THE RISE AND DEMISE OF DEI: Representation and Power in the Third Reconstruction

This chapter traces the historical evolution, institutionalization, and subsequent dismantling of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the context of the Third Reconstruction. It situates the rise of DEI within post–Civil Rights efforts to redress racial and gender exclusion, while examining its undoing under the 2024–2025 Trump administration and Executive Orders 14151 and 14173, which banned DEI programs across federal and educational institutions. Through an analysis of legislative shifts, university responses, and ideological backlash, the chapter argues that DEI, while advancing representational diversity, failed to dismantle the white supremacist hierarchies that govern knowledge, leadership, and power. The ease of its reversal underscores DEI’s symbolic rather than structural nature. In response, the authors introduce the Access, Accountability, and Transformation framework as a justice-centered alternative—one that reorients institutions toward participatory governance, epistemic equity, and collective transformation beyond performative inclusion.