Unmasking DEI: Dr. Carol Swain on the Real Threat to American Unity

Transcript:

There’s been explosion in little kids that, uh, and girls that think they were born in the wrong bodies. And it doesn’t matter whether they’re going to a private school or a public school, they have been indoctrinated. And that’s one of the reasons that I have applauded President Trump’s decision first, Harvard got exposed, uh, and other institutions have gotten exposed because of that double standards, but they have not been about educating.

You look at the antisemitism that’s so rampant on university campuses, they will have to change or make substantial changes. And one of the problems affecting state as well as private schools is that overwhelmingly the faculty and administrators, they all belong to one political party. The Democratic Party, and if you wanna treat teach critical thinking skills, you have to expose students to divergent views.

For generations. America’s universities were engines of opportunity. They were shaping our nation’s best and brightest, but now they’re churning out activists instead of leaders. They’re prioritizing politics over excellence, DEI or diversity, equity and inclusion is really dismantling. Meritocracy. It’s dismantling faith and our values are being erased.

And what are the consequences? Well, I see them as broken families, rising crime, and very deep division in America. We see it everywhere. So how did we get here? And more importantly, how do we fix it? Well, luckily today we’re joined by Dr. Carol Swain. She is a scholar and author and a fearless truth teller who rose from poverty to the heights of academia, and I think Carol is the Dr.

Swain Rather is the perfect voice to cut through the noise and offer real solutions to restore integrity, merit, and faith in America. Dr. Carol Swain, it is such an honor to be joined with you today. Thanks for being on the show. It’s my pleasure. So, Dr. Swain, uh, just this morning I saw an incredible article, and I know people can find it, uh, online because it’s published everywhere.

Uh, the billion dollar Diversity, DEI, uh, you know, diversity, equity, and inclusion industry is what this piece is about. We see every sector of society has been infiltrated by DEI. Uh, I wanna start here. If you could. Share with our listeners, uh, maybe a greater definition of diversity, equity, inclusion, and why, in your view it’s dismantling society and, um, really attacking the heart of the American family.

Rebecca? I actually, uh, have two books I published about that, and one was published in 2023, right after the Supreme Court struck Dan race-based. College admissions. Uh, it was the, the book is titled The Adversity of Diversity, how the Supreme Court Decision to End Race-Based College Admissions Would Doom, DEI.

And in that 2023 book, I predicted, uh, the Fall of Affirmative Action and Diversity, equity and Inclusion Programs. And we know that on January 20th, uh, uh, president Trump signed an executive order. Ending diversity, equity and inclusion programs in federally supported programs, including subcontractors, uh, minority set-asides.

He ended that. And the day after that, he signed an executive order that ended 60 years of affirmative action. And you hear people talk about DEI, almost everyone’s talking about diversity, equity, and inclusion. And they miss the larger story because diversity, equity, and inclusion is sort of like, um, it morphed out of affirmative action.

Uh, and it, it was a distortion of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. So we’re in a new era, and I believe that diversity, equity and inclusion programs, uh, then the death throws. And because of that, I have a new book coming out April 15th that talks about, uh, the title of it is Diversity Without Discrimination.

How to build a culture of unity in a post DEI post affirmative action world because I believe that’s where we are going. So I think that DEI, affirmative action. Uh, it’s pretty much over. People just don’t know it. Hmm, I, you know, the great prediction and wonderful that you’re leading on this, um, very important issue that resonates greatly with, with AMAC members when we pulled our members, uh, several times over the last four years.

Uh, this issue of eliminating DEI critical race theory, uh, from schools and ensuring that our future, that the children of this, this nation and our future generations. Learn the truth, uh, is so, so important to AMAC membership at large. So, uh, we’ll be sure to promote your book and to all of you listening, get your hand on it.

Uh, your latest book, I believe is the Gay Affair, uh, that exposes a major plagiarism scandal at Harvard and, and highlights the deeper issues in academia, uh, from admission scandals to politicized curriculums. You know, do you think that America’s top universities. Are still producing the next generation of great leaders or have they become ideological training grounds, which is what a lot of AMAC members are seeing.

