Attacking diversity measures is a threat to the fabric of our society

Op-ed by Angela Wilton published by The Post, 16March 2025

Angela Wilton is the CEO of Belong Aotearoa. She is a social justice scholar and a public policy, gender, and community development specialist.

OPINION: Any biologist or ecologist will tell you that ecosystems need diversity to thrive. Stability and resilience are nearly impossible without it. And yet, we exist in a time where the very word ‘diversity’ is being weaponised.

Across the globe, we are witnessing a systematic attack on the concept of diversity as a means to dilute the work that has been done over the past decades to change our systems and ways of working so that they work for the most people possible.

In the United States, diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives have come under fire not merely as part of partisan policy disagreements but are being wielded as weapons by political forces intent on rewriting the story of our evolving social norms. Fans of dystopian fiction will recognise some of the moves being made.

At Belong Aotearoa, we advocate on behalf of refugee-background and migrant communities, and we know that this weaponisation is well underway here in Aotearoa New Zealand too. The rising tide of mis- and disinformation that we see in our work and the bill tabled in Parliament last week to end DEI practices within the public service are more than bureaucracy or a clash of conservative and liberal values - they are a threat to the fabric of our society.

These types of policy proposals tap into the very real sense of economic and social discontent we are currently living with and rechanneling it into a blame game that targets those who are often unable to respond out of fear for their safety.

Critics of DEI are using these tactics to deflect attention from outcomes that have arisen due to the historical and ongoing exclusion of many communities, advancing a simplistic “we-are-all-the-same” ideal that reduces our complex human experiences to a simplified picture of “right wing” versus “woke”.

This simplification does not serve anybody. It does not serve those frustrated people looking for someone to blame and it threatens the safety and wellbeing of the communities at the sharp end of that blame.

This is because when we ignore differences, we make finding solutions to issues like the strain on health and housing ineffective, if not impossible. It may be convenient to collapse the mosaic of our identities into simplistic categories, but in the real world an economy and a society that only works for a few of us does not work for any of us in the end.

Throughout history, uprisings and revolutions have occurred when societies are fractured due to economies and political systems that favour the few at the expense of the diverse needs of the many. We only need to look at the political upheaval around us now for confirmation. Many democracies are not healthy, they are not functioning well, and they are certainly not resilient to shocks.

What is needed, then, is a recalibration of our political discourse - one that genuinely embraces difference. One that clearly acknowledges the deeply-felt struggles that cause some people to look for an easy scapegoat. One that actively seeks to break the cycle of division and mistrust.

As yet, our political leaders have much more to do to ensure we’re meeting this moment. At Belong Aotearoa, we believe our national identity should reflect the vibrant, multifaceted reality of who we are as a people brought together through Te Tiriti o Waitangi. This is messier and much less convenient than measuring success in KPIs, but it is critical work all the same.

Even though the work is harder, it is critical our leaders move beyond quarterly deliverables or the ‘business as usual' policy positions to engagement with the forces that are shaping us. In doing so, they would be closer to understanding how to ensure that all of us, in all our diversity, have a sense of belonging – in the workplace, in decent housing, in healthcare, in our schools, online, and on the streets.

They would also be closer to nurturing the essence of creativity and inclusiveness that makes this country a place where people from all over the world want to live and prosper.

To achieve this, both the left and the right must confront our values head-on and embrace a politics that transcends simplistic binaries. Only by acknowledging the full spectrum of our differences -and the very real inequities that arise from them - can we hope to build a cohesive, inclusive future.