If you don't follow RandoLand.us, you should. The account is dedicated to making public all of the ridiculous grants handed out by the government. As we've reported recently, the government has given out a grant of $850,000 to assist military families in affirming their LGBTQ+ children's gender and $207 million to the National Endowment for the Arts to fund projects that highlight the history of systemic racism in the U.S.
If you thought DEI was bad, you haven't seen its mutation, DEAI: Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion. Here are the definitions from the American Alliance of Museums:
Diversity
Diversity is all the ways that people are different and the same at the individual and group levels. Even when people appear the same, they are different. Organizational diversity requires examining and questioning the makeup of a group to ensure that multiple perspectives are represented.
Equity
Equity is the fair and just treatment of all members of a community. Equity requires commitment to strategic priorities, resources, respect, and civility, as well as ongoing action and assessment of progress toward achieving specified goals.
Accessibility
Accessibility is giving equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience. Accessibility encompasses the broader meanings of compliance and refers to how organizations make space for the characteristics that each person brings.
Inclusion
Inclusion refers to the intentional, ongoing effort to ensure that diverse individuals fully participate in all aspects of organizational work, including decision-making processes. It also refers to the ways that diverse participants are valued as respected members of an organization and/or community.
I'm counting on the Trump administration to send every bureaucrat involved in DEAI packing. Define "just treatment." What is "equitable access to everyone along the continuum of human ability and experience"? Just treat everyone the same.
For example, RandoLand has reported on a $700,000 Institute of Museum and Library Services grant to the Association Of Science-Technology Centers, Inc., to help "lead research exploring how museums approach diversity, equity, access, and inclusion (DEAI) practices in the post-pandemic era."
Institute of Museum and Library Services grant (2024)
— RandoLand.us (@RandoLand_us) December 18, 2024
Amount: $694,536
Recipient: Association Of Science-Technology Centers, Inc
Purpose: Lead research exploring how museums approach diversity, equity, access, and inclusion (DEAI) practices in the post-pandemic era.
ASTC…
"As a result of this project, museums will become more knowledgeable about DEAI practice and will better understand how to operationalize equity-focused practices."
Now we have museums, but what about zoos? How can zookeepers learn to apply equity, inclusion, and antiracist practices to zoo structures, policies, and programs?
Institute of Museum and Library Services grant (2024)
— RandoLand.us (@RandoLand_us) December 18, 2024
Amount: $507,070
Recipient: Woodland Park Zoological Society
Purpose: Develop and implement a conservation leadership program that equips staff with the knowledge and skills to apply equity, inclusion and antiracist…
Purpose: Develop and implement a conservation leadership program that equips staff with the knowledge and skills to apply equity, inclusion and antiracist practices to zoo structures, policies, and programs.
Project activities will include developing the program curriculum, hosting two six-month pilot courses, evaluating the program, and sharing curriculum, resources, and results with communities of interest.
Learning opportunities will be centered on a cohort of approximately 28 supervisors and project managers throughout the zoo, who will lead staff and volunteer efforts to apply an antiracist lens to the zoo’s work with internal and external audiences. The project will result in a core group of staff who have the knowledge, skills, tools and motivation to chart a more inclusive path forward to achieve Woodland Park zoo’s conservation mission.
What the hell? Apply an antiracist lens to the zoo's work? And it's going to cost half a million dollars to train employees at one zoo.
Why are my earnings confiscated to make zoo workers less racist?
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) December 18, 2024
Especially when we are $36 trillion in debt? https://t.co/JH8woDfqbF
Who's getting the money to develop this leadership program? Are they going to pay Ibram X. Kendi $40,000 for a one-hour consultation?
As a former aquarium worker (long story) I can personally assure you that this is straight up graft as usual.
— Andrew Follett (@AndrewCFollett) December 18, 2024
It's DEI. It makes them MORE racist.
— Context Variable (@ContextVariable) December 18, 2024
It actually does.
There are several jokes to be made regarding racist zoo workers and I’m big mad that @X won’t let me tell any of them.
— LostTribeRoots (@losttriberoots) December 18, 2024
Striving for their communist zootopia
— Django Unchained (@TheDisSilent2A) December 18, 2024
Effing Seattle, of course.
— Eddie Ki Yay (@TarHeeled67) December 18, 2024
I really hope antiracism is one of those grifts that die from starvation during the Trump administration. This is just one example: can you imagine how much money the government gives to help zoos and museums and everything else through an "antiracist lens"?
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