I mean, look at the members of the Supreme Court, the members of Congress, the, uh, organizational leaders, the editors of major newspapers. Most of them came from the Ivy League. The Ivy League stopped educating people decades ago. And they started indoctrinating them with the Marxist ideas. And so they are all social justice warriors.

Uh, they are all about turn down traditional institutions without having anything to replace the them with. And so universities, Harvard got exposed. Uh, and other institutions have gotten exposed because of that double standards. Yeah. But they have not been about educating. You look at the antisemitism that’s so rampant on university campuses and, uh, the lack of any type of moral authority.

The fact that the leaders of the institutions, they really are not offering guidance to the young people who are sent there to be educated. Um, they’ve been off tracks. For decades, and I believe that the exposure that’s happened over the, the last, you know, let’s say 15, 20 years, they’ve been exposed to the point that many parents don’t want that children to go to the Ivy League.

And there’s, there are surveys that show that a majority of Americans are not sure that a college education is worth the investment. Universities are no longer marketplaces of ideas. It’s not just the Ivy League. It’s, uh, predominantly most institutions. There are few that have not followed in that path, but for the most part, universities have lost their way.

I’m glad that you’re saying this because, you know, for a lot of people, um, it, they don’t wanna believe that, you know, they wanna believe that, you know, when you have a child, I’m a mother of, of beautiful, beautiful children, six altogether. Um. We’re a blended family and for my little ones, I said, you know, my goal for them was that they would go to school.

And I think, you know, for many grandparents out there listening, you, you want nothing more than for your grandchildren to see a really, to have a good, good education. But I. I agree with you so much so that I’m encouraging people to second guess whether or not they want to come out of school with a hundred, beat, a hundred thousand dollars of debt to learn what I think experience and as a businesswoman.

I mean this sincerely. I think experience in business or experience in a trade is more valuable. And being around people that you can learn from in an industry that you’re interested in is more valuable oftentimes than going off to some of these schools, especially these, um, I mean we’re hearing about these big Ivy League schools, but we’re seeing it in a lot of the others and a lot of state schools that are just, uh, that they’re not loosening their grip on, um, moving away from merit-based systems that.

To me is, you know, you do good. You, you, you get rewarded, you do bad. You should, you should not be rewarded. This the same way that somebody who’s, who’s not following the rules, uh, just because of some ideologue, uh, and we see that this is happening more and more so. For people listening, and I, this is what I want you to speak to, um, Dr.

Swain, for people who are listening who say, you know, I think this is a lot of hype. You know, people talk about American Marxism. I don’t really see it. People talk about DEI or CRT, it doesn’t affect my grandchild or it shouldn’t affect my grandchild. Uh, can you give some examples of what people should be really looking for?

And, and if you see something. Recognize it for what it is, don’t just go along with it because the rest of the crowd is going along with it. Well, first of all, I don’t want to be unkind, but if someone said that to me, I would think they were very ignorant and uninformed because the critical race theory and, uh, the DEI.

The gender, um, theory, all of that has infected just about every institution, public, private, even Christian schools. And it does have Marxist based roots. It has been exposed. It’s basically everywhere. And if parents are not recognizing it, it’s because they’re not listening to their children or they’re not falling closely.

The curricular that’s being used in the classroom. And they’re dismissing the parents who are complaining about it because, you know, maybe they just want to get along, uh, and they can’t believe it. And they attended that school, you know, 20 years ago, or 50 years ago. Well, 20 years ago and 50 years ago may have been a great place, but I can tell you I saw major changes taking place during Obama’s first administration.

By the time he was reelected, those theories and ideologies that were mostly on the college campuses had seeped throughout the university into K through 12 education. And you had people that were steeped in Marxism producing literature for kids, for first graders. And you had research that argued that babies can be racist as young as six months.

And so, uh, they were. Uh, encouraging parents to intervene and the evidence that a baby was racist is that babies prefer certain faces to others. Now think about it. If you are a baby, aren’t you going to prefer the faces that are holding you and feeding you and cuddling you? And maybe if a child is afraid of a stranger that doesn’t look like the people that are nurturing them, maybe that’s a protective, innate type of, uh.

