My friend Josh Williams' scapegoating betrays Black people and everyone else | Opinion

Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus, is a member of the Ohio State House of Representatives.

When was it decided that the unfinished work our founders set in motion, to build a more perfect union, was suddenly complete?

When exactly was it declared that righting history’s greatest wrongs was no longer all of our responsibility?

I ask because my colleague, Rep. Josh Williams, R-Sylvania Twp., recently argued in the Daily Caller that diversity, equity and inclusion — DEI — “betrays” Black America.

Josh and I have jointly sponsored several bills to strengthen our communities, so I know his heart for public service.

But on this issue, he has it backwards.

DEI is not a betrayal of the civil-rights tradition. It is the civil-rights tradition, carried forward in every generation that refused to leave its neighbors on the outside looking in.

Diversity, equity and inclusion should be America's goal

Long before anyone printed corporate training slides and campus workshops, the United States ratified the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, ending slavery, promising equal protection, and protecting the Black vote.

We later enfranchised women through the 19th Amendment, granted Indigenous American citizenship in 1924, dismantled Jim Crow with the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts, opened campuses and locker rooms to women with Title IX, and removed literal stairs to opportunity with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Republicans and Democrats signed those bills because all of them were, at their core, DEI laws.

That legacy is why I, the son of a union telephone worker who marched picket lines for fair wages, can stand as a State Representative and Assistant Minority Leader in the Ohio House today. It is why a foster child in Columbus can dream of college, why veterans with disabilities have access to a courthouse door, why families in every zip code can argue we, too, belong here.

Let’s cut through the noise.

DEI is simply the promise that diversity means everyone belongs, equity means everyone gets a fair shot, and inclusion means everyone can make it through the door.

Those aren’t “woke” slogans. They are the scaffolding of the American Dream.

Which value do the critics oppose?
Rep. Williams and Republicans warn that confronting discrimination somehow creates discrimination. That sleight of hand hides the real questions:

Are we upset by diversity, because too many people finally have a seat at the table?
Does equity offend us, because competing on a level field feels risky?
Or is it inclusion we fear — because wider doors threaten the illusion of scarcity?
Attacking DEI weakens every American who has ever needed the Constitution amended, courts persuaded, or laws passed just to be seen. History shows that when one group takes a step toward justice, the whole country moves forward. Addressing racism does not create more racism. That argument is as shallow as it is cynical.

We know DEI works, morally and materially. A majority of workers say a DEI focus is “mainly a good thing,” and three-quarters of businesses report it strengthens performance. Companies in the top quartile for ethnic diversity are dramatically more likely to outperform their peers.

After the Voting Rights Act, the Black–White wage gap in the South narrowed by roughly 30 percentage points. That’s what happens when we put people first: stronger paychecks, stronger companies, stronger democracy.

Scapegoating isn't the solution. Real work is.
America is in a perilous moment. Antisemitism, Islamophobia, anti-Black violence, all on the rise.

At the very time we need more understanding, some politicians are pulling books off shelves, white-washing history curricula, and erecting new barriers to the ballot box, then blaming DEI for divisions they themselves inflame.

Leadership is not the art of finding scapegoats, it is the discipline of finding solutions. When we center people over politics, we fight for better pay, affordable health care, fair taxes, safer streets and schools that unleash every child’s potential, the concerns that keep Ohio families up at night.

Our founders penned freedom in imperfect ink, knowing future generations would need to widen its margins. The path to justice has never been a straight line, it twists through Reconstruction and suffrage, labor strikes and lunch-counter sit-ins, triumphs and setbacks, God’s light and humanity’s darkness. Yet each advance clears another section of the overgrown trail to the American Dream.

So, to my friend Rep. Williams, I offer this invitation: Instead of warning Ohioans against DEI, join me in the unfinished work of living it.

Let’s unlock new levels of understanding, stand against every form of hate, and keep pushing this nation toward its highest calling.

Because the truth is simple: People deserve better — better pay, better health care, fairer taxes, safer communities, real opportunities and a future where no one is held back by anyone.

A diverse, equitable, inclusive America is not some radical experiment. It is our republic at its very best.

And it is worth fighting for, together.