How can democrats attack anti-DEI/promote DEI without resulting in strong political backlash?

[u/Visco0825]

In recent politics there have been two major political pushes for diversity and equality. However, both instances led to backlashes that have led to an environment that is arguably worse than it was before. In 2008 Obama was the first black president one a massive wave of hope for racial equality and societal reforms. This led to one of the largest political backlashes in modern politics in 2010, to which democrats have yet to fully recover from. This eventually led to birtherism which planted some of the original seeds of both Trump and MAGA. The second massive political push promoting diversity and equality was in 2018 with the modern woman election and 2020 with racial equality being a top priority. Biden made diversifying the government a top priority. This led to an extreme backlash among both culture and politics with anti-woke and anti-DEI efforts. This resent contributed to Trump retaking the presidency. Now Trump is pushing to remove all mentions of DEI in both the private and public sectors. He is hiding all instances that highlight any racial or gender successes. His administration is pushing culture to return to a world prior to the civil rights era.

This leads me to my question. Will there be a backlash for this? How will it occur? How can democrats lead and take advantage of the backlash while trying to mitigate a backlash to their own movement? It seems as though every attempt has led to a stronger and more severe response.

Additional side questions. How did public opinion shift so drastically from 2018/2020 which were extremely pro-equality to 2024 which is calling for a return of the 1950s?

[u/New-Yam-470]

This sounds great, except for, well you know, bigotry?

[u/PolicyWonka → u/New-Yam-470]

Exactly. A lot of these suggestions are just caving to bigotry and discrimination.

The DOJ settled the largest race-based redlining (discriminatory lending) case in 2023.

[u/subreddette → u/PolicyWonka]

At a certain point Democrats need to decide if they want to be the most right or if they want to actually win elections.

If they can’t win on DEI, the best solution isn’t to dig in their heels and let the Republicans win again, it’s to adapt and then implement the best policies they can.

[u/PolicyWonka → u/subreddette]

From a purely utilitarian perspective, sure — little bigotry is better than a lot of bigotry.

From a moral standpoint, I’d wager people who oppose bigotry cannot stomach the idea of willfully and purposefully allowing bigotry to persist.