Uh, something that’s mechanism innate to protect the child. And so that’s not necessarily racism, but young children have been exposed to inappropriate materials in the first grade. Materials that had to do with suicide ideation, as well as, uh. Uh, literature and videos from the Civil rights movement that would’ve been perfectly acceptable for middle school aged kids, or high school aged kids, but not first graders.

And so there were so many children that were targeted because of the race of, of their skin. Uh, little white children that were being made to feel guilty and, uh, and children who were made to feel guilty because they were not, uh, raised disadvantage that they had two parents that loved them. And I have argued for a long time that I.

Uh, there’s not just white privilege that anyone who has two parents who love them, that’s, that’s invested in them, that’s privilege. And there are people from all races and ethnicities that have privilege because they have two loving parents. They have a family that’s normal. Yeah, it is a bit of a sickness.

I think it might might make some people feel good to say, oh, I’m privileged and I’m gonna feel bad about it because other people are underprivileged. I think that that’s the wrong way to look at it, because it’s a sense of self-loathing that makes you. Supposedly feel better about yourself. Why not instead try to be a light in the world and help other people?

But I think it’s critical that our young ones, that our young children are taught this. I mean, I saw an article recently, it said, uh, a school, a public school had, uh. The a, b, the alphabet. And they, and for each letter they had a word for a, they were promoting abortion, right? For H they had the word hope with a picture of Harris.

For T it was transgenderism. And when this is constantly in front of our children’s thesis, uh, it is. Affirming that this is what they should be relating to, and that this is good because we as, as, as young children do look to our elders and look to our educators as. An authoritative figure that we ought to be listening to.

And I think that when we recognize that those are the very people that are manipulating the minds of young people, uh, it, it breaks my heart. You know, it really does break my heart, which is, which is why I love your story so much because I. You have a beautiful story of someone who grew up, as I understand, in poverty, right?

Uh, te can you and, and look at your wor your life now. You are a trailblazer, you are a leader, you are a voice, uh, that America needs so badly and we’re so grateful for you. Can you share with us how you were able to face adversity? And, um, because I think that’s an inspirational story for all people to hear.

But before I do that, I just wanna say something very quickly for the parents who say that. It’s not in their public schools. They haven’t seen it. There’s been explosion in little kids that, uh, and girls that think they were born in the wrong bodies. And it doesn’t matter whether they’re going to a private school or a public school, they have been indoctrinated.

And that’s one of the reasons that I have applauded President Trump’s decision. To dismantle the Department of Education because a lot of the literature that passed through there and the DEI grants was used to put propaganda everywhere. And so our children have been harmed. Uh, our scores are behind, uh, you know, children, uh, in other parts of the world.

We are number 40 among nations in, uh, in student attainment achievement. And so something is broken there. So I, I wanted to say that, and then for my background. Thank you. I’m one of 12 children. I was born and raised in rural poverty in southwestern Virginia. I spent the early part of my life in a two room shack.

I dropped outta school after completing the eighth grade. I married at age 16. I was not pregnant. It was a way to get away from home. Had my first child at 17. By the time I was 20, I had three small children. And people came into my life and encouraged me and I ended up getting a high school equivalency, going to a community college and getting the first of five degrees.

I have a degree in business, uh, one in criminal justice. I graduated magna cum loud. I. While working 40 hours a week at a community college library. And I have a master’s in political science, a PhD in political science and a, um, master’s in law from Yale University that I got after I had been a professor.

None of my, no one in my family had gone to college. And my story is not a black story. It is an American story. It shows what’s possible and the people who pushed me and encouraged me. We’re not people who looked like me. And I can attest to the fact that America is a great country. I love America and I’m glad, um, Rebecca for AMAC and what you all are doing, I.

