They Not Like Us

In the world of rap beef, Pultiizer-Prize winner Kendrick Lamar outdid himself with his latest work, a diss track, “Not Like Us,” certain to emerge as the new LA-West Coast-Summer-2024 anthem that will remain in our ears for a long time. As I listened to the track and its powerful lyrics, the line, “You’re not a colleague; you’re a colonizer,” struck me the most. Because hip-hop is an influential cultural medium, reflective of the times, the lyrics deeply resonated. I immediately connected it within the context of DEI (diversity, equity, and inclusion) where, since 2020, we have witnessed the appropriation, co-opting, and diminishing of DEI work by bad-faith actors and agitators, who once masqueraded as “allies” and “colleagues.” Now, the masks are off, and we see these people for who they really are.

This certainly rings true in my experience. Beginning in the summer of 2020, and continuing into the present, those who seemed genuinely interested in DEI work were allowed to take up space where they then perpetuated harm in the very systems they claimed to be dismantling. These so-called “colleagues” cozied themselves into leadership roles, all the while sidelining and speaking over the voices of their Black colleagues and students who were the most vulnerable. Vividly, I recall how disappointing it was to see a former white colleague be elevated to a DEI leadership position as a result of their theft of my ideas…