversity is about more than just race, gender, or other protected categories. Embracing and navigating diverse backgrounds, viewpoints, perspectives, and beliefs are what will make us a thriving pluralistic society.

For organizations in the conservation, environmental, and outdoor sector, we’ve suggested some of the following messaging:

• Everyone deserves a fair chance to weigh in on decisions affecting their lives, including decisions about the places they live, work, and play in.
• Conservation should work for everyone. 
• The community dimensions of environmental work means we don’t just think about the environment, but also about the people and communities who depend upon it.
• We can bridge divides by finding common ground in our shared love for the outdoors.
• Our work removes unfair barriers people face in getting to and enjoying the places we all cherish.

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The anti-DEI movement has forced a necessary conversation. Now that DEI is a lightning rod, it’s time to let go of language that hasn’t served us and focus on what actually matters. If you take this opportunity to reflect and refine how you do this work in alignment with your values, how would you describe it?

With love and solidarity,

-aparna