Well, thank you so much. I love your story and I love that, um, you’re someone who can share your testimony with so many people to inspire others around you. I wanna thank you. I wanna ask, because you’ve spoken about the importance of your faith, I. In your personal journey, and as America drifts further from traditional values, we’re seeing I think a rise in crime.

Broken families. We’re seeing an increase in mental health crisises. Uh, how do you think our national decline is, is maybe tied to a moral and spiritual crisis? And if you do think that, how do we bring faith and just good, strong American values back into our culture? First of all, there’s always been a lot of dysfunction in recent years in black communities, and people attribute that to slavery and they will, uh, say that that’s why the black crime rate is so high and the black, uh, single parent household.

And that’s not really true because coming out of slavery. The black merge rate was equivalent and in some places higher between blacks than it was between, than it was in the white community. And the dysfunction in the black community started in the 1960s. And you think about what happened in the 1960s, that was when, uh, prayer was taken outta school.

Bible reading was taken outta school. You saw the rise of Marxism. All kinds of movements were birthed. Unrest of the 1960s, and so a lot of that had to do with. Uh, God being pushed out and government being pushed in, in particular with the black family, there were government policies that you could not have a man in the household.

So if you had a husband and you had, uh, a father of your children who was helping you raise them to be able to get government assistance, you had to get rid of the man. And so a lot of the problems that made the black community so dysfunctional came from government and I would say today. Uh, many of the black churches, what you see is they’re totally tied, and I would say to the, to the Democratic party and, and the government in some cases, and political party seems to have replaced God.

And for people that are, you know, they, they’re searching, they’re hungry, they have needs, uh, they are not finding it in our religious institutions. And when you look at America as a whole. We have been following the wrong path for a long time, and I think about the changes that, uh, president Trump has started to institute during the second term.

Those changes would not be lasting unless we can change the hearts and minds of people. I. How do you change the hearts and minds of people? You have to have a spiritual revival. There has to be a, a return to Judeo-Christian values and principles. It doesn’t mean that everyone has to become a Christian or everyone has to become a practice and Jew, but there are certain values and principles that our nation was built on that our constitution, uh, the laws that govern us, many of the laws that govern us.

Came out of Judeo-Christian values and principles. We have to go back to that. Otherwise, any changes we make would just be fleeting, fleeting until the next, uh, administration comes in that holds an opposite view and they will turn everything, uh, back as far as they can. I don’t think they can, uh, reinstitute everything that the Trump administration is trying to erase.

But they would do their best. And one of the things that I truly believe, and it’s not gonna be popular with people of faith, is that the White House Office of Faith was a bad idea. It’s a bad idea because once you set it in the White House, what happens next is when the Republicans lose power, the infrastructure is there.

The next, uh, president that comes in. They will put in their favorite faith leader, and it may be a totally different religion. It could be a Pagan, it could be an atheist. You have the infrastructure there to be abused. So important. I love that you me, mentioned our founding documents. It says it right there in our Declaration of Independence, that, um, you know, all men are created equal and that our rights are intrinsic rights, their rights that are inherent because the right to life, the right to liberty and freedom.

The right to the pursuit of happiness is something that, uh, we’re born with. Uh, and no king, uh, no government, uh, can, can strip you of that, right? And that involves that to, to believe in that involves faith in a higher being. Uh, and who are you gonna, who are you gonna worship? I say to people, okay, if you don’t wanna worship God.

Then who, who are you worshiping? Who, who, who’s filling that spot? Uh, and that, and that, that is sometimes, you know, evokes a deeper conversation. But I do think that, um, as you point out, you know, education and what we’re seeing in our schools, uh, is. Is really going at the heart of the American family because it’s trying to teach something as important as faith to our child, only not with God at the helm, you know, with bigger government at the helm, um, with bureaucrat bureaucrats, or making yourself almost like a mini God, right?

Right. You could be who you wanna be, if you wanna be a dog, a cat, a boy or a girl, you can choose. And that’s just a lie on its face. Um, but you know what’s. Bring, brings me a lot of hope is the rise in alternative education, homeschooling trade schools, you know, conservative universities that are really pushing back against the woke agenda.

