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In the present political moment where diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) are being openly challenged at the highest levels of government, Dr. Alaysia Black Hackett is offering something rare: clarity, context, and a path forward. With more than two decades in the trenches of cultural strategy and inclusive leadership, she has witnessed firsthand how the language around equity work shifts–even as the core issues persist. Her new book, The Diversity Illusion, cuts through the noise and provides the kind of unflinching analysis that both practitioners and skeptics alike need right now.

What’s Really Happening to DEI Work

“What we see happening is what I consider to be a rebranding of the work,” Dr. Hackett tells MadameNoire. “It is the exchange of acronyms or language used to describe the work that has been done for so many years.”

She isn’t new to this. Her career spans eras of “Multicultural Affairs,” “Urban Affairs,” and “Intercultural Affairs,” long before DEI entered the mainstream lexicon. Today, Dr. Hackett says, the backlash against DEI is less about a true ideological shift and more about optics. “Some corporations or organizations are definitely rolling back their DEIA initiatives. Others are rebranding it or removing it from sites so that they can continue the work but not necessarily be scrutinized.”

That scrutiny has escalated since the death of George Floyd, when companies rushed to signal allyship. “Everybody wanted to talk about diversity,” she recalls. “You saw it on their websites really loud. Some of those initiatives were not as in-depth; they were performative. And so it was easy to just roll back and say, ‘Oh, we’re not gonna do this anymore,’ because it never got to the structure of how the power is in those organizations.”

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Not Everyone’s Rolling Back—But Everyone’s Watching

Still, she warns against assuming every company is guilty of performative allyship. Without naming specific corporations, Dr. Hackett notes that public perception often misses the nuance. “I know for sure [an internationally recognized brand] hasn’t cut back,” she clarifies, referencing firsthand insights from colleagues still embedded in DEIA departments. Instead of blanket boycotts, she urges deeper inquiry: “Are they really rolling back, or are they rebranding? Are they expanding in a way that is not the same? It doesn’t look the same, but it actually has the same type of measurable outcomes?”

“I Am Exhausted:” The Toll on Black Women in DEIA

Those measurable outcomes matter, especially to Black women who often find themselves recruited for visibility but excluded from real influence. When asked about the exhaustion many Black women feel being the public face of inclusion efforts, Dr. Hackett doesn’t hesitate.

“The first thing as a Black woman who was in a position—I am exhausted,” she says candidly. “And so I definitely understand the sentiments of women and colleagues all over who’ve been doing this work tirelessly, most of the time without the necessary resources or staff.”

Despite the fatigue, she is not deterred.

“I know that this work… is resilient. There have been so many iterations of what this work has been called—civil rights, urban affairs, multicultural affairs—but the work continues because we have to.”

Even in exhaustion, Dr. Hackett sees a mandate: “We continue to advocate because we know that this is the moral and ethically right thing to do. And it’s okay to take a break, to take a breather, to do some self-care… but also know that this work is resilient and we are resilient. And so we have to continue.”

Who DEIA Really Serves

Part of what makes Dr. Hackett’s voice so powerful is her ability to reframe the conversation. Where others see DEI as a niche concern, she sees it as foundational to American life. “Right now, the narrative is DEIA equals Black people, Black communities, Black hire—and that’s not what it is in its totality.”

She goes on to name the groups included under the DEIA umbrella: “Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, Asian Americans, Latino/Latinx individuals, veterans, youth, those with disabilities, rural communities, and people who are formerly incarcerated.”

She underscores this point with a real-world example: “Let’s think about the bipartisan infrastructure law. When we had COVID-19 and students were in their homes trying to do their schoolwork, we realized that rural communities…did not have access to internet. That is a marginalized community, and they are DEIA.”

For Dr. Hackett, almost everyone in America falls under the reach of DEIA principles, whether they realize it or not. That is exactly why the stakes are so high. “Rolling back and saying that these initiatives aren’t needed means it’s going to negatively affect somebody in your life—and that person may be you.”

​​What To Do About It

She also knows that soundbites can’t change systems. That’s why she wrote The Diversity Illusion.

“It is heavily researched, but it is not a heavy read,” she says. “It gives language to understand what [DEIA] is, what it is not. It talks about the illusion and how corporations have taken advantage of DEIA and not changed the power structures.”

According to Dr. Hackett, real progress requires more than optics. “It’s not just to hire a diversity officer. It’s not just to change your website to include diverse people on your publicity page, but to really look at your policies, procedures, and why it’s important.”

America’s Systems Are Doing Exactly What They Were Designed To Do

When asked if this moment represents a regression or a revelation, she pauses before offering a sobering truth: “I don’t think the country is losing its way. I believe it’s how the country has always been.”

She traces the current political climate back to America’s founding documents. “The Constitution of the United States was signed by a group of people… and that was of a white, straight male Christian. All of the systems in our country… were written from the vantage point of a white Christian, straight male. And therefore, our systems are operating exactly how they were created to do.”

Yet, she still believes in possibility. “We are more diverse than we ever have been. Therefore, we should want to balance out the narrative of the systems to ensure that everyone is inclusive.”

That kind of systemic change isn’t flashy, but it lasts.

“You can’t just, again, change on the surface. It has to be baked into your systems, into how you do the work.”

Dr. Hackett’s work offers both a mirror and a map. The reflection might be uncomfortable, but the direction is clear. As she writes in The Diversity Illusion, the future of equity work requires more than belief. It requires infrastructure, language, and the courage to face what has always been there.

To learn more about The Diversity Illusion or Dr. Hackett’s work, visit alaysiablackhackett.com.

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The post ‘This Is How America Was Built’ — Dr. Alaysia Black Hackett On The Real Reason DEI Is Under Attack [Exclusive] appeared first on MadameNoire.