Since President Trump took office for the second time, there are three letters that have, in the president’s formulation, become synonymous with everything from wasteful government spending to ineffective air traffic control: DEI.
DEI stands for “diversity, equity, and inclusion,” an umbrella term used to describe programs that supporters say help balance out historical under-representation of marginalized groups in academic, corporate and government life. But Trump has done everything in his power to forbid such policies at the federal level, and has threatened to revoke federal funding from organizations that have DEI programs.
Trump’s threats seem to have resonated in offices outside of the government’s purview, as various private corporations like Target, McDonald’s, and Harley-Davidson have rolled back or canceled DEI initiatives.
Last week, we saw the local impact of all this when Scottsdale’s City Council voted to shutter its office of DEI.
Solange Whitehead, one of the council members who voted to keep it open, joined The Show to discuss.
Full conversation
SAM DINGMAN: Councilwoman, good morning.
SOLANGE WHITEHEAD: Good morning. Good to be here again.
DINGMAN: Thank you for being here. So take us back to this vote. How did the ordinance that is going to close the office come to be before the council?
WHITEHEAD: So the ordinance came about in a very unusual way. Ordinances usually have public input, a defined need, a justified need, and then public discussions, public outreach, and public discussions at the council level. So none of that happened with this, and the ordinance really is based on the false premise that by passing the ordinance, the city would institute merit-based hiring and of course the city has always done merit-based hiring, so no ordinance was ever needed.
And the target was this very small office of diversity, and I say Office of Diversity because the city of Scottsdale has had it since 1989, and it has had many names, but the purpose has always been the same and it had nothing to do with HR.
DINGMAN: Yes, this is an interesting facet of Scottsdale's Office of Diversity or Diversity, Equity Inclusion, as it's been called various things over the years. But,, unlike a lot of places which instituted programs like this in the wake of the George Floyd protests in 2020, Scottsdale's office has been open for, I believe it's since 1998, is that right?
WHITEHEAD: Oh, since 1989.
DINGMAN: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. So almost, so a very, very long time.
WHITEHEAD: It has been, yes.
DINGMAN: Tell us some of the things that the office has done that have sort of a practical impact on Scottsdale folks' lives.
WHITEHEAD: So I think generally, I think when people think of diversity they think Black or white or some sort of race issue, and our diversity is very, very broad and very nuanced. So we have economic diversity. We have ageism, we have different, we have a workforce and not just in the city government but more, you know, in our hospitals, in our other businesses that's diverse.
So what this department has done for, you know, 30 years is it has created a safe and welcoming culture in the city, and I think that's the foundation of our success. Last year we had 11 million visitors from around the world come to Scottsdale, and they were safe and they enjoyed themselves, and this is part of what this department has done.
DINGMAN: Well, and if I'm not mistaken, this is one of your concerns and one of the reasons that you voted in favor of keeping the office open is the message that in your view closing the office sends to folks who come to visit Scottsdale.
WHITEHEAD: Yeah, I think extremism has hurt the country in many ways, and so there have been some DEI abuses, and I absolutely agree with that. But in Scottsdale we've had extremism on the other side, which I don't think there is one side or another. Extremism is bad. It's not left or right.
DINGMAN: Yes, it's an equal opportunity.
WHITEHEAD: Equal opportunity, wrong. And so in gosh, 2004, a bomb was opened in the Office of Diversity. Three staff members who were severely injured and this was extremism. So this is exactly the type of thing we're trying to stop. And so if you have an extremist ordinance pass, which takes down posters that simply show the diversity of people who live and visit here, that sends a message too.
DINGMAN: Yeah, well, so obviously, you know, you're talking about from your own perspective what you view as the importance of this office, but if I'm not mistaken, you also heard from a large number of constituents who did not want the office.
WHITEHEAD: Oh my gosh, I have been in office for six years and I've never received so many emails. None of these emails were the same and just hundreds of emails absolutely opposing this because it's the wrong time in our country to end discussion. It's the wrong time to divide.
We have so much common ground in this country. And we need to stop letting extremists on either side prevent us from talking about what we agree on, and that's the message we got. We've got to keep talking with each other. And in fact we agree on most issues as a nation.
DINGMAN: Well, let's talk a little bit more, then, about how we got to this moment. We have just about a minute left here and what do you see as the way forward? This conversation has as you've seen become very inflamed.
WHITEHEAD: Yes, so I've received emails from both sides when I put out an email saying I was disappointed that this office was closed down, and we frankly don't even know what that means, but it encompassed everything from ADA to the LGBT community.
But what was interesting to me is the people who wrote in support of ending literally a couple $100,000 of funding, to the people who absolutely opposed it, said the same thing. Everybody in the city, as far as I can tell, wants equity-based hiring, merit-based hiring. We do that, and everybody wants to be safe and everybody wants to be welcoming and to continue to thrive.