So do you think traditional higher education is salvageable? Do you think the future of learning, uh, in the traditional college system is, is going to no longer be the way? First of all, I can say that most of the traditional colleges and universities. Are not teaching critical thinking skills that they are indoctrinating students.

And for colleges and universities to thrive, they have to have students and they have to have, uh, either government money or money from donors. And I think that, uh, because they have not been really educating students, they will have to change. Make substantial changes. And one of the problems affecting state as well as private schools is that overwhelmingly the faculty and administrators, they all belong to one political party, the Democratic Party.

And if you wanna treat, teach critical thinking skills. You have to expose students to divergent views. They have to hear more than one perspective, and so if universities are going to return to being marketplaces of ideas, they have to have diversity of thought. That’s what we need. The real diversity has to be diversity of thought.

I believe that they can survive. I also believe that it is quite healthy. Uh, that we have competition now through homeschoolers, uh, through those micro schools that, uh, parents are developing as well as private schools, uh, public schools for some parents, you know, public schools. Uh, we always going to need public schools, but there’s some competition and I think the changes that are being made with the Department of Education first.

Farming out some of the bureaucracy, uh, to other agencies and the plan to dismantle it and return it to the states. We will end up with better education in those places where people care. There may be some states and localities where they will continue pushing the things that are not healthy for our children, the indoctrination, but it won’t be coming from the top, uh, from the, from a national organization that had influence over education in every sphere.

I think it’s better for the states and the cities and the localities. To make those decisions, but it means every parent needs to be involved. And even if you. Don’t have children in public schools. Your children have grown up, your grandkids are adults. Now you pay taxes and because you pay taxes, you have a stake in public education and you should care about other people’s children too.

You have to be involved and you have to look carefully at what’s being voted on in the state and local, uh, localities. That is a great message and you know, you’re giving me the opportunity here now to tell people, remind our listeners how to get involved because right here at AMAC is the way to get involved.

The AMAC army is comprised of over 400,000 active. Volunteer AMAC members, some of whom simply participate in our calls to action. But what we do for you is notify what’s happening in your state at the local level, the state level, and the federal level. AMAC is working very hard for you. So if you’re not getting our newsletters and information relating to some of our calls to action information on legislation that we think you should know about, be sure to go to amac us and opt in to receive.

Those email communications, uh, because it is all of us. Uh, the, the more of us that come together, the bigger our voice. And we wanna bring your voice, uh, to Washington, DC and we wanna bring your, your voice to state capital as well, uh, so that we can give you a platform. So thank you for that introduction.

And I wanna say to you, uh, Dr. Swain, I. I’m so grateful that you are a member of amac. Uh, I hope you’re enjoying your great membership with amac and you’re not no longer a, a card carrying member of the other organization. Well, you know, I, I never really got into the other organization, and so you don’t have to worry about that.

And I’m also a donor to the Amax Foundation. Because you as well as Patriot Mobile, uh, you are a values based company and you help other organizations. So you are involved in doing, uh, good throughout the world. And so I applaud that. And so it’s not just that I’m a member, I’m also a donor to your foundation.

That’s so wonderful. I wanna thank you because what the foundation is doing is really uplifting, uh, all Americans. Uh, 50 plus. We are working to, to save your social security. We have great ideas to help strengthen the program. Uh, we’re looking out after your Medicare and the rise in costs of health insurance.

Uh, but what we’re doing on, uh, through the foundation is really education and building a community, building a lovely community, uh, of, of. Like-minded, patriotic Americans and providing you the resources. So thank you Dr. Swain for helping us help everyone out there. We so appreciate having you with us today.

Thank you, and I look forward to having you back with me very soon. Dr. Swain, there’s always so much to talk about. For all of you out there listening, don’t forget to like and share this video and be sure to join or renew your amec. Membership there is so much strength in numbers. That’s it for now, folks.

I’m Rebecca Weber. Until next time, have a wonderful evening. The Association of Mature American citizens is the conservative voice for Americans 50 and older. AMAC is fighting for the values that you hold dear. Join today. Together we can write the course